Tricky business for sure. One factor I've been looking more and more at is the motivations and intentions of the champions behind each community, or said another way, why the space was started in the first place. There are many conversations that come up again and again that, with hindsight, I can see are just a miss-match of intentions. For example the "Open one space or many spaces" conversation. It's a perfectly reasonable motivation to want to open multiple spaces and have a wide reach and impact. I personally started Office Nomads because I want a home and a community I want to be a member of. Understanding this helps me see why it doesn't make sense for us to make a chain of Office Nomads, and also why it's a waste of everyone's time to argue about this. If we can find neutral language to highlight distinctions like this it would go a long way to that goal of finding like-minded spaces and filling our communities with happy members.
Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500 On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 9:48 AM, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com> wrote: > I’m pretty sure that Emergent Research has a rubric they use for when they > do their research for their annual report, but I can’t remember exactly > what is on it. Having some consistency with that would probably be helpful! > > I think it had some of the items you described, but it was a lot more > specific with many of the attributes. Hopefully Steve can chime in! > > I used to be more opinionated about self-describing as “coworking” and the > regular mis-use of the term, but I’ve become more and more comfortable with > the idea that the word coworking is as specific as the word “restaurant”, > which doesn’t really describe much on its own. I’d love to see more maps > (including the one you’re putting together) display with more detail what > people can expect. It’s more important that people find a place that makes > them happy and productive than anything else…and reducing that to > “coworking” is like reducing fine dining french restaurants and mcdonalds > to “restaurant”. *Technically* accurate, but not really helpful. > > Related, this recent post caught my eye (I think Liz posted it from the > GCUC account): > http://www.cloudvirtualoffice.com/blog/a-coworking-safari/ > > I’m especially interested in the things vary widely, really impact the > experience, but are hardest to really quantify: things like “ambiance” and > noise level are such relative descriptions, so the source matters a lot, > too! Who’s doing the describing: the owner? The members? Visitors? In a lot > of cases, their descriptions vary quite a bit. > > To that point, even “non-hostile & friendly” is relative. It’s become a > common theme that I hear from coworkers who visit startup-centric coworking > spaces that the only time people talk to each other is when they’re > pitching their startup. For some people, that’s non-hostile and friends but > for others, it’s their worst nightmare. > > -Alex > > > > On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 12:34 PM, Ramon Suarez <ra...@betacowork.com> > wrote: > >> Hi everyone, >> >> I'm working on a definition of Coworking to make it easier to choose who >> to include in the map of coworking spaces in Belgium >> <http://coworkingbelgium.be/belgium-coworking-spaces-map>. I know it can >> be a controversial subject and I don't want to start a flamewar, but I >> would like to have your feedback on the basic elements to build this >> definition. I think it could also be helpful to make it easier to explain >> to our potential customers and journalists. >> >> In my definition a Coworking space : >> >> - Calls itself a coworking space. >> - Has a fully dedicated espace for cowoking (not just a few hours or >> a cafeteria shared with patrons). >> - Treats coworkers as 1st class clients, not as a lesser kind to fill >> unused space. >> - Has somebody dedicated to connect the members (a facilitator, not >> an administrative asistant.) >> - Provides a non hostile and friendly environment that encourages >> collaboration and interaction. >> >> What do you think? >> >> >> Ramon Suarez >> Serendipity Accelerator, Betacowork >> Author: http://coworkinghandbook.com >> email & hangouts: ra...@betacowork.com >> Phone: +3227376769 >> GSM: +32497556284 >> Twitter:http://twitter.com/ramonsuarez >> Skype: ramonsuarez >> Try coworking: http://betacowork.com >> >> <http://betacowork.com/free-coworking-tryout/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=468x60_banner&utm_content=girl-home&utm_campaign=ramon-signature> >> >> -- >> Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Coworking" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
