I agree with Alex. I have been arguing for sometime the restaurant
metaphor. I think we would be better served trying to define the
"categories" instead of the industry. Hell one could argue that coworking
is already a category of an industry. :)
Commercial Real Estate
- Shared Space
- Coworking
- category 1
- category 2
- category 3
For a long time we distanced the work we were doing at Gangplank from
coworking, because so many of the coworking spaces were indistinguishable
from Regus and the movement that existed felt like it had little soul (it
has improved a lot in the last few years). We started to use the word
collaborative space instead of coworking. It was our way of defining the
category as we saw our world without having to fight for a definition of
coworking that matched our world view. Sharing space to work beside each
wasn't what we were doing. Collaborating as a community to work with each
other was far more descriptive.
We stopped saying.. We are not a restaurant. Instead we started saying
yeah we are restaurant style we call a collaborative space.
One could argue does Regus (executive office suites) fall under Shared
Space or under Coworking? etc.. but I think those discussions and getting
some shared concepts of the categories is far more useful than trying to
come up with either a generic term for coworking or narrowing the funnel of
what coworking is.
My two cents.
On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 10:45 AM, Alex Hillman <[email protected]
> wrote:
> Case in point: WITHIN the fast food industry, they refer to themselves as
> “QSRs” or “Quick Service Restaurants”. Sometimes it’s “Fast Casual”. That
> industry by itself is huge and diverse, even as a subset of the larger
> restaurant industry.
>
> http://www.qsrmagazine.com/
> http://www.qsrweb.com/
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_food_restaurant
>
> But tell me one time that you’ve heard someone dining at Micky D’s call it
> “Fast Casual” :)
>
> -Alex
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 1:40 PM, Alex Hillman <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> "Likening another space to a fast food joint is a little less neutral.”
>>
>> Lots of people love fast food and don’t think of it as derogatory at all.
>>
>> Again - the source matters.
>>
>> -Alex
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 1:38 PM, Jacob Sayles <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Ah let me clarify. By "neutral" I didn't mean "less specific" I meant
>>> "less hostile" or actually "more open to the difference". Using terms like
>>> "Korean BBQ" is a good example of this as it's not derogatory. Likening
>>> another space to a fast food joint is a little less neutral.
>>>
>>> Jacob
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation
>>> http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500
>>>
>>> On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 10:24 AM, Alex Hillman <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> "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.”
>>>>
>>>> I don’t think that more *neutral* language is what we need. In fact, I
>>>> think we need the opposite.
>>>>
>>>> The restaurant industry has fine dining and fast food, regional
>>>> cuisines, varying price points, etc. But people need to have terms like
>>>> “fast food” and “korean BBQ” to narrow down what they’re looking for.
>>>>
>>>> I know that this sounds like fragmentation, which freaks a lot of
>>>> people out. I think this is HEALTHY fragmentation, though, like this:
>>>> http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2014/07/theres-never-only-one-community/
>>>>
>>>> It doesn’t mean that we can’t be friends, or even help each other, but
>>>> I’m firmly convinced that having some more narrow specific terminology to
>>>> add to add to the more neutral term ‘coworking’ is going to help the
>>>> industry, not hurt it.
>>>>
>>>> -Alex
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 1:16 PM, Jacob Sayles <[email protected]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> 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 <
>>>>> [email protected]> 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 <[email protected]>
>>>>>> 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: [email protected]
>>>>>>> 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
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>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com
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>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com
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>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>> --
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>>
>>
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