Count on Ramon for a great discussion. :-) It is also true that many things vary from country to country. If you arrive inthe Netherlands with a message that we love each other it is going to come over in not exactly the same way as it does in the Bay Area. Or in Canada. Not at all to knock that mesaage, but I happen to know that in the Netherlands the hookers are also coworking. :-)
On a serious note: what community means varies widely by culture, even within the US, let alone allowing for international variance. One of my spaces is a pilot project in coworking for webshops, internet based sevice businesses, import-export, and the trades. It is in a warehouse space in an industrial region and has almost no office space; it is exactly developed for companies who do not need that. And its community takes place almost exclusively on line. The struggle there is actually exactly this part of your question: we do have somebody to connect the members. And it has become apparent that we need for them to find each other, in many ways we are getting in the way of the community. We are as a community in discussion abotu it and it is really interesting to me. It is in a constant state of flux while we try to find the nexus points between location and community. Regus is also interested in Coworking as far as I can tell, though it varies widely by location of course. They are also trying to find their way I think, as are a lot of the executive office type operations. But my own rule of thumb (which the Dutch call a "fist rule" , lol) is whether the people running the space and the people working htere are in it together or not. WHich is not terribly objective as metrics go but there you are. Are the coworkers only sharing with each other, or is the organization of the space and the coworkers sharing together? On Thursday, September 11, 2014 6:34:41 PM UTC+2, Ramon Suarez 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] <javascript:> > 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 [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
