I also would be very interested in the results. Thank you On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 10:14:37 PM UTC-4, Alex Hillman wrote:
> I'm sure I'm not the only person on this group who has google alerts set > up for the words "coworking" and, sigh, "co-working". > > Between the number of new space announcements that show up in those > alerts, Deskmag's reporting on coworking growth trends, and many amazing > success stories that we've all been privy to seeing unfold, there's no > doubt in any of our minds that coworking isn't disappearing any time soon. > > But speckled in the success stories are sadder ones. Coworking spaces who > struggled and failed. > > Another one hit my Google Reader tonight, in St Louis. Hence this email > and this project being spurred right now. > > On one hand, the *business of coworking *is susceptible to all of the > rules of starting a new business - there's going to be a failure rate. Not > every business is meant to be. The rate at which I hear about closings is > increasing, but it's hard to tell if it's growing in or out of proportion > of openings. > > Between coworking spaces that struggle to keep the lights on and coworking > spaces that have closed (for good or bad reasons), there's patterns in > closures that I personally find very interesting, far more interesting in > "new hotness variations" on the coworking models. > > The pattern-watcher that I am, I see *some *things, but I need more > information to start building a hypothesis that can be proven or disproven. > > I can't do this alone. If you've started and closed a coworking space, > been a member of a coworking space that struggled and failed, or are simply > a passionate observer who saw an unfortunate closing, please take a few > minutes to help fill out this survey: > > https://indyhall.wufoo.com/forms/coworking-space-closings/ > > This information is personal and potentially sensitive. I don't expect all > of the replies to include names or all of the details. Many people on this > list have shared their personal stories before, and we should all be > thankful for that. > > The best solution I could come up with is to choose how anonymous you > would like to be. > > *1) The name and email address fields are optional and will ONLY be used > to reconnect with the submitter for more information.* > *2) The final required question asks for your consent to share the data > you enter, beside the optional name/email fields which are anonymous by > default. In case you have an alternate preference, you can specify it in > "other".* > > There's researchers on the list, so if there's other fields that you think > I should include (or better ways to collect the same data), I'm all ears. > > *Even if you're not aware of closings you can share about, I need help > getting the word out about this project. *I'm hoping for some assistance > from Steve King & Team Deskmag since I know this stuff is already on their > radar. If there's anyone else already studying this (all of the quiet grad > students on this list, I'm looking at you), I'd love to share work > reciprocally. > > My goal is to organize this information and share some hypothesis that we > all study together and share back again, overall helping the ecosystem not > just learn from successes but also avoid repeating historic failure > patterns. > > My hope is to be buried under a mountain of responses and have to recruit > some of you to help me dig myself out :) > > Thanks y'all. > > -Alex > > > -- > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > build amazing communities: masterclass.indyhall.org > > -- 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.
