I don't understand the rant here. Let's let real estate folks make money, who cares - as long as the community is tight and managed with the right spirit?
@Alex your comparison with McCoworking seems like you see the main issue with replicated spaces. There are tons of examples of amazing landlords who work with coworking operators to spin up locally unique spaces. In fact we often see them become so convinced of how amazing the community is, that they want to expand floors or even buildings. That's a good thing, no? @Tony: Asking "Why?" is a good start, and exactly as you pointed out the answer is for everyone different. Landord: $. Member: Spirit / Community. I don't think that's a conflict. For us we work in a space the City of New York invested in. Coworking becomes a new way of city development. Sometimes I don't think people understand the full scope of the impact of a powerful community. Here's my plan: Let's let coworking grow up and not handle it like a hippie camp. On Friday, January 13, 2017 at 9:57:02 AM UTC-5, Tony Bacigalupo wrote: > > Thanks for moving the conversation this way, Katherine. > > I think a lot of people here will resonate with the situation you > described. > > To your question: The are some good ideas out there. I personally am a fan > of approaches that de-emphasize the office space side of things and > increase emphasis on using the space as a meeting and gathering space. > (Quick example: http://lmhq.nyc) > > But before we get too deep into the details of the What, I'm thinking we > need as much as ever now to examine the Why. > > When coworking started, there was only the Why. We didn't even have a What > yet, and it certainly wasn't an industry! > > Now, 11+ years later, the Why has been largely obscured by so much talk > about the What. The real estate. The tech. The mechanisms. > > Let's take what's happening to its logical extension and assume that, to > Miroslav's point, coworking space is as ubiquitous and available as > WordPress or, to Alex's point, a Big Mac. > > Great! Anyone anywhere (in a developed nation, anyway) can build a free > blog in a shared space while eating a cheeseburger. > > So what? What next? > > A cheap cheeseburger is food, but what is nutrition? > > Taking these things to their maximum extensions is valuable because it > lets us shift from focusing on availability to focusing on mastery. > > We're in a time of great opportunity, but also great uncertainty. There is > much work to be done to steer us as a society away from dystopia and > towards peace and prosperity. > > A lot of us got into coworking because we saw it as a way of moving us in > that better direction, and it is. The day-to-day of operating a space can > be an enormous distraction, and in many cases the business model is not > complete. > > Which is why I think it's critical that we all work on getting in touch > with why we care about doing this work in the first place. > > Go back to that for a while, and really let that percolate, I think the > next steps for each of us and for us as a movement start to become clear. > > I can tell you what I see, but it doesn't matter what I see. What do you > see? > > Tony > *---* > *New Work Cities <http://nwc.co/consulting> • Coworking.org > <http://coworking.org/>* > [image: Inline image 8] <http://tonybacigalupo.com/>[image: > http://twitter.com/tonybgoode] <http://twitter.com/tonybgoode>[image: > http://facebook.com/tonybacigalupo] > <http://facebook.com/tonybacigalupo>[image: > http://linkedin.com/in/tonybacigalupo] > <http://linkedin.com/in/tonybacigalupo> > > On Jan 13, 2017, at 6:17 AM, Katherine Warman Kern <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > > It would be so interesting if this thread were more exploratory. > > There is a disconnect between vision [everyone collaborating to build > their business and grow the overall market] and reality [everyone is so > busy putting out fires on the surface - essentially madly treading water - > that they don't have time to get to know others well enough to do business > together or figure out a business model in which independent entities > collaborate] > > Real estate companies see what they want to see: higher revenues per > square foot than they can get with long term leases. They are creating a > commodity market with words-as-window-dressing: "collaboration, innovation, > community, create." Right now they are all racing to be the first IPO. Then > there will be a race to the bottom of the pricing ladder. The only folks > who will make money are the dealmakers. But that's their problem. > > The rest of us should focus on how we breakdown the barriers to > independents collaborating - including us. I think that starts with > inventing a new business model. Any ideas? > > K- > > > > -- > 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] <javascript:>. > 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 [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
