Quick update - I would like to specifically invite/encourage more women and POC to get involved in this initiative from the start!
If you're on the fence about signing up, I promise the commitment is very low and the potential for impact is very high. :) Have questions or concerns? Drop me a note offline: a...@indyhall.org -Alex On Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 11:57:13 AM UTC-5, Alex Hillman wrote: > > Hello friends! > > *This is a long post for a Saturday, but it's one I'm very excited to > share with you and I hope you'll take the time to read completely. * > > The Coworking Google Group is a very special place for many people, myself > included. By the numbers alone, it's one of the largest communities in the > world for aspiring and current coworking operators, staff, researchers, and > more with 8000+ registered users. This group's archives contain over 6000 > threads (and tens of thousands of comments) that contain over 13 years of > coworking knowledge, history, friendships, stories, and successes. > > When you think about the reach and power of this community, it's > awe-inspiring. > > Soon, Google is making some changes to the the platform that powers this > group. This particular round of changes aren't a problem for us....but it > does make me cautious about trusting Google to host our community in the > long term. If they can make sweeping changes - or worse, shut down this > *free* product - our community is at risk. And that's saying nothing of > the shortcomings of the tool itself. > > *So I've been doing a lot of research and testing.* The biggest challenge > is that I don't just want to move to another "new" community platform - I > wanted to move ALL of the historical content to something that is > measurably better, and that we can control (so we don't have to worry about > a company changing their minds or direction with little warning). I also > want to keep the platform email-based, which allows for much wider and > easier participation. > > And maybe, just maybe, one that doesn't make money by harvesting all of > our data? ;) > > Tall order, I know. > > *Well, I did it.* I found an option that fits the bill, and makes it > possible to IMPROVE the "google group" resource in several measurable ways, > and amazingly we can do this without losing any functionality we're used > to. It's an open source tool called Discourse. > > And while it *looks* like a forum on the website, but I was able to > adjust the settings to enable the email-based experience just like the > Google Group. > > *Best of all - I was able to migrate the ENTIRE historical archive of > discussions and comments to the new platform. 100% preserved (and with much > better tools to search the archive!)* > > [image: Global Coworking Forum 2019-03-09 11-17-31.png] > > Among it's unique strengths, Discourse includes the ability to set up > categories and subcategories, keeping our conversations more organized and > making it easier for new people to find the valuable threads they need. You > can even set your email preferences for SPECIFIC categories, muting the > topics you care less about and subscribing to topics you're most interested > in. Smart weekly digests can help you know what's going on without having > to read every message. > > These more nuanced opt-in/opt-out settings mean we can create NEW areas of > discussion that this single-channel Google Group was never good for: eg. > language-specific channels for communities that prefer to communicate in > their native languages, or specific channels where vendors can help people > in our community without spamming everyone. > > And honestly, this is just the beginning :) > > *I'm especially proud that this new site, like the Google Group and other > Open Coworking resources, will always remain free and open.* I'm working > with the Open Coworking team (Tony and Jeannine) to figure out how to make > sure the nominal infrastructure costs will covered for the long term. > > *The Migration Plan* > > Over the next couple of months (maybe weeks? depends on how much help we > get!) I am going to actively "mirror" all new google group activity to the > new platform and getting it ready for open registration. So nothing needs > to change here - business as usual until we set a date to officially close > the google group and redirect all traffic to the new site. > > *But to finish the move, I need some help from you. * > > Before we open registration to the public, I want to recruit ~50 or so > pilot members who would like to help finish getting the new group platform > ready. There are settings to test, categories to organize, copywriting, > etc. > > Maybe most importantly, I'd like volunteers willing to help categorize and > organize the 6000+ historical discussions. The process itself is fairly > simple - I did around 100 threads in less than an hour myself, so many > hands will make light work. We'll need to tweak categories and > subcategories along the way, too. > > Also, going forward I'm looking for volunteers to help with onboarding new > members to the group + help me manage the group. > > *Exciting, right? *:) > > My goal is to make this entire process as seamless and transparent and > inclusive as possible, so I'm going to start with this relatively small > pilot group but we will work in a public channel of the new Discourse site, > for anyone who wants to observe the process. > > Depending on participation and progress, my goal is to invite more batches > of people on a regular basis (probably weekly) and enable a fully open > registration as soon as we've worked out the majority of the kinks. > > *Wanna get signed up early and help get things set up?* > > 👉 Fill out this quick form here: https://airtable.com/shrGJPE4ZRlNf131d > > *Note: the MOST important part is making sure that you put the correct > email address in - this will help link your account on the new site to your > past posts. * > > This early setup process is fairly manual, so please be patient while I > process the applications. If you fill out the form, I promise you will hear > from me (or someone on the team). > > I'm sure you can tell, I'm extremely excited about this next chapter for > the epic resource we are all a part of, and how this effort will > enable/empower more coworking operators, staff, and of course thier > coworking members to succeed. > > Yours in community, > > -Alex > > -- 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.
