---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Nurul E <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 9:44 PM Subject: FYI - The digital hippies want to integrate life and work – but not in a good way. WeWork buys Meetup.com for a reported $200 MM | The Guardian OpEd To:
FYI Evgeny Morozov opines on the "hippie Taylorism" phenomenon, and the well-funded and hungrily acquisitive office space giant WeWork buying up Meetup.com. For-profit platform companies seeking to monetize and colonize the community space for fun and profit because gradual organic growth serving real people is too slow and unprofitable 😕 https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/03/ digital-hippies-integrate-life-and-work- <https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/03/digital-hippies-integrate-life-and-work-wework-data-firms> wework <https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/03/digital-hippies-integrate-life-and-work-wework-data-firms> -data-firms <https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/03/digital-hippies-integrate-life-and-work-wework-data-firms> The Hustle and WIRED have more background on the acquisition itself, and the community space race, which escaped my notice in such a busy news cycle: "Since their inception in 2002, Meetup’s raised relatively little funding ($18m compared with their reported $200m valuation), and according to CEO and co-founder Scott Heiferman, they’ve broken even in the past few years despite not raising any additional capital since ‘08. But they’re not satisfied with scraping by anymore" https://thehustle.co/wework-buys-meetup "But Heiferman is no longer intrigued by the notion of remaining small. It’s clear to him that there’s an urgency to the problem that Meetup has long tried to solve. It’s also clear to everyone else, which means there’s now competition. Earlier this year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would sink more resources into its efforts to build communities. It convened hundreds of Facebook group administrators in Chicago for a Community Summit. Zuckerberg attended and used the event to unveil a new mission for the company: 'bring the world closer together.'" https://www.wired.com/story/why- <https://www.wired.com/story/why-wework-is-buying-meetup>wework <https://www.wired.com/story/why-wework-is-buying-meetup>-is-buying-meetup <https://www.wired.com/story/why-wework-is-buying-meetup>/ Regards, - Nurul -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/
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