[Coworking] Re: Cubes Crayons (WAS Re: [Coworking] New member introduction)
Hi Raines, Thank you for all the fabulous feedback. I will take some time to digest it. We recently got a website marketing guru on board in exchange for co-working at CubesCrayons so we are definitely in the rework stages on the website. When I started this whole adventure, I was less aware of the co- working title, but am now becoming ingrained in it all. I hope to see you down at our campus for a visit when you have time. I am sure you will have additional feedback. I am not onsite all the time, so be sure to let me know if you are coming. All the best, Felicity On Feb 20, 3:50 pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Felicity - Welcome to Coworking! That's a great vision you've got with Cubes Crayons, very empowering for parents who otherwise wouldn't have as many options and who still face barriers in workforce integration, even in the progressive, welcoming coworking movement, where in the pioneering spaces, a mostly younger, mostly male (mostly nonparent?) workforce has not (so far as I've seen) had childcare and the needs of families as an explicit priority. Here's a couple of notes from a quick trip 'round your website, worth what you paid for 'em: - If you want to be a part of the coworking movement (and it does sound like you've got some valuable pieces of the puzzle, tools and models that can inspire other spaces), it would be nice if your site used the term and/or linked to other coworking sites. As it is, it doesn't look like you have any outbound links at all, even in the Press section. In my experience, the best way to get link love (web pointers that lead to web traffic and therefore customers) is to give it. - The co-op workshare membership contribution element didn't show up anywhere except in the FAQ and press articles (the rates page is kinda sparse). This seems like an important aspect of your model, both in terms of expectations of prospective members for their commitment and in the customer service and child care received and who will be involved in providing it. Given that even some non-kid-friendly coworking spaces are talking about background/reference checks for prospective members/keyholders, I'm curious whether this issue has come up for members in terms of the childcare services. Its also not clear whether the co-op hours requirement applies to office-only members... could a non-parent be involved in childcare and related areas? I'm curious about all this because we run into a lot of similar issues in the cohousing movement, and we're always looking for innovative solutions. I hope to get down there soon for a visit. - You might want to compare notes with MyDayOffice and other coworking and related groups that have similar franchise multi-location models... obviously, whole different sets of issues emerge related to branding and staffing and management that are not as significant for the D-I-Y cooperative one-off workspaces. Given regional variations in space and childcare prices, as well as different regulatory schemes in each state, I'd imagine that the rates won't be universal across all of your spaces. - I'd love to know whether your gender balance of members mirrors that of other coworking spaces. [the rest of this msg is less about coworking so everyone else can feel free to ignore] Technical and Typo and Territorial notes: - The menus seem to behave oddly in Safari after the first minute or so on a given page, unpopping before sub-items can be selected, and then not responding to clicks on the main item. The Community page's menus seem to work when others don't. - In the Press section, Read more... links open a new window.. but the Palo Alto Weekly article has a Return to Press section link at the bottom that doesn't switch back to the original window or close the new window. - I had to read the PA Weekly article to get it (without doing the math) that rates drop to as little as $9 an hour for members including childcare... the membership info page might want to be a little bit more explicit about the value. - Typo in the Press section: tele-communtes has an extra n - Typo in the Press section: choosed should be present tense - Typo on the FAQ: What happens if I can't volunteers should be singular - Typo on the House Rules page: recption missing an e - While OnRamping and OffRamping sounds interesting; there's no link or context on the Community page's workshops events calendar to fill in somebody who hadn't heard of it before. It helped once I discovered that your founder's blog is athttp://YourOnRamp.com/(a side note there: a blog that doesn't display dates for posts and then references current events can be a bit confusing.. and there isn't anything obvious over there that I could find actually referencing those terms Google eventually led me tohttp://www.youronramp.com/youronramp-presents-onramping-offramping-wo... but there's still nothing linking to actual definitions of
[Coworking] Re: Cubes Crayons (WAS Re: [Coworking] New member introduction)
Felicity - Welcome to Coworking! That's a great vision you've got with Cubes Crayons, very empowering for parents who otherwise wouldn't have as many options and who still face barriers in workforce integration, even in the progressive, welcoming coworking movement, where in the pioneering spaces, a mostly younger, mostly male (mostly nonparent?) workforce has not (so far as I've seen) had childcare and the needs of families as an explicit priority. Here's a couple of notes from a quick trip 'round your website, worth what you paid for 'em: - If you want to be a part of the coworking movement (and it does sound like you've got some valuable pieces of the puzzle, tools and models that can inspire other spaces), it would be nice if your site used the term and/or linked to other coworking sites. As it is, it doesn't look like you have any outbound links at all, even in the Press section. In my experience, the best way to get link love (web pointers that lead to web traffic and therefore customers) is to give it. - The co-op workshare membership contribution element didn't show up anywhere except in the FAQ and press articles (the rates page is kinda sparse). This seems like an important aspect of your model, both in terms of expectations of prospective members for their commitment and in the customer service and child care received and who will be involved in providing it. Given that even some non-kid-friendly coworking spaces are talking about background/reference checks for prospective members/keyholders, I'm curious whether this issue has come up for members in terms of the childcare services. Its also not clear whether the co-op hours requirement applies to office-only members... could a non-parent be involved in childcare and related areas? I'm curious about all this because we run into a lot of similar issues in the cohousing movement, and we're always looking for innovative solutions. I hope to get down there soon for a visit. - You might want to compare notes with MyDayOffice and other coworking and related groups that have similar franchise multi-location models... obviously, whole different sets of issues emerge related to branding and staffing and management that are not as significant for the D-I-Y cooperative one-off workspaces. Given regional variations in space and childcare prices, as well as different regulatory schemes in each state, I'd imagine that the rates won't be universal across all of your spaces. - I'd love to know whether your gender balance of members mirrors that of other coworking spaces. [the rest of this msg is less about coworking so everyone else can feel free to ignore] Technical and Typo and Territorial notes: - The menus seem to behave oddly in Safari after the first minute or so on a given page, unpopping before sub-items can be selected, and then not responding to clicks on the main item. The Community page's menus seem to work when others don't. - In the Press section, Read more... links open a new window.. but the Palo Alto Weekly article has a Return to Press section link at the bottom that doesn't switch back to the original window or close the new window. - I had to read the PA Weekly article to get it (without doing the math) that rates drop to as little as $9 an hour for members including childcare... the membership info page might want to be a little bit more explicit about the value. - Typo in the Press section: tele-communtes has an extra n - Typo in the Press section: choosed should be present tense - Typo on the FAQ: What happens if I can't volunteers should be singular - Typo on the House Rules page: recption missing an e - While OnRamping and OffRamping sounds interesting; there's no link or context on the Community page's workshops events calendar to fill in somebody who hadn't heard of it before. It helped once I discovered that your founder's blog is at http://YourOnRamp.com/ (a side note there: a blog that doesn't display dates for posts and then references current events can be a bit confusing.. and there isn't anything obvious over there that I could find actually referencing those terms Google eventually led me to http://www.youronramp.com/youronramp-presents-onramping-offramping-workshops-menlo-park but there's still nothing linking to actual definitions of the terms of what the workshop includes. I eventually found a definition in a Boston Globe article. Maybe this is Human Resources jargon? WIkipedia has it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-Ramping -- although IMNSHO the entry has issues related to NPOV and promotion of the particular website) Raines Cohen, Coworking Coach / Cohousing Coach Planning for Sustainable Communities in Berkeley, CA who recently learned at a National Aging In Place Council meeting in Denver that some large employers are setting up ELDERCARE facilities to help employees who are taking lots of time off work to care for family members and in web surfing for alternative options. Perhaps there's a
