Re: [Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
Hi Brian, It looks awesome! Your community looks like a lot of fun. Would love to get your feedback on the new Loosecubes 2.0 if you're around this week/next week! Cheers, Campbell On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 5:13 PM, Brian Sierakowski briansierakow...@gmail.com wrote: Sadly I'll be here in Baltimore, being jealous of everyone in Austin :). Happy to catch up sometime and give the rundown of how things are progressing! -B On Feb 24, 5:00 pm, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: That looks really great Brian! Are you going to be down in Austin? Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolationhttp://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 1:13 PM, Brian Sierakowski briansierakow...@gmail.com wrote: Tis indeed the plan, and much gratitude goes out to Alex for helping us cross the chasm as it were :). If anyone else is interested in what we're doing, let me know and I'll get you up to speed! You can see a prototype here: Cahoots.co , Alex and I have been sparring on some execution questions, but this puts you in the ballpark. Thanks, -Brian (br...@cahoots.co) On Feb 23, 2:18 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I think that participation comes with an element of trust, for sure. But I like that quite a bit. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:16 PM, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Interesting... so maybe a network only accessible if you are a member of a participating coworking space... Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation http://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:04 AM, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.comwrote: I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine: http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our websitehttp://officenomads.com/category/featured-nomad/. I have lots of thoughts on the Coworking Registry and where it fits in the wider vision. Mostly it starts with how difficult it is to organize the coworking wiki which is currently mostly used to list spaces. If we could get that buttoned up in a simple, central, neutral, way, and make it all free and open data, then there is a lot we can do with that. It's only one piece of the puzzle though. I could go in so many directions from here but I'll leave it at that. The conversation is going to be great in Austin. :) Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without
Re: [Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
That looks really great Brian! Are you going to be down in Austin? Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500 On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 1:13 PM, Brian Sierakowski briansierakow...@gmail.com wrote: Tis indeed the plan, and much gratitude goes out to Alex for helping us cross the chasm as it were :). If anyone else is interested in what we're doing, let me know and I'll get you up to speed! You can see a prototype here: Cahoots.co , Alex and I have been sparring on some execution questions, but this puts you in the ballpark. Thanks, -Brian (br...@cahoots.co) On Feb 23, 2:18 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I think that participation comes with an element of trust, for sure. But I like that quite a bit. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:16 PM, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Interesting... so maybe a network only accessible if you are a member of a participating coworking space... Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation http://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:04 AM, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.comwrote: I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine: http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111 The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our websitehttp://officenomads.com/category/featured-nomad/. I have lots of thoughts on the Coworking Registry and where it fits in the wider vision. Mostly it starts with how difficult it is to organize the coworking wiki which is currently mostly used to list spaces. If we could get that buttoned up in a simple, central, neutral, way, and make it all free and open data, then there is a lot we can do with that. It's only one piece of the puzzle though. I could go in so many directions from here but I'll leave it at that. The conversation is going to be great in Austin. :) Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolationhttp://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 3:49 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
Sadly I'll be here in Baltimore, being jealous of everyone in Austin :). Happy to catch up sometime and give the rundown of how things are progressing! -B On Feb 24, 5:00 pm, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: That looks really great Brian! Are you going to be down in Austin? Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolationhttp://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 1:13 PM, Brian Sierakowski briansierakow...@gmail.com wrote: Tis indeed the plan, and much gratitude goes out to Alex for helping us cross the chasm as it were :). If anyone else is interested in what we're doing, let me know and I'll get you up to speed! You can see a prototype here: Cahoots.co , Alex and I have been sparring on some execution questions, but this puts you in the ballpark. Thanks, -Brian (br...@cahoots.co) On Feb 23, 2:18 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I think that participation comes with an element of trust, for sure. But I like that quite a bit. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:16 PM, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Interesting... so maybe a network only accessible if you are a member of a participating coworking space... Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation http://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:04 AM, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.comwrote: I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine: http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our websitehttp://officenomads.com/category/featured-nomad/. I have lots of thoughts on the Coworking Registry and where it fits in the wider vision. Mostly it starts with how difficult it is to organize the coworking wiki which is currently mostly used to list spaces. If we could get that buttoned up in a simple, central, neutral, way, and make it all free and open data, then there is a lot we can do with that. It's only one piece of the puzzle though. I could go in so many directions from here but I'll leave it at that. The conversation is going to be great in Austin. :) Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolationhttp://www.officenomads.com-(206) 323-6500 On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 3:49 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine: http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111 The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our websitehttp://officenomads.com/category/featured-nomad/. I have lots of thoughts on the Coworking Registry and where it fits in the wider vision. Mostly it starts with how difficult it is to organize the coworking wiki which is currently mostly used to list spaces. If we could get that buttoned up in a simple, central, neutral, way, and make it all free and open data, then there is a lot we can do with that. It's only one piece of the puzzle though. I could go in so many directions from here but I'll leave it at that. The conversation is going to be great in Austin. :) Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolationhttp://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 3:49 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we missed the boat. Big time. As a matter of fact, we're in the wrong boat going the wrong direction on the wrong river. Idea: what if we have a place where coworkers can tell their stories? That's it. Tell your story about how you found coworking, why you cowork, where you cowork and how it has changed your life. Tag those posts with city names and space names and let the wider community of prospective coworkers find their tribe there. *Question: as a space owner do you think you could inspire your communities to contribute their stories online?* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
The folks at TheCube in London have a very interesting, neuro-psychological approach to eliciting important info from people via Q + A. I've pinged them about this thread and hopefully they'll chime in. We need a database of coworking space managers so we can all discuss, design and deploy programs like this through our spaces. This is why the open registry of coworking spaces in so important and why I'm so excited about meeting you all at SxSW. Is there a wikipage for this so we can build a list/add feedback? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
Re: [Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
Interesting... so maybe a network only accessible if you are a member of a participating coworking space... Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500 On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:04 AM, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.comwrote: I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine: http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111 The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our websitehttp://officenomads.com/category/featured-nomad/. I have lots of thoughts on the Coworking Registry and where it fits in the wider vision. Mostly it starts with how difficult it is to organize the coworking wiki which is currently mostly used to list spaces. If we could get that buttoned up in a simple, central, neutral, way, and make it all free and open data, then there is a lot we can do with that. It's only one piece of the puzzle though. I could go in so many directions from here but I'll leave it at that. The conversation is going to be great in Austin. :) Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolationhttp://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 3:49 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we missed the boat. Big time. As a matter of fact, we're in the wrong boat going the wrong direction on the wrong river. Idea: what if we have a place where coworkers can tell their stories? That's it. Tell your story about how you found coworking, why you cowork, where you cowork and how it has changed your life. Tag those posts with city names and space names and let the wider community of prospective coworkers find their tribe there. *Question: as a space owner do you think you could inspire your communities to contribute their stories online?* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send
Re: [Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
I think that participation comes with an element of trust, for sure. But I like that quite a bit. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:16 PM, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.comwrote: Interesting... so maybe a network only accessible if you are a member of a participating coworking space... Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500 On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:04 AM, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.comwrote: I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine: http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111 The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our websitehttp://officenomads.com/category/featured-nomad/. I have lots of thoughts on the Coworking Registry and where it fits in the wider vision. Mostly it starts with how difficult it is to organize the coworking wiki which is currently mostly used to list spaces. If we could get that buttoned up in a simple, central, neutral, way, and make it all free and open data, then there is a lot we can do with that. It's only one piece of the puzzle though. I could go in so many directions from here but I'll leave it at that. The conversation is going to be great in Austin. :) Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolationhttp://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 3:49 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we missed the boat. Big time. As a matter of fact, we're in the wrong boat going the wrong direction on the wrong river. Idea: what if we have a place where coworkers can tell their stories? That's it. Tell your story about how you found coworking, why you cowork, where you cowork and how it has changed your life. Tag those posts with city names and space names and let the wider community of prospective coworkers find their tribe there. *Question: as a space owner do you think you could inspire your communities to contribute their stories online?* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
Right. Though (as with TED) there's no necessary reason for profiles not to be public -- this can go either way, but there are many reasons to make them public. In the case of TED it's also a publicity thing -- see what I am associated with. For the participation, communication, apps, you gotta be a member. Now TED has Ted Credand badges and so forth, I am myself not wild about these but I understand why they do it. I mean, it doesn;t have to be like TED but the parallels are compelling. That was my thinking anyway. Jeannine On 23 feb, 20:16, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Interesting... so maybe a network only accessible if you are a member of a participating coworking space... Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolationhttp://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:04 AM, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.comwrote: I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine: http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111 The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our websitehttp://officenomads.com/category/featured-nomad/. I have lots of thoughts on the Coworking Registry and where it fits in the wider vision. Mostly it starts with how difficult it is to organize the coworking wiki which is currently mostly used to list spaces. If we could get that buttoned up in a simple, central, neutral, way, and make it all free and open data, then there is a lot we can do with that. It's only one piece of the puzzle though. I could go in so many directions from here but I'll leave it at that. The conversation is going to be great in Austin. :) Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolationhttp://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 3:49 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we missed the boat. Big time. As a matter of fact, we're in the wrong boat going the wrong direction on the wrong river. Idea: what if we have a place where coworkers can tell their stories? That's it. Tell your story about how you found coworking, why you cowork, where you cowork and how it has changed your life. Tag those posts with city names and space names and let the wider community of prospective coworkers find their tribe there. *Question: as
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
--If your intern found good questions on a particular site, I'd love a source! http://www.buzzle.com/articles/funny-would-you-rather-questions.html On Feb 22, 10:20 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I'm working with some guys from Baltimore on an internal member directory app (imagine a wall of polaroids so you can easily track down faces to names). Rather than encourage members categorize themselves by arbitrary industries, I'm heading in the direction of asking these sorts of questions for a one-two line profile or bio. If your intern found good questions on a particular site, I'd love a source! -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:59 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: My intern found some pretty fun questions on a would you rather site. Now, mind you, these aren't soul bearing questions about coworking but I do think that people's responses really let personality shine through. For example, would you rather have a pencil sharpening nostril or a ketchup dispensing navel? Why? (feel free to answer this question in this discussion thread) I chose the nostril sharpener--mainly because I don't eat a lot of ketchup and I think it might ruin my shirts. -Angel On Feb 22, 9:49 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I totally agree that we don't need a custom solution. We can build a Wufoo form in minutes that asks a few good open ended questions and provide that to coworking space owners and community leaders - and see what comes back. The data will be structured and we can do just about anything we want with it later when Jacob's magic system is ready :) That's why I was suggesting some brainstorm around the types of questions we ask to elicit good stories. We've been working on interviews with a number of our members as well and they're structured in such a way to help them tell an important coworking story on their own. Things I like to ask: - where did you first hear about coworking? - what made you decide to come in for the first time? - what were some of your preconceived notions or expectations? - what's one thing you experienced that was unexpected? - who's the first coworker you remember meeting, and what happened? - how do you talk about coworking/indyhall to others? - what's one thing that you'd like to do but haven't yet? why? - what would you tell someone considering coworking/indyhall membership? -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:19 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I agree--we'd need some serious buy-in to get enough storiesI imagine that stories beget stories. No one wants to be the only person with their story out there! To some extent, yes- I have my mind made up about this project but my mind is made up insofar as I think it needs to happen. In order for me to summon the energy to catalyze something like this, I need to know if other space owners can get behind it to spread the word. Community first, stories second :) I also don't think we need a custom solution that's built from the ground up. Can it really be as simple as a blog-like site that accepts contributions and is easily searchable? On Feb 22, 9:07 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I don't think I was looking to introduce parameters or anything complicated, I was genuinely curious what questions people ask in order to get the stories worth telling. That's valuable to share here (and document together) so that the goal of 2012 stories by 2012 isn't just a numbers game, but is tracking quality stories from more places that have stories worth sharing. There's nothing wrong with running ahead with something and it sounds like you've got your mind made up on your this project, which is great. My point was to make this something that could inspire others so you're not the only one collecting stories, and let it live on beyond your e-book series. Of course it'll change as we go, that's how this whole thing works, but creating some constraints so that people know HOW to contribute is what's going to allow this to take off. Remember, not everyone's as comfortable at writing, interviewing, storytelling, etc. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I'm not a big fan of getting everything figured out first and acting later. Let's be honest, coworking is a baby. We don't know what size shoes she's going to need in 3 years let alone in the next 2 months. I don't want to get hung up in planning it to death or putting a
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
Jeannine, Here is a link to the coworking registry http://coworkingregistry.org/ that was mentioned. As far as a place for members to tell their stories--it doesn't exist yet and therefore has no link :) On Feb 23, 3:04 am, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.com wrote: I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine:http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111 The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our websitehttp://officenomads.com/category/featured-nomad/. I have lots of thoughts on the Coworking Registry and where it fits in the wider vision. Mostly it starts with how difficult it is to organize the coworking wiki which is currently mostly used to list spaces. If we could get that buttoned up in a simple, central, neutral, way, and make it all free and open data, then there is a lot we can do with that. It's only one piece of the puzzle though. I could go in so many directions from here but I'll leave it at that. The conversation is going to be great in Austin. :) Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolationhttp://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 3:49 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we missed the boat. Big time. As a matter of fact, we're in the wrong boat going the wrong direction on the wrong river. Idea: what if we have a place where coworkers can tell their stories? That's it. Tell your story about how you found coworking, why you cowork, where you cowork and how it has changed your life. Tag those posts with city names and space names and let the wider community of prospective coworkers find their tribe there. *Question: as a space owner do you think you could inspire your communities to contribute their stories online?* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
Hi, Angel, I am in it. But I mean that the conversation begins with reference to another conversation taking place somewhere. But not apparently in this thread. This is happening a lot lately and I am really not swift enough to follow when this goes on. That's all I meant; if whatever you said to which Jacob was responding is ont eh board, a link would help; if not, maybe the Yes yes yes Angel, what you said is just what I meant (since I don't have any idea what you said, so also not what he meant) could be deleted. That's all. No big, I am easily confused. Jeannine On 23 feb, 20:59, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.com wrote: Jeannine, Here is a link to the coworking registryhttp://coworkingregistry.org/ that was mentioned. As far as a place for members to tell their stories--it doesn't exist yet and therefore has no link :) On Feb 23, 3:04 am, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.com wrote: I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine:http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111 The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our websitehttp://officenomads.com/category/featured-nomad/. I have lots of thoughts on the Coworking Registry and where it fits in the wider vision. Mostly it starts with how difficult it is to organize the coworking wiki which is currently mostly used to list spaces. If we could get that buttoned up in a simple, central, neutral, way, and make it all free and open data, then there is a lot we can do with that. It's only one piece of the puzzle though. I could go in so many directions from here but I'll leave it at that. The conversation is going to be great in Austin. :) Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolationhttp://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500 On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 3:49 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we missed the boat. Big time. As a matter of fact, we're in the wrong boat going the wrong direction on the wrong river. Idea: what if we have a place where coworkers can tell their stories? That's it. Tell your story about how you found coworking, why you cowork, where you cowork and how it has changed your life. Tag those posts with city names and space names and let the wider community of prospective coworkers find their tribe
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
Jeannine, This thread is janky. Below was my original post which now shows up as the 3rd post in this thread. I'm not sure where I pulled the quote from Alex but I believe it was after I searched the google group for desks. When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we missed the boat. Big time. As a matter of fact, we're in the wrong boat going the wrong direction on the wrong river. Idea: what if we have a place where coworkers can tell their stories? That's it. Tell your story about how you found coworking, why you cowork, where you cowork and how it has changed your life. Tag those posts with city names and space names and let the wider community of prospective coworkers find their tribe there. *Question: as a space owner do you think you could inspire your communities to contribute their stories online?* On Feb 23, 1:25 pm, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Angel, I am in it. But I mean that the conversation begins with reference to another conversation taking place somewhere. But not apparently in this thread. This is happening a lot lately and I am really not swift enough to follow when this goes on. That's all I meant; if whatever you said to which Jacob was responding is ont eh board, a link would help; if not, maybe the Yes yes yes Angel, what you said is just what I meant (since I don't have any idea what you said, so also not what he meant) could be deleted. That's all. No big, I am easily confused. Jeannine On 23 feb, 20:59, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.com wrote: Jeannine, Here is a link to the coworking registryhttp://coworkingregistry.org/ that was mentioned. As far as a place for members to tell their stories--it doesn't exist yet and therefore has no link :) On Feb 23, 3:04 am, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.com wrote: I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine:http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111 The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our websitehttp://officenomads.com/category/featured-nomad/. I have lots of thoughts on the Coworking Registry and where it fits in the wider vision. Mostly it starts with how difficult it is to organize the coworking wiki which is currently mostly used to list spaces. If we could get that buttoned up in a simple, central, neutral, way, and make it all free and open data,
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
*whew*. Thank you, Angel, for taking the trouble to sort that out for me. I kept looking around for the rest of the conversation and then gave up. Not that it stopped me talking, lol. But truly, I appreciate it. Jeannine On 23 feb, 22:10, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.com wrote: Jeannine, This thread is janky. Below was my original post which now shows up as the 3rd post in this thread. I'm not sure where I pulled the quote from Alex but I believe it was after I searched the google group for desks. When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we missed the boat. Big time. As a matter of fact, we're in the wrong boat going the wrong direction on the wrong river. Idea: what if we have a place where coworkers can tell their stories? That's it. Tell your story about how you found coworking, why you cowork, where you cowork and how it has changed your life. Tag those posts with city names and space names and let the wider community of prospective coworkers find their tribe there. *Question: as a space owner do you think you could inspire your communities to contribute their stories online?* On Feb 23, 1:25 pm, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Angel, I am in it. But I mean that the conversation begins with reference to another conversation taking place somewhere. But not apparently in this thread. This is happening a lot lately and I am really not swift enough to follow when this goes on. That's all I meant; if whatever you said to which Jacob was responding is ont eh board, a link would help; if not, maybe the Yes yes yes Angel, what you said is just what I meant (since I don't have any idea what you said, so also not what he meant) could be deleted. That's all. No big, I am easily confused. Jeannine On 23 feb, 20:59, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.com wrote: Jeannine, Here is a link to the coworking registryhttp://coworkingregistry.org/ that was mentioned. As far as a place for members to tell their stories--it doesn't exist yet and therefore has no link :) On Feb 23, 3:04 am, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.com wrote: I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine:http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111 The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
There is a new site called Mapalong http://mapalong.com. When I heard story and location, I thought of Mapalong. [small shameless plug] The co-creator is an acquaintance of mine. [/small shameless plug]. The idea is to tie stories to locations. Maybe not yet, but soon, it could address this thread. For instance, you could zoom into your city, search for coworking and find coworking stories nearby. Regarding community participation, I've found mixed results. I'm always badgering our members to write a blog post about coworking, or about themselves (they all have access to the Wordpress), and half of them have done so. But I might not be asking them in the right way. Thanks, Gerard http://cincycoworks.com On Feb 22, 6:49 pm, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.com wrote: When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we missed the boat. Big time. As a matter of fact, we're in the wrong boat going the wrong direction on the wrong river. Idea: what if we have a place where coworkers can tell their stories? That's it. Tell your story about how you found coworking, why you cowork, where you cowork and how it has changed your life. Tag those posts with city names and space names and let the wider community of prospective coworkers find their tribe there. *Question: as a space owner do you think you could inspire your communities to contribute their stories online?* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
-Regarding community participation, I've found mixed results. I'm -always badgering our members to write a blog post about coworking, or -about themselves (they all have access to the Wordpress), and half of -them have done so. But I might not be asking them in the right way. One of my members once told me, Angel, we'll do anything for you. You just have to tell us when it's REALLY important to you. So, that's what I started doing. When I ask for something from the members I tell them why it's important to me or why it matters for the community. It might be saying something simple like, People who want to try out coworking go to the member page to read about you--the more stories we have there, the more likely people are to identify with one of you, come in and eventually join. This will keep Cohere in business. It's been remarkably effective. Also, they like deadlines. If I give them a date by which to have something turned in, they usually do it. -Angel On Feb 23, 2:49 pm, gerard @ Cincy Coworks helloger...@gmail.com wrote: There is a new site called Mapalong http://mapalong.com. When I heard story and location, I thought of Mapalong. [small shameless plug] The co-creator is an acquaintance of mine. [/small shameless plug]. The idea is to tie stories to locations. Maybe not yet, but soon, it could address this thread. For instance, you could zoom into your city, search for coworking and find coworking stories nearby. Regarding community participation, I've found mixed results. I'm always badgering our members to write a blog post about coworking, or about themselves (they all have access to the Wordpress), and half of them have done so. But I might not be asking them in the right way. Thanks, Gerardhttp://cincycoworks.com On Feb 22, 6:49 pm, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.com wrote: When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we missed the boat. Big time. As a matter of fact, we're in the wrong boat going the wrong direction on the wrong river. Idea: what if we have a place where coworkers can tell their stories? That's it. Tell your story about how you found coworking, why you cowork, where you cowork and how it has changed your life. Tag those posts with city names and space names and let the wider community of prospective coworkers find their tribe there. *Question: as a space owner do you think you could inspire your communities to contribute their stories online?* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
You're welcome. To be honest, even I was confused by the order of this thread and I started it! On Feb 23, 2:35 pm, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.com wrote: *whew*. Thank you, Angel, for taking the trouble to sort that out for me. I kept looking around for the rest of the conversation and then gave up. Not that it stopped me talking, lol. But truly, I appreciate it. Jeannine On 23 feb, 22:10, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.com wrote: Jeannine, This thread is janky. Below was my original post which now shows up as the 3rd post in this thread. I'm not sure where I pulled the quote from Alex but I believe it was after I searched the google group for desks. When Alex said, The biggest thing I continually see missing from directories like this is a sort of sense of humanity - physical attributes are useful in determining what you DON'T want, but make it hard to differentiate between one space and the next once you know what you DO want. I've been reading up on the coworking registry database and whatnot but again as a member just told me, I don't want to know where the desks/spaces are, I want to know where my people are. I think that as a community of community-minded people-centric people we missed the boat. Big time. As a matter of fact, we're in the wrong boat going the wrong direction on the wrong river. Idea: what if we have a place where coworkers can tell their stories? That's it. Tell your story about how you found coworking, why you cowork, where you cowork and how it has changed your life. Tag those posts with city names and space names and let the wider community of prospective coworkers find their tribe there. *Question: as a space owner do you think you could inspire your communities to contribute their stories online?* On Feb 23, 1:25 pm, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Angel, I am in it. But I mean that the conversation begins with reference to another conversation taking place somewhere. But not apparently in this thread. This is happening a lot lately and I am really not swift enough to follow when this goes on. That's all I meant; if whatever you said to which Jacob was responding is ont eh board, a link would help; if not, maybe the Yes yes yes Angel, what you said is just what I meant (since I don't have any idea what you said, so also not what he meant) could be deleted. That's all. No big, I am easily confused. Jeannine On 23 feb, 20:59, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.com wrote: Jeannine, Here is a link to the coworking registryhttp://coworkingregistry.org/ that was mentioned. As far as a place for members to tell their stories--it doesn't exist yet and therefore has no link :) On Feb 23, 3:04 am, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.com wrote: I think I am coming into an existing conversation but I don't know where it is, anybody who could add a link to it would be doing me a great service. It may be cultural -- Dutch guys are generally aware of the possibilities of a global network for good and valid geographical reasons -- but my own folks are very interested in the notion of the larger coworking movement. But I don't knwo that I could get them to tell their stories as notions of privacy are somewhat different here. Maybe. But what really makes them perk up their ears is the idea of a board where they can find contacts in other countries to work with who are at least a little bit our people. I will tell you that I have some concern about this feeling of trust: I am all about openness but have no desire to help a scam artist to my members, you know? For stories, if I could get my memebrs to tell their stories in english I would probablyu put them on the blog, have I got a misunderstanding about what the blog is for? I think the TED profiles strike a good balance, here is mine:http://www.ted.com/profiles/647111 The nice part about TED profiles is that they don't hsow what you don't fill out with a few exceptions, so your profile does not look like you are just a slacker or are hiding something. Jeannine On 23 feb, 01:32, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
I'm not a big fan of getting everything figured out first and acting later. Let's be honest, coworking is a baby. We don't know what size shoes she's going to need in 3 years let alone in the next 2 months. I don't want to get hung up in planning it to death or putting a hundred parameters around it. What we do need is a solution NOW where coworkers can tell their stories where other coworkers can search by space or city name (it doesn't even need to bolt on to a database--I'd just google a space I was interested in anyway)---be it a facilitated qa format or multimedia (upload a video or paint a picture) I don't care, I just want them to be able to share! We're going to do this with the next in the ebook series and unveil the Cohere members' stories in a book at our 1 year anniversary party in April. Beth and I had the planning meeting for this TODAY and we'll produce the thing in less than 10 weeks. My goal is to have 2012 coworkers' stories by 2012. Let's make it happen. Angel On Feb 22, 7:22 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. Jacob, you know I love you, but this sounds shortsighted. Just because they don't have an expanded worldview doesn't mean that they shouldn't be given the chance to see what it could do. I can contrast that sentiment that most of our members, while not necessarily aware of the big picture at first or its sheer scale, are extremely excited to be a part of it (and in many cases, contribute to it), *given the opportunity*. They love the fact that in places all around the world, people are experiencing something similar to them. We keep the local focus, but think it's important to have a global perspective. That's not just an attribute of a better coworker, or business owner/leader, that's an attribute of a better *citizen*. Without being presented with the possibility of being a part of the bigger world just outside their doors, I don't blame them for not wanting to. They don't even know that they could want to let alone that they should want to. The trick is to give them the opportunity without also giving them a * completely* blank page to work from. Like any interview, the key to this is knowing how to ask good questions, and look for prompts for asking yet more questions. This is hard to automate, but some more in-depth interviews being conducted by the members who want to know more about and be known more in the global community is something that I firmly believe that many members will do if they're given the opportunity. Personally, I'd love to see Angel's idea turn into a brainstorm of the kinds of questions and answers that members have with each other and coworking space catalyst, founders, leaders, etc have with them as well. From there, I think we can put together some queues for conversation to get over blank page syndrome and simply provide enough context for the stories - and the broader worldview that our members deserve to be able to have for themselves - to emerge. What we do with those stories could go in a million directions, let's worry about that once we have figured out a good way to capture them. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 7:32 PM, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.comwrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. It's the space owners that are more invested in the larger coworking movement so they are the people who are putting in the work. They want to talk about their space mostly, what they build, etc. I talk up our members and their incredible storieshttp://www.texttheromanceback.com/rachaelrayall the time but I wouldn't be able to keep individual profiles up to date. It's enough work to highlight them on our websitehttp://officenomads.com/category/featured-nomad/. I have lots of thoughts on the Coworking Registry and where it fits in the wider vision. Mostly it starts with how difficult it is to organize the coworking wiki which is currently mostly used to list spaces. If we could get that buttoned up in a simple, central, neutral, way, and make it all free and open data, then there is a lot we can do with that. It's only one piece of the puzzle though. I could go in so many directions from here but I'll leave it at that. The conversation is going to be great in Austin. :) Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation http://www.officenomads.com- (206) 323-6500
Re: [Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
I don't think I was looking to introduce parameters or anything complicated, I was genuinely curious what questions people ask in order to get the stories worth telling. That's valuable to share here (and document together) so that the goal of 2012 stories by 2012 isn't just a numbers game, but is tracking quality stories from more places that have stories worth sharing. There's nothing wrong with running ahead with something and it sounds like you've got your mind made up on your this project, which is great. My point was to make this something that could inspire others so you're not the only one collecting stories, and let it live on beyond your e-book series. Of course it'll change as we go, that's how this whole thing works, but creating some constraints so that people know HOW to contribute is what's going to allow this to take off. Remember, not everyone's as comfortable at writing, interviewing, storytelling, etc. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I'm not a big fan of getting everything figured out first and acting later. Let's be honest, coworking is a baby. We don't know what size shoes she's going to need in 3 years let alone in the next 2 months. I don't want to get hung up in planning it to death or putting a hundred parameters around it. What we do need is a solution NOW where coworkers can tell their stories where other coworkers can search by space or city name (it doesn't even need to bolt on to a database--I'd just google a space I was interested in anyway)---be it a facilitated qa format or multimedia (upload a video or paint a picture) I don't care, I just want them to be able to share! We're going to do this with the next in the ebook series and unveil the Cohere members' stories in a book at our 1 year anniversary party in April. Beth and I had the planning meeting for this TODAY and we'll produce the thing in less than 10 weeks. My goal is to have 2012 coworkers' stories by 2012. Let's make it happen. Angel On Feb 22, 7:22 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. Jacob, you know I love you, but this sounds shortsighted. Just because they don't have an expanded worldview doesn't mean that they shouldn't be given the chance to see what it could do. I can contrast that sentiment that most of our members, while not necessarily aware of the big picture at first or its sheer scale, are extremely excited to be a part of it (and in many cases, contribute to it), *given the opportunity*. They love the fact that in places all around the world, people are experiencing something similar to them. We keep the local focus, but think it's important to have a global perspective. That's not just an attribute of a better coworker, or business owner/leader, that's an attribute of a better *citizen*. Without being presented with the possibility of being a part of the bigger world just outside their doors, I don't blame them for not wanting to. They don't even know that they could want to let alone that they should want to. The trick is to give them the opportunity without also giving them a * completely* blank page to work from. Like any interview, the key to this is knowing how to ask good questions, and look for prompts for asking yet more questions. This is hard to automate, but some more in-depth interviews being conducted by the members who want to know more about and be known more in the global community is something that I firmly believe that many members will do if they're given the opportunity. Personally, I'd love to see Angel's idea turn into a brainstorm of the kinds of questions and answers that members have with each other and coworking space catalyst, founders, leaders, etc have with them as well. From there, I think we can put together some queues for conversation to get over blank page syndrome and simply provide enough context for the stories - and the broader worldview that our members deserve to be able to have for themselves - to emerge. What we do with those stories could go in a million directions, let's worry about that once we have figured out a good way to capture them. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 7:32 PM, Jacob Sayles ja...@officenomads.com wrote: Angel, Yes yes yes! This has been the direction I've been working towards all along and there are some significant challenges to incorporate. First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
I agree--we'd need some serious buy-in to get enough storiesI imagine that stories beget stories. No one wants to be the only person with their story out there! To some extent, yes- I have my mind made up about this project but my mind is made up insofar as I think it needs to happen. In order for me to summon the energy to catalyze something like this, I need to know if other space owners can get behind it to spread the word. Community first, stories second :) I also don't think we need a custom solution that's built from the ground up. Can it really be as simple as a blog-like site that accepts contributions and is easily searchable? On Feb 22, 9:07 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I don't think I was looking to introduce parameters or anything complicated, I was genuinely curious what questions people ask in order to get the stories worth telling. That's valuable to share here (and document together) so that the goal of 2012 stories by 2012 isn't just a numbers game, but is tracking quality stories from more places that have stories worth sharing. There's nothing wrong with running ahead with something and it sounds like you've got your mind made up on your this project, which is great. My point was to make this something that could inspire others so you're not the only one collecting stories, and let it live on beyond your e-book series. Of course it'll change as we go, that's how this whole thing works, but creating some constraints so that people know HOW to contribute is what's going to allow this to take off. Remember, not everyone's as comfortable at writing, interviewing, storytelling, etc. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I'm not a big fan of getting everything figured out first and acting later. Let's be honest, coworking is a baby. We don't know what size shoes she's going to need in 3 years let alone in the next 2 months. I don't want to get hung up in planning it to death or putting a hundred parameters around it. What we do need is a solution NOW where coworkers can tell their stories where other coworkers can search by space or city name (it doesn't even need to bolt on to a database--I'd just google a space I was interested in anyway)---be it a facilitated qa format or multimedia (upload a video or paint a picture) I don't care, I just want them to be able to share! We're going to do this with the next in the ebook series and unveil the Cohere members' stories in a book at our 1 year anniversary party in April. Beth and I had the planning meeting for this TODAY and we'll produce the thing in less than 10 weeks. My goal is to have 2012 coworkers' stories by 2012. Let's make it happen. Angel On Feb 22, 7:22 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. Jacob, you know I love you, but this sounds shortsighted. Just because they don't have an expanded worldview doesn't mean that they shouldn't be given the chance to see what it could do. I can contrast that sentiment that most of our members, while not necessarily aware of the big picture at first or its sheer scale, are extremely excited to be a part of it (and in many cases, contribute to it), *given the opportunity*. They love the fact that in places all around the world, people are experiencing something similar to them. We keep the local focus, but think it's important to have a global perspective. That's not just an attribute of a better coworker, or business owner/leader, that's an attribute of a better *citizen*. Without being presented with the possibility of being a part of the bigger world just outside their doors, I don't blame them for not wanting to. They don't even know that they could want to let alone that they should want to. The trick is to give them the opportunity without also giving them a * completely* blank page to work from. Like any interview, the key to this is knowing how to ask good questions, and look for prompts for asking yet more questions. This is hard to automate, but some more in-depth interviews being conducted by the members who want to know more about and be known more in the global community is something that I firmly believe that many members will do if they're given the opportunity. Personally, I'd love to see Angel's idea turn into a brainstorm of the kinds of questions and answers that members have with each other and coworking space catalyst, founders, leaders, etc have with them as well. From there, I think we can put together some queues for conversation to get over blank page
Re: [Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
I totally agree that we don't need a custom solution. We can build a Wufoo form in minutes that asks a few good open ended questions and provide that to coworking space owners and community leaders - and see what comes back. The data will be structured and we can do just about anything we want with it later when Jacob's magic system is ready :) That's why I was suggesting some brainstorm around the types of questions we ask to elicit good stories. We've been working on interviews with a number of our members as well and they're structured in such a way to help them tell an important coworking story on their own. Things I like to ask: - where did you first hear about coworking? - what made you decide to come in for the first time? - what were some of your preconceived notions or expectations? - what's one thing you experienced that was unexpected? - who's the first coworker you remember meeting, and what happened? - how do you talk about coworking/indyhall to others? - what's one thing that you'd like to do but haven't yet? why? - what would you tell someone considering coworking/indyhall membership? -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:19 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I agree--we'd need some serious buy-in to get enough storiesI imagine that stories beget stories. No one wants to be the only person with their story out there! To some extent, yes- I have my mind made up about this project but my mind is made up insofar as I think it needs to happen. In order for me to summon the energy to catalyze something like this, I need to know if other space owners can get behind it to spread the word. Community first, stories second :) I also don't think we need a custom solution that's built from the ground up. Can it really be as simple as a blog-like site that accepts contributions and is easily searchable? On Feb 22, 9:07 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I don't think I was looking to introduce parameters or anything complicated, I was genuinely curious what questions people ask in order to get the stories worth telling. That's valuable to share here (and document together) so that the goal of 2012 stories by 2012 isn't just a numbers game, but is tracking quality stories from more places that have stories worth sharing. There's nothing wrong with running ahead with something and it sounds like you've got your mind made up on your this project, which is great. My point was to make this something that could inspire others so you're not the only one collecting stories, and let it live on beyond your e-book series. Of course it'll change as we go, that's how this whole thing works, but creating some constraints so that people know HOW to contribute is what's going to allow this to take off. Remember, not everyone's as comfortable at writing, interviewing, storytelling, etc. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I'm not a big fan of getting everything figured out first and acting later. Let's be honest, coworking is a baby. We don't know what size shoes she's going to need in 3 years let alone in the next 2 months. I don't want to get hung up in planning it to death or putting a hundred parameters around it. What we do need is a solution NOW where coworkers can tell their stories where other coworkers can search by space or city name (it doesn't even need to bolt on to a database--I'd just google a space I was interested in anyway)---be it a facilitated qa format or multimedia (upload a video or paint a picture) I don't care, I just want them to be able to share! We're going to do this with the next in the ebook series and unveil the Cohere members' stories in a book at our 1 year anniversary party in April. Beth and I had the planning meeting for this TODAY and we'll produce the thing in less than 10 weeks. My goal is to have 2012 coworkers' stories by 2012. Let's make it happen. Angel On Feb 22, 7:22 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that there are a number of other spaces around the world, but they are more interested in the work they are doing. Jacob, you know I love you, but this sounds shortsighted. Just because they don't have an expanded worldview doesn't mean that they shouldn't be given the chance to see what it could do. I can contrast that sentiment that most of our members, while not necessarily aware of the big picture at first or its sheer scale, are extremely excited to be a part of it (and in many cases, contribute to it), *given the opportunity*. They love the fact that in places all
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
My intern found some pretty fun questions on a would you rather site. Now, mind you, these aren't soul bearing questions about coworking but I do think that people's responses really let personality shine through. For example, would you rather have a pencil sharpening nostril or a ketchup dispensing navel? Why? (feel free to answer this question in this discussion thread) I chose the nostril sharpener--mainly because I don't eat a lot of ketchup and I think it might ruin my shirts. -Angel On Feb 22, 9:49 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I totally agree that we don't need a custom solution. We can build a Wufoo form in minutes that asks a few good open ended questions and provide that to coworking space owners and community leaders - and see what comes back. The data will be structured and we can do just about anything we want with it later when Jacob's magic system is ready :) That's why I was suggesting some brainstorm around the types of questions we ask to elicit good stories. We've been working on interviews with a number of our members as well and they're structured in such a way to help them tell an important coworking story on their own. Things I like to ask: - where did you first hear about coworking? - what made you decide to come in for the first time? - what were some of your preconceived notions or expectations? - what's one thing you experienced that was unexpected? - who's the first coworker you remember meeting, and what happened? - how do you talk about coworking/indyhall to others? - what's one thing that you'd like to do but haven't yet? why? - what would you tell someone considering coworking/indyhall membership? -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:19 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I agree--we'd need some serious buy-in to get enough storiesI imagine that stories beget stories. No one wants to be the only person with their story out there! To some extent, yes- I have my mind made up about this project but my mind is made up insofar as I think it needs to happen. In order for me to summon the energy to catalyze something like this, I need to know if other space owners can get behind it to spread the word. Community first, stories second :) I also don't think we need a custom solution that's built from the ground up. Can it really be as simple as a blog-like site that accepts contributions and is easily searchable? On Feb 22, 9:07 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I don't think I was looking to introduce parameters or anything complicated, I was genuinely curious what questions people ask in order to get the stories worth telling. That's valuable to share here (and document together) so that the goal of 2012 stories by 2012 isn't just a numbers game, but is tracking quality stories from more places that have stories worth sharing. There's nothing wrong with running ahead with something and it sounds like you've got your mind made up on your this project, which is great. My point was to make this something that could inspire others so you're not the only one collecting stories, and let it live on beyond your e-book series. Of course it'll change as we go, that's how this whole thing works, but creating some constraints so that people know HOW to contribute is what's going to allow this to take off. Remember, not everyone's as comfortable at writing, interviewing, storytelling, etc. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I'm not a big fan of getting everything figured out first and acting later. Let's be honest, coworking is a baby. We don't know what size shoes she's going to need in 3 years let alone in the next 2 months. I don't want to get hung up in planning it to death or putting a hundred parameters around it. What we do need is a solution NOW where coworkers can tell their stories where other coworkers can search by space or city name (it doesn't even need to bolt on to a database--I'd just google a space I was interested in anyway)---be it a facilitated qa format or multimedia (upload a video or paint a picture) I don't care, I just want them to be able to share! We're going to do this with the next in the ebook series and unveil the Cohere members' stories in a book at our 1 year anniversary party in April. Beth and I had the planning meeting for this TODAY and we'll produce the thing in less than 10 weeks. My goal is to have 2012 coworkers' stories by 2012. Let's make it happen. Angel On Feb 22, 7:22 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: First, our members mostly just want a great place to work and they think it's neat that
Re: [Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
I'm working with some guys from Baltimore on an internal member directory app (imagine a wall of polaroids so you can easily track down faces to names). Rather than encourage members categorize themselves by arbitrary industries, I'm heading in the direction of asking these sorts of questions for a one-two line profile or bio. If your intern found good questions on a particular site, I'd love a source! -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:59 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: My intern found some pretty fun questions on a would you rather site. Now, mind you, these aren't soul bearing questions about coworking but I do think that people's responses really let personality shine through. For example, would you rather have a pencil sharpening nostril or a ketchup dispensing navel? Why? (feel free to answer this question in this discussion thread) I chose the nostril sharpener--mainly because I don't eat a lot of ketchup and I think it might ruin my shirts. -Angel On Feb 22, 9:49 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I totally agree that we don't need a custom solution. We can build a Wufoo form in minutes that asks a few good open ended questions and provide that to coworking space owners and community leaders - and see what comes back. The data will be structured and we can do just about anything we want with it later when Jacob's magic system is ready :) That's why I was suggesting some brainstorm around the types of questions we ask to elicit good stories. We've been working on interviews with a number of our members as well and they're structured in such a way to help them tell an important coworking story on their own. Things I like to ask: - where did you first hear about coworking? - what made you decide to come in for the first time? - what were some of your preconceived notions or expectations? - what's one thing you experienced that was unexpected? - who's the first coworker you remember meeting, and what happened? - how do you talk about coworking/indyhall to others? - what's one thing that you'd like to do but haven't yet? why? - what would you tell someone considering coworking/indyhall membership? -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:19 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I agree--we'd need some serious buy-in to get enough storiesI imagine that stories beget stories. No one wants to be the only person with their story out there! To some extent, yes- I have my mind made up about this project but my mind is made up insofar as I think it needs to happen. In order for me to summon the energy to catalyze something like this, I need to know if other space owners can get behind it to spread the word. Community first, stories second :) I also don't think we need a custom solution that's built from the ground up. Can it really be as simple as a blog-like site that accepts contributions and is easily searchable? On Feb 22, 9:07 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I don't think I was looking to introduce parameters or anything complicated, I was genuinely curious what questions people ask in order to get the stories worth telling. That's valuable to share here (and document together) so that the goal of 2012 stories by 2012 isn't just a numbers game, but is tracking quality stories from more places that have stories worth sharing. There's nothing wrong with running ahead with something and it sounds like you've got your mind made up on your this project, which is great. My point was to make this something that could inspire others so you're not the only one collecting stories, and let it live on beyond your e-book series. Of course it'll change as we go, that's how this whole thing works, but creating some constraints so that people know HOW to contribute is what's going to allow this to take off. Remember, not everyone's as comfortable at writing, interviewing, storytelling, etc. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I'm not a big fan of getting everything figured out first and acting later. Let's be honest, coworking is a baby. We don't know what size shoes she's going to need in 3 years let alone in the next 2 months. I don't want to get hung up in planning it to death or putting a hundred parameters around it. What we do need is a solution NOW where coworkers can tell their stories where other coworkers can search by space or city name (it doesn't even need to bolt on to a database--I'd just google a space I was interested in anyway)---be it a
Re: [Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
That app sounds awesome. Would it be shareable for other spaces to use internally? I can't speak for the guys who are primarily responsible for it (we're their first non-internal test case) but I think that's the plan! /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 12:32 AM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: Cohere has member profiles (a little more formal though some are pretty hilarious and utterly fictional) on our website under the Community tab and then we're also kicking it old school and the intern has created a physical wall o' members with actual Polaroids, contact info and a 1 line niche statement. I'll send a pic of the wall. It's pretty cool and only possible because the intern takes care of it! That app sounds awesome. Would it be shareable for other spaces to use internally? On Feb 22, 10:20 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I'm working with some guys from Baltimore on an internal member directory app (imagine a wall of polaroids so you can easily track down faces to names). Rather than encourage members categorize themselves by arbitrary industries, I'm heading in the direction of asking these sorts of questions for a one-two line profile or bio. If your intern found good questions on a particular site, I'd love a source! -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:59 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: My intern found some pretty fun questions on a would you rather site. Now, mind you, these aren't soul bearing questions about coworking but I do think that people's responses really let personality shine through. For example, would you rather have a pencil sharpening nostril or a ketchup dispensing navel? Why? (feel free to answer this question in this discussion thread) I chose the nostril sharpener--mainly because I don't eat a lot of ketchup and I think it might ruin my shirts. -Angel On Feb 22, 9:49 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I totally agree that we don't need a custom solution. We can build a Wufoo form in minutes that asks a few good open ended questions and provide that to coworking space owners and community leaders - and see what comes back. The data will be structured and we can do just about anything we want with it later when Jacob's magic system is ready :) That's why I was suggesting some brainstorm around the types of questions we ask to elicit good stories. We've been working on interviews with a number of our members as well and they're structured in such a way to help them tell an important coworking story on their own. Things I like to ask: - where did you first hear about coworking? - what made you decide to come in for the first time? - what were some of your preconceived notions or expectations? - what's one thing you experienced that was unexpected? - who's the first coworker you remember meeting, and what happened? - how do you talk about coworking/indyhall to others? - what's one thing that you'd like to do but haven't yet? why? - what would you tell someone considering coworking/indyhall membership? -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:19 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I agree--we'd need some serious buy-in to get enough storiesI imagine that stories beget stories. No one wants to be the only person with their story out there! To some extent, yes- I have my mind made up about this project but my mind is made up insofar as I think it needs to happen. In order for me to summon the energy to catalyze something like this, I need to know if other space owners can get behind it to spread the word. Community first, stories second :) I also don't think we need a custom solution that's built from the ground up. Can it really be as simple as a blog-like site that accepts contributions and is easily searchable? On Feb 22, 9:07 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I don't think I was looking to introduce parameters or anything complicated, I was genuinely curious what questions people ask in order to get the stories worth telling. That's valuable to share here (and document together) so that the goal of 2012 stories by 2012 isn't just a numbers game, but is tracking quality stories from more places that have stories worth sharing. There's nothing wrong with running ahead with something and it sounds like you've got your mind made up on your this project, which is great. My point was to make this something that could inspire others so you're not the only one
[Coworking] Re: Human element of space directories
Cohere has member profiles (a little more formal though some are pretty hilarious and utterly fictional) on our website under the Community tab and then we're also kicking it old school and the intern has created a physical wall o' members with actual Polaroids, contact info and a 1 line niche statement. I'll send a pic of the wall. It's pretty cool and only possible because the intern takes care of it! That app sounds awesome. Would it be shareable for other spaces to use internally? On Feb 22, 10:20 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I'm working with some guys from Baltimore on an internal member directory app (imagine a wall of polaroids so you can easily track down faces to names). Rather than encourage members categorize themselves by arbitrary industries, I'm heading in the direction of asking these sorts of questions for a one-two line profile or bio. If your intern found good questions on a particular site, I'd love a source! -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:59 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: My intern found some pretty fun questions on a would you rather site. Now, mind you, these aren't soul bearing questions about coworking but I do think that people's responses really let personality shine through. For example, would you rather have a pencil sharpening nostril or a ketchup dispensing navel? Why? (feel free to answer this question in this discussion thread) I chose the nostril sharpener--mainly because I don't eat a lot of ketchup and I think it might ruin my shirts. -Angel On Feb 22, 9:49 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I totally agree that we don't need a custom solution. We can build a Wufoo form in minutes that asks a few good open ended questions and provide that to coworking space owners and community leaders - and see what comes back. The data will be structured and we can do just about anything we want with it later when Jacob's magic system is ready :) That's why I was suggesting some brainstorm around the types of questions we ask to elicit good stories. We've been working on interviews with a number of our members as well and they're structured in such a way to help them tell an important coworking story on their own. Things I like to ask: - where did you first hear about coworking? - what made you decide to come in for the first time? - what were some of your preconceived notions or expectations? - what's one thing you experienced that was unexpected? - who's the first coworker you remember meeting, and what happened? - how do you talk about coworking/indyhall to others? - what's one thing that you'd like to do but haven't yet? why? - what would you tell someone considering coworking/indyhall membership? -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:19 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: I agree--we'd need some serious buy-in to get enough storiesI imagine that stories beget stories. No one wants to be the only person with their story out there! To some extent, yes- I have my mind made up about this project but my mind is made up insofar as I think it needs to happen. In order for me to summon the energy to catalyze something like this, I need to know if other space owners can get behind it to spread the word. Community first, stories second :) I also don't think we need a custom solution that's built from the ground up. Can it really be as simple as a blog-like site that accepts contributions and is easily searchable? On Feb 22, 9:07 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I don't think I was looking to introduce parameters or anything complicated, I was genuinely curious what questions people ask in order to get the stories worth telling. That's valuable to share here (and document together) so that the goal of 2012 stories by 2012 isn't just a numbers game, but is tracking quality stories from more places that have stories worth sharing. There's nothing wrong with running ahead with something and it sounds like you've got your mind made up on your this project, which is great. My point was to make this something that could inspire others so you're not the only one collecting stories, and let it live on beyond your e-book series. Of course it'll change as we go, that's how this whole thing works, but creating some constraints so that people know HOW to contribute is what's going to allow this to take off. Remember, not everyone's as comfortable at writing, interviewing, storytelling, etc. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Angel
