Well, essentially the Cisco model is on site child care, which they
also have in the US. Until October of this year, the Cisco centers
were essentially satellite offices for Cisco.
Part of the issue here in the Netherlands is that in many ways, the
whole society is built on the one-earner model, folks are rapidly
switching to the two-earner model but the institutions are mostly not
keeping up. Schools do not for instance typically have lunchrooms --
kids go home for lunch. And day care..well, when I came here six
years ago there was exactly one professional day care in this town of
50,000 souls. "Preschool" starts at 18 months to 2 years and is two
half days per week.
For another example, children with learning and other disabilities are
not integrated into the school system here, they go to different
schools which are regionally based, These kids are therefore bussed
via contract with taxi services -- picked up at the door and dropped
off at the door. Until this year this city (which provides the
service) refused to drop the kids off or pick them up anywhere other
than at one home address -- so not at day care, not at the sitter, and
god help you if you are, for example, divorced or otherwise not living
together.
So mothers with kids with learning disabilities are pretty much washed
up for working unless it's part time or self employment. Large
companies therefore find that solving the day care dilemma goes a long
way to attracting and keeping employees.
In many ways the Dutch do value work life balance more than Americans
do. But not in that way. I don't think we are likely to follow this
model in this area, as there are too many associated cultural
differences we would be unlikely to accept.
Jeannine
On Dec 22, 4:22 pm, "TechVenue.com" <
techve...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Mark,
>
> Thank you! This looks like a great system and again shows that we in
> the USA have a lot to learn and adopt when it comes to sustainability
> and work/life balance + valuing the whole family as a part of it all.
>
> Looking forward to hearing more from others in the group -
>
> Cheers,
>
> David
>
> Re:
>
> On Dec 22, 8:17 am, Mark Gilbreath <
mfgilbre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Onsight child care was a core element of the prototype "Smart Connected Workcenter" (SWC) that cisco developed and launched in Almere Netherlands (just outside Amsterdam) in 2008. This project was a part of a broad "Connected Urban Development" initiative that cisco developed, inspired by their involvement in the Clinton Global Inititive on sustainability. Much of what cisco demonstrated in this project (which has grown to a substantial network of locations in the Netherlands and inspired other projects around the globe) is relevant to coworking, including business models, public/private partnership models, space planning concepts, technology platforms (obviously, they want to promote their network, voice and video solutions), and service offerings...including child care. Their focus with the the SWC demonstration was enterprise customers, eg the IBM or HP employee who is looking for a more convenient, sustainable, productive place to work in lieu of the corporate office that may be further away (or as increasingly is the case at places like IBM, where 42% of their employees work remotely, the SWC becomes their only office.
>
> > Stuff to search on to find more info on this: almere, SWC, smart work center, CUD, connected urban development, bas boorsma, smart connected work
>
> > Mark Gilbreath
> > CEO/Founder
> >
208.720.8107
> >
m...@liquidspaceapp.com
>
> > LiquidSpace(TM) - find a better space to work.
> > We're a location-based mobile application that lets you use your phone to find a better space to meet and work, book it, check in securely, and share it with your colleagues. Visitwww.liquidspaceapp.comtolearn more!
>
> > On Dec 22, 2010, at 5:25 AM, autena <
aut...@evenconsulting.com> wrote:
>
> > > I agree, this is a critical issue for me. I am a lot of the home-
> > > based businesses and workers in my area are also parents that have to
> > > be with their kids after school, or when the don't have child care
> > > coverage.
>
> > > I am actively trying to recruit a partner that could have this as a
> > > "service-next-door". I belong to a Gym that has child care but the
> > > drop off is limited to 2 hours.
> > > I think this is a great discussion, would love to know what other
> > > members think/do about this.
> > > -A
>
> > > On Dec 21, 5:33 pm, "TechVenue.com" <
techve...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> Hi All,
>
> > >> Does anyone have any data on generally what percentage of coworking
> > >> places offer any childcare inside or adjacent to the space?
>
> > >> Felicity athttp://www.cubesandcrayons.comhassharedin a few threads