Coworking booking site
Felix E. Klee
web site that facilitates bringing together Coworkers and Coworking
facilities (cf. the "Coworking on the move?" thread). Just some
brainstorming - nothing concrete, sorry.
The site would be akin to hotel booking sites such as bookings.net, and
the long term goal would be to dramatically increase the number of
Coworking facilities and to make Coworking cheap and easy. Features
that come into my mind:
* A search engine for Coworking facilities, and a rating system for
Coworking facilities (again, cf. <http://bookings.net>).
* A system that allows doing reservations in advance. There are issues
with payment, of course.
* A search engine for Coworkers. There, of course, are privacy issues.
* A rating system where Coworkers and facility owners can rate other
coworkers. Agian, there are privacy issues.
* A functionality by which new Coworking facilities can easily be added
and described, including temporary ones (e.g. an office room that'd
otherwise be empty for a month).
* A functionality allowing planning (temporary) Coworking facilities.
People should be able to use the web site to find other people who are
interested in Coworking in a certain place and in a certain time
frame. This would allow like minded people to, for example, join and
rent some office space in that place and in that time frame.
Maybe someone with more insight into the Coworking "market" could
comment?
--
Felix E. Klee
Felix E. Klee
Felix E. Klee wrote:
> * A rating system where Coworkers and facility owners can rate other
> coworkers. Agian, there are privacy issues.
I forgot:
* A functionality where Coworkers can describe themselves.
--
Felix E. Klee
David Doolin
What you describe is very interesting.
It will require formal governance
and financial structure. Which in
turns requires someone willing to
keep up with all that.
If you get too formal, your local
municipal licensing authorities *will*
step in to assess taxes and ensure
you are complying with all the necessary
statutes required for such enterprises.
There is a broad continuum of models
here, ranging in formality. A general
pricing model looks something like this:
Price = Services + Flexibility.
Services: printer, fax, phone, postal address, internet connection, etc.
Flexibility: size of space, hours of access, amount of workspace privacy, etc.
Keep us posted.
Tara Hunt
Funny you should be talking about this. We haven't formally 'announced' it to the coworking nation, but we are building such a site. No ratings (we don't know if that is community friendly as it is totally gameable), but profiles, descriptions, photos, addresses, availability, etc. all built into a network for all of the spaces. In the future, we will be adding the ability to network amongst people, too (for ad hoc project teams, etc.). That will probably be when people can leave their kudos for having done great work with others...
We started talking about this idea a long time ago when Citizen Space (our SF coworking space that we opened in November of 2006) opened and many around the world were watching closely as we built it and opened it (we published our progress on our blogs and flickr: _______________ ). It was, partially, the example of someone else sticking their neck out and partially the openness of us doing it that really got people incented to also go ahead and do their own. What we wanted to do is to take the wiki, which was sufficient in the beginning, and start creating tools for those who wanted to set up and publicize their own spaces.
We were, unfortunately, busy with clients at the time and trying to pay for the space (and all of the set up expenses), but now we are able to actually go forward with it. We've hired a couple of developers and we plan to have a prototype out in the next 4-6 weeks or so.
We are also taking it upon ourselves to host it, take on the expense of developing, planning and running it, be the go-to people and continue to build it out whilst watching what the needs are of the overall network (different spaces have very different needs so we are looking at building an extensible model with the ability for add-on modules). We will also be looking into the administration of really crucial things like:
- affordable healthcare
- green certification for the spaces
- other benefit programs as being part of the coworking nation
I know that there are a couple of other spaces that are creating specific software for their needs and that is awesome and we plan to work with them once we get the platform solidified. Please note that we are starting simple and building on it based on what works for all spaces first, then more finitely for other spaces second. We will also be offering an API and offering the code to developers who want to create modules for their individual needs and purposes. :)
I'm working on the spec and the wireframes this week, so, hopefully, will have something to publish by Friday.
If you have any further questions, suggestions or concerns, email me directly: tara at citizenagency (or Chris Messina - but cc me as I'm the project lead - chris at citizenagency)
We're really really excited about this. A bit scared, too (we had to choose to not renew a bunch of contracts so we have more time for this), but our whole lives passion has been around doing this stuff, so the risk is well-worth it. :)
Tara
agent provocateur
Citizen Agency (www.citizenagency.com)
blog: www.horsepigcow.com
phone: 415-694-1951
fax: 415-727-5335
Tara Hunt
http://www.flickr.com/photos/missrogue/sets/72157600011678887/ (the flickr set of the build)
http://citizenspace.us (our coworking space, which is filled up for tenants, but has plenty-o room for drop ins - and drop ins are free)
T.
tara 'miss rogue' hunt
agent provocateur
Citizen Agency (www.citizenagency.com)
blog: www.horsepigcow.com
phone: 415-694-1951
fax: 415-727-5335
--
Sincerely,
Tara
-----------------------
tara 'miss rogue' hunt
agent provocateur
Citizen Agency (www.citizenagency.com )
David Doolin
> Hi David & Felix,
> affordable healthcare
I still intend on holding a workshop on
healthcare, sxsw and day job pushed
it into April.
Tara Hunt
T
--
Sincerely,
Tara
-----------------------
tara 'miss rogue' hunt
agent provocateur
Citizen Agency ( www.citizenagency.com)
Felix E. Klee
David Doolin wrote:
> It will require formal governance and financial structure. Which in
> turns requires someone willing to keep up with all that.
Ah, payment and booking is probably not that much of a problem. For
example, there surely is no central organization that handles booking
and payment for hotels. Yet, there are many sites where you can book
hotel rooms online, all over the world.
In fact, when talking about a central site, one should keep in mind that
this is only one option. The future IMHO is to have information
distributed all over the net, but we may not be ready for that yet. The
establishment of the Semantic Web takes its time, and even light weight
markup technology such as Microformats is slow to gain ground ....
> If you get too formal, your local municipal licensing authorities
> *will* step in to assess taxes and ensure you are complying with all
> the necessary statutes required for such enterprises.
Scary. But probably inevitable. It may be necessary to collect much
more legal advice concerning the issue. Such advice would include, most
notably, sample agreements between facility providers and coworkers.
> Keep us posted.
Did I say that I want to set up such a site? Fortunately, Tara comes to
the rescue, telling us they're already working on such a beast. :-)
Anyway, I think that there are some serious business opportunities in
the area of providing service in and around Coworking.
--
Felix E. Klee
Felix E. Klee
Tara Hunt wrote:
> We haven't formally 'announced' it to the coworking nation, but we are
> building such a site.
Great news. I'm looking forward to it.
> • affordable healthcare
> • green certification for the spaces
> • other benefit programs as being part of the coworking nation
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
OTOH, one should perhaps not try to turn this too much into a closed
community. What I like at the moment is the open approach, and that one
doesn't have to be member of an organization to be able to use Coworking
facilities (not that I ever did). Just a thought.
--
Felix E. Klee
Alex Hillman
I like that idea. concentric circles of membership. I'll jot that one down for later....
-Alex
vocal: 484.597.6256
digital: al...@weknowhtml.com
visual: www.weknowhtml.com | www.dangerouslyawesome.com
Tara Hunt
The other said developer is Jacob Patton, who is well known for his spiffy work on Conferenceer.com.
Both are coworkers, microformatters, openiders, barcampers and all around talented individuals. :)
T
Sincerely,
Tara
-----------------------
tara 'miss rogue' hunt
agent provocateur
Citizen Agency ( www.citizenagency.com)
patrick...@gmail.com
You mean as part of the software?
Being from Montréal (we haven't opened yet) and knowing Paris is a
very promising one, just to give two examples, I'd suggest keeping
things like healthcare if not completely separate at least options and
easy to "turn off", it doesn't work the same around the world and in
some places we actually don't need it ;)
Same thing for Green business and probably most programs, rules and
regulations vary country to country.
Patrick
Tara Hunt
T
agent provocateur
Citizen Agency (www.citizenagency.com)
Nate W
works to get health care for those who would be coworking (as long as
you're billing about 20 hours a week).
Partnering with an organization like this -- one which exists to
navigate the healthcare industry for freelancers and single-person
shops -- may be the best bet, as "unionizing and getting health care"
is a lot easier said than done.
Also, supporting something like the Freelancer's Union helps extend
the movement beyond the walls of coworking spaces :-)
Nate Westheimer
On Mar 21, 10:33 pm, "Tara Hunt" <t...@citizenagency.com> wrote:
> Yep. Agreed. These would be 'add on' services for those coworkers and spaces
> in need.
>
> T
>
> On 3/21/07, patrick.tang...@gmail.com <patrick.tang...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > >> We will also be looking into the administration of really crucial
> > things like: - affordable healthcare - green certification for the spaces
> > You mean as part of the software?
>
> > Being from Montréal (we haven't opened yet) and knowing Paris is a
> > very promising one, just to give two examples, I'd suggest keeping
> > things like healthcare if not completely separate at least options and
> > easy to "turn off", it doesn't work the same around the world and in
> > some places we actually don't need it ;)
>
> > Same thing for Green business and probably most programs, rules and
> > regulations vary country to country.
>
> > Patrick
>
> --
> Sincerely,
>
> Tara
> -----------------------
> tara 'miss rogue' hunt
116westhouston
'co-working facility management' web site, i have sent a few versions
to noel hidalgo and will publish this to the group soon...my space is
http://116westhouston.com
john
Tara Hunt
We know about the Freelancer's Union and have put in calls, etc. to them. I believe they are trying to set something up in other states, but it is slow going. But, yes, definitely would rather hook up with someone who has done the work already. :)
T
Tara Hunt
Chris and I and our project team have actually seen your spec. It's pretty cool, but totally doesn't do what we are trying to accomplish with ours. We spoke to Noel about this. Basically, you are approaching your web site from a facility management angle and we are approaching ours from a coworking network of spaces angle. Yours = functional (and really functional for your space in particular...I don't know how many spaces are commoditizing the desks to the level of fine detail that you are) and Ours = promotional & social.
Our roadmap looks like:
Phase 1 - network the spaces themselves (and give oodles of information/support on setting spaces up)
Phase 2 - network the coworkers (to be able to create ad hoc project teams like: http://www.programmermeetdesigner.com does but with a coworking kudos/reputation system built in)
Phase 3 - more space management tools as per the demands of the network (so, as we watch these spaces emerge and issues come up, we can generalize them into a tool and open up an API, perhaps, to make it extensible and personalize it)
Phase 4 - getting into more services...probably less about the web site
Sort of growing with the movement and creating the tools to help everyone along.
I think, though, down the road, we should definitely work on how these fit together. It would be very helpful for all involved.
Tara
Louis Montagne
to follow up on the discussions we had in Austin, I've created the
page https://coworking.pbwiki.com/CoworkingTools. We are starting to
work on the core social networking features. (with the help of a micro
barcamp). Perhaps we can draft a few things with Alex & Jacob ?
Best,
Louis.
116westhouston
really are necessary for people to adopt this model of working, so i
really see it as being very much a requirement for your vision.
Also, i don't believe you have seen a recent version, much clearer and
more encompassing. In addition, it also has a social intelligence
flagging system called 'Sico' instead of 'Fico' - pronounced 'psycho',
perhaps a bit harsh) for rating members which sounds along the lines
of what you are discussing with the rating for spaces. it sounds wacko
but there needs to be some sort of self-policing, in my opinion..i'm
not sure whether it should be included but one bad apple spoils the
bunch in my opinion - there has to be a way to work around this..
On Mar 23, 11:33 am, "Tara Hunt" <t...@citizenagency.com> wrote:
> Hi John,
>
> Chris and I and our project team have actually seen your spec. It's pretty
> cool, but totally doesn't do what we are trying to accomplish with ours. We
> spoke to Noel about this. Basically, you are approaching your web site from
> a facility management angle and we are approaching ours from a coworking
> network of spaces angle. Yours = functional (and really functional for your
> space in particular...I don't know how many spaces are commoditizing the
> desks to the level of fine detail that you are) and Ours = promotional &
> social.
>
> Our roadmap looks like:
>
> Phase 1 - network the spaces themselves (and give oodles of
> information/support on setting spaces up)
> Phase 2 - network the coworkers (to be able to create ad hoc project teams
> like:http://www.programmermeetdesigner.comdoes but with a coworking
> kudos/reputation system built in)
> Phase 3 - more space management tools as per the demands of the network (so,
> as we watch these spaces emerge and issues come up, we can generalize them
> into a tool and open up an API, perhaps, to make it extensible and
> personalize it)
> Phase 4 - getting into more services...probably less about the web site
>
> Sort of growing with the movement and creating the tools to help everyone
> along.
>
> I think, though, down the road, we should definitely work on how these fit
> together. It would be very helpful for all involved.
>
> Tara
>
David Doolin
It's a sword that cuts both ways.
If a group goes into "dither mode" over
something like this, people will bail, fast.
In any of these spaces, there is ultimately one person
Who. Is. Responsible. Whose name is on the lease,
or is chairperson (primus inter pares) of whatever
governance structure required.
This person should have the cojones, and popular
support, to deal with a poor fit rapidly and summarily.
Samuel Rose
coworkers may be interested in: an open source application to handle
money pooling, revenue sharing, expense tracking, and revenue share
tracking. Feel free to remove of course if this is out of place, but I
thought coworkers might find the functions of such an application
useful.
On Mar 25, 9:20 pm, "Louis Montagne" <montagne.lo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Tara,
> to follow up on the discussions we had in Austin, I've created the
> pagehttps://coworking.pbwiki.com/CoworkingTools. We are starting to
> work on the core social networking features. (with the help of a micro
> barcamp). Perhaps we can draft a few things with Alex & Jacob ?
>
> Best,
>
> Louis.
>
> On 3/23/07, Tara Hunt <t...@citizenagency.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi John,
>
> > Chris and I and our project team have actually seen your spec. It's pretty
> > cool, but totally doesn't do what we are trying to accomplish with ours. We
> > spoke to Noel about this. Basically, you are approaching your web site from
> > a facility management angle and we are approaching ours from a coworking
> > network of spaces angle. Yours = functional (and really functional for your
> > space in particular...I don't know how many spaces are commoditizing the
> > desks to the level of fine detail that you are) and Ours = promotional &
> > social.
>
> > Our roadmap looks like:
>
> > Phase 1 - network the spaces themselves (and give oodles of
> > information/support on setting spaces up)
> > Phase 2 - network the coworkers (to be able to create ad hoc project teams
> > like:http://www.programmermeetdesigner.comdoes but with a
> > coworking kudos/reputation system built in)
> > Phase 3 - more space management tools as per the demands of the network (so,
> > as we watch these spaces emerge and issues come up, we can generalize them
> > into a tool and open up an API, perhaps, to make it extensible and
> > personalize it)
> > Phase 4 - getting into more services...probably less about the web site
>
> > Sort of growing with the movement and creating the tools to help everyone
> > along.
>
> > I think, though, down the road, we should definitely work on how these fit
> > together. It would be very helpful for all involved.
>
> > Tara
>
e...@cubespacepdx.com
proprietary database built in Ruby on Rails. We are meeting with out
developer on Wednesday to make sure there are no CubeSpace security
issues in sharing what we have, but assuming he gives us a thumbs-up,
we will be happy to share it with this group.
We designed it to track reservation and usages, as well as to serve as
our point-of-sale interface. I will warn you it is buggy and
temperamental and clearly needs more work, but the relational database
structure is sound. We are eager to see what you all can do with it!
-Eva
Eva Sari Schweber
Chief Cat Herder
CubeSpace, Your WorkSpace Community
622 SE Grand Avenue
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 206-3299 Voice
(503) 206-3302 Fax
e...@CubeSpacePDX.com Email
www.CubeSpacePDX.com
On Mar 26, 10:19 am, "Samuel Rose" <samuel.r...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Louis, I also plugged in a tool under "New Tool proposal" that some
> coworkers may be interested in: an open source application to handle
> money pooling, revenue sharing, expensetracking, and revenue sharetracking. Feel free to remove of course if this is out of place, but I
> thought coworkers might find the functions of such an application
> useful.
>
> On Mar 25, 9:20 pm, "Louis Montagne" <montagne.lo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Tara,
> > to follow up on the discussions we had in Austin, I've created the
> > pagehttps://coworking.pbwiki.com/CoworkingTools. We are starting to
> > work on the core social networking features. (with the help of a micro
> > barcamp). Perhaps we can draft a few things with Alex & Jacob ?
>
> > Best,
>
> > Louis.
>
> > On 3/23/07, Tara Hunt <t...@citizenagency.com> wrote:
>
> > > Hi John,
>
> > > Chris and I and our project team have actually seen your spec. It's pretty
> > > cool, but totally doesn't do what we are trying to accomplish with ours. We
> > > spoke to Noel about this. Basically, you are approaching your web site from
> > > a facility management angle and we are approaching ours from a coworking
> > > network of spaces angle. Yours = functional (and really functional for your
> > > space in particular...I don't know how many spaces are commoditizing the
> > > desks to the level of fine detail that you are) and Ours = promotional &
> > > social.
>
> > > Our roadmap looks like:
>
> > > Phase 1 - network the spaces themselves (and give oodles of
> > > information/support on setting spaces up)
> > > Phase 2 - network the coworkers (to be able to create ad hoc project teams
> > > like:http://www.programmermeetdesigner.comdoesbut with a
Rich Vázquez
--
---
Rich Vázquez, CISSP
www.opensourcecurrency.org
Tara Hunt
Chris and I visited Eva and David at CubeSpace in Portland last week, which was awesome. Great people and a very well-run, nice space. In order to run something of their scale (what was it? 13,000 ft2?), they have to have some seriously kickass software in place. :) I'm really pumped about getting it out there.
And Rich...this sounds great.
If you guys need any licensing help, just ask. I'm sure there are quite a few Open Source experts on the list! :)
Perhaps we should carve out a space at SourceForge? I don't really know how it works, but...
T
> > > > > > Citizen Agency ( www.citizenagency.com )
> > > > > > blog:www.horsepigcow.com
> > > > > > phone: 415-694-1951
> > > > > > fax: 415-727-5335
>
> > > --
> > > Sincerely,
>
> > > Tara
> > > -----------------------
> > > tara 'miss rogue' hunt
> > > agent provocateur
> > > Citizen Agency ( www.citizenagency.com)
> > > blog: www.horsepigcow.com
> > > phone: 415-694-1951
> > > fax: 415-727-5335
--
Sincerely,
Tara
-----------------------
tara 'miss rogue' hunt
Alex Hillman
Same functions as sourceforge as far as project wiki, documentation, task management, and source control...plus it's built on rails....plus plus there's a whole open source economy around task-driven development. You can monetize feature requests, enticing developers to contribute to your project.
The site is run by a couple of friends of mine, it's a trustworthy site and a good way to support the economy in Opensville.
Cheers,
Alex
-----
--
-----
Alex Hillman
web.developer.innovation.consultant
vocal: 484.597.6256
digital: al...@weknowhtml.com
visual: www.weknowhtml.com | www.dangerouslyawesome.com
Tara Hunt
I think you were just appointed the person to help guide this. ;)
T
Jacob Sayles
> > > like:http://www.programmermeetdesign er.comdoesbut with a
--
Raimo van der Klein
I just wanted to add that we (Tribeminds in the Netherlands) have a
similar structure planned as Tara.
Below I would like to share our Purpose Statement:
To support independents and entrepeneurs in...
1. Finding shared minds
2. Finding great projects
3. Finding a great place to work
...by facilitating a network and connecting all stakeholders in a
green way
You see we need to connect the people around 3 objects: the place, the
project and the network(people)
More information on our project will be shared coming weeks. Have a
peek preview at www.tribeminds.nl (we still need to change alot on
this site haha)
Talk soon!
On Oct 21, 6:45 pm, "Jacob Sayles" <jsay...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Where did this go? Eva, did you open source your ruby app?
> Jacob Sayles
> Office Nomads
> Seattle, WA
>
> On 4/30/07, Tara Hunt <t...@citizenagency.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Hey Alex,
>
> > I think you were just appointed the person to help guide this. ;)
>
> > T
>
> > On 4/30/07, Alex Hillman < dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > If you're going Open Source (everyone), consider
> > >https://www.bountysource.com/instead of SourceForge.
>
> > > Same functions as sourceforge as far as project wiki, documentation,
> > > task management, and source control...plus it's built on rails....plus plus
> > > there's a whole open source economy around task-driven development. You can
> > > monetize feature requests, enticing developers to contribute to your
> > > project.
>
> > > The site is run by a couple of friends of mine, it's a trustworthy site
> > > and a good way to support the economy in Opensville.
>
> > > Cheers,
> > > Alex
>
> > > On 4/30/07, Tara Hunt <t...@citizenagency.com> wrote:
>
> > > > This is all amazing.
>
> > > > Chris and I visited Eva and David at CubeSpace in Portland last week,
> > > > which was awesome. Great people and a very well-run, nice space. In order to
> > > > run something of their scale (what was it? 13,000 ft2?), they have to have
> > > > some seriously kickass software in place. :) I'm really pumped about getting
> > > > it out there.
>
> > > > And Rich...this sounds great.
>
> >
> > If you guys need any licensing help, just ask. I'm sure there are
> > > > quite a few Open Source experts on the list! :)
>
> > > > Perhaps we should carve out a space at SourceForge? I don't really
> > > > know how it works, but...
>
> > > > T
>
> > > > > > > > > like:http://www.programmermeetdesign<http://www.programmermeetdesigner.comdoesbut>
> > > > > > er.comdoesbut <http://www.programmermeetdesigner.comdoesbut> with
> ...
>
> read more »
Gregory Heller
I'd like to take the opportunity to point out the difference between
Open Source, and Free Software.
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-software-for-freedom.html
" The fundamental difference between the two movements is in their
values, their ways of looking at the world. For the Open Source
movement, the issue of whether software should be open source is a
practical question, not an ethical one. As one person put it, "Open
source is a development methodology; free software is a social
movement." For the Open Source movement, non-free software is a
suboptimal solution. For the Free Software movement, non-free software
is a social problem and free software is the solution."
I think that Co-working in more aligned with the concept of Free
Software, than simply open source. (as i was typing this, i thought of
the analogy coworking is to day offices and shared office suites what
free software is to open source).
While the co-working concept may be an "open source" concept in that it
is freely traded and improved upon by others, (and you could not really
call something like coworking "free software" people would just look at
you funny), when we start talking about software, I think it behooves us
to use the more accurate terminology.
I am not trying to start any deep philosophical (or worse, religious!)
discussion here about whether or not the CW movement religiously adheres
to the tenets of GNU and the FSF, I just want to make sure that people
know that there is a difference between Open Source software and Free
Software, and use the right term for what they are talking about.
Geoff DiMasi
I'd like to take the opportunity to point out the difference between
Open Source, and Free Software.
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-software-for-freedom.html
" The fundamental difference between the two movements is in their
values, their ways of looking at the world. For the Open Source
movement, the issue of whether software should be open source is a
practical question, not an ethical one. As one person put it, "Open
source is a development methodology; free software is a social
movement." For the Open Source movement, non-free software is a
suboptimal solution. For the Free Software movement, non-free software
is a social problem and free software is the solution."