2011 Coworking Owners Retreat: Direct to DVD and Blue Ray
Alex Hillman
Hello Coworking World!
As promised, we've returned from the weekend in Santa Monica with some tasks and topics for further discussion. Our #1 priority for holding this weekend was to have some focused discussion on what the global coworking community wasn't doing - what the biggest opportunities to work together to further coworking for everyone are.
We're consolidating everybody's notes (and lots of photos as well) because a LOT of amazing information was shared and we want you to have access to as much of that as possible.
In the mean time, want to share an overview of the weekend and some of the results in the form of a call to action!
Here is the "fast-forward" summary of the actionable results of the weekend.
More background on how we got there is included below. The "directors cut" below provides more background and insight. If you have questions, please be sure to read that as well before replying.
1. Coworking's "ad-hoc" community has generated great projects in the past, but we never had a consistent method in place to maintain them. The following is what we've come up to address that:
- help people build a team first, then execute tasks and topics.
- we'll have a group of 'coordinators' (initially, myself Jerome and Jacob), and teams of managers and volunteers. coordinators are a resource to the teams, and teams focus on their topics/projects
2. We came up with a few goals to achieve, and some people have stepped up to work on them already. Some of these topic focuses are awareness, research, group buying/leverage, best practices documentation. This is not all-encompassing, it's just a start.
Additionally, coworking.com leaves room for improvement as a tool to house high-value material that's currently buried in the wiki, google group, etc. This means we need to both determine the [CMS] platform, and migrate that content via the above mentioned teams.
This form will allow you to sign up for a team, either as a volunteer or a manager:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGQxdVhHVzBGQVlGQ2l4aTFOTzdNdlE6MQ
3. While we do not at all plan to incorporate an association at this time, we have recognized the importance of some functional entity just to be able to hold funds, as we now have leftover "community funds" from projects being held by multiple members of the community without any clear path to distribution for services such as hosting coworking.com, etc. A team is heading up the work to determine what options we have and what remaining questions exist before we come back to the group. That working group is researching solutions, not making an autonomous decision.
Directors Cut Weekend Summary
The attendance was diverse, and a lot of the topics raised tense conversations. What we all agreed was that there were common goals that we could work on together even considering our differences of opinion. Apart from dense sharing of our experiences and knowledge, this weekend generated the need for two primary tools:
1) an easy & common organizational structure - not an organization, though - for tactical teams to form and execute coworking related projects.
Many new projects form and quickly die, and others run because of the ongoing effort of contributors. We want to make sure that any time a new coworking project (not a space, but a resource or tool to help the coworking community) is forming, people can do it in a way so that an effort has a chance to survive.
2) an effort to improve our living repository of knowledge at coworking.com and related properties (like the google group, the wiki, the blog)
The biggest underutilized toolset we have is coworking.com, etc, and we want to make it a rallying point for all of the things we have to share. It's a big task, but more then big it's continuous and will never be "finished".
Again, each team needs a manager that will take on the responsibility of being accountable for the team as a whole. Consider this very carefully before taking on this commitment. How the individual teams are organized is left up to that team. We'll work together to learn from and develop a plan for how the teams come together and how everything is presented on the website as information is gathered and shared.
What it's Not
This tactical model lets small teams form that contain leadership and volunteers. That's it. There was a lot of discussion around a "coworking association" or an organization. While this model provides organization, it is not THE organization. It is simply a mechanism for people to get more done, and that benefits everybody who contributes and participates - just like this group always has operated, but with more action & orientation.
We did, however, determine that it would be universally valuable to consolidate the now "leftover" funds from things like the coworking.com fundraiser and even this weekend's event to make that available for topic projects. A team is heading up the work to determine what options we have and what remaining questions exist before we come back to the group. That working group (myself, Jerome, Bill Jacobson, Iris Kavanagh) is researching solutions, not making an autonomous decision.
The First Topics
Some of our initial projects are broken out by "topic" leaders. Each topic group will contain a topic "manager" as well as a team of volunteers. In order for a topic team to form, there needs to be one person who "owns" the topic as well as supporting people to help contribute to working on the topic.
To get started we want to take on a few specific topics and improve the coworking.com website by the Coworking Unconference in Austin during SXSW in March. This isn't all of the teams, or all of the work, nor is it an indication of priority - it's simply what self selected during our discussions! The intention is to learn as much as we can from the formation and execution of these first few teams before we take on more ambitious projects.
There's a lot of ambition in this community, and that's a great problem to have. Baby steps take us closer to our goals!
How You Can Get Involved!
So who's in? We are learning from experience and building the teams before we tackle each project. A few of them have topic managers that have already stepped up and need volunteers. Others need topic managers. And clearly, we haven't thought of everything.
In addition the ongoing teams, we need a technology team to evaluate the system(s) we'll use for publishing and commit to helping us maintain it.
We've got a quick form that can give you an idea of some of the topics that need working on.
SIGN UP HERE if you would like to act as a volunteer or a topic manager, or suggest a new topic team that you'd like to manage or be a part of.
Myself, Jacob, and Jerome are working together as "coordinators" to keep teams moving, assisting in communicating cross teams, helping identify teams that need help, and help managers/volunteers through issues as we learn what works and what doesn't.
More than anything, we're here to help teams achieve their self-determined objectives. This "meta-team" is also volunteers representing ourselves, not our respective spaces, so please understand that we're here to help, not to control.
Onward and upward, coworking friends. We've got a lot of work ahead of us!
SIGN UP HERE to be a part of a topic team, or of course, let us know if you have any questions.
-Alex, Jacob, and Jerome
/ahindyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia
Anne Kirby
On Oct 4, 10:39 am, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Coworking World!
>
> As promised, we've returned from the weekend in Santa Monica with some tasks
> and topics for further discussion. Our #1 priority for holding this weekend
> was to have some focused discussion on what the global coworking community
> wasn't doing - what the biggest opportunities to work together to further
> coworking for everyone are.
>
> We're consolidating everybody's notes (and lots of photos as well) because a
> LOT of amazing information was shared and we want you to have access to as
> much of that as possible.
>
> In the mean time, want to share an overview of the weekend and some of the
> results in the form of a call to action!
>
> weekend.*
>
> *More background on how we got there is included below. The "directors cut"
> 1. Coworking's "ad-hoc" community has generated great projects in the past,
> but we never had a consistent method in place to maintain them. The
> following is what we've come up to address that:
>
> - we'll have a group of 'coordinators' (initially, myself Jerome and
> the teams, and teams focus on their topics/projects
>
> 2. We came up with a few goals to achieve, and some people have stepped up
> to work on them already. Some of these topic focuses are awareness,
> research, group buying/leverage, best practices documentation. This is not
> all-encompassing, it's just a start.
>
> Additionally, coworking.com leaves room for improvement as a tool to house
> high-value material that's currently buried in the wiki, google group, etc.
> This means we need to both determine the [CMS] platform, and migrate that
> content via the above mentioned teams.
>
> This form will allow you to sign up for a team, either as a volunteer or a
>
> 3. While we do *not* at all plan to incorporate an association at this time,
> to hold funds, as we now have leftover "community funds" from projects being
> held by multiple members of the community without any clear path to
> distribution for services such as hosting coworking.com, etc. A team is
> heading up the work to determine what options we have and what remaining
> questions exist before we come back to the group. That working group is
> researching solutions, not making an autonomous decision.
>
> The attendance was diverse, and a lot of the topics raised tense
> conversations. What we all agreed was that there were common goals that we
> could work on together even considering our differences of opinion. Apart
> from dense sharing of our experiences and knowledge, this weekend generated
> the need for two primary tools:
>
> 1) an easy & common organizational structure - not an organization, though -
> for tactical teams to form and execute coworking related projects.
>
> Many new projects form and quickly die, and others run because of the
> ongoing effort of contributors. We want to make sure that any time a new
> coworking project (not a space, but a resource or tool to help the coworking
> community) is forming, people can do it in a way so that an effort has a
> chance to survive.
>
> 2) an effort to improve our living repository of knowledge at coworking.com and
> related properties (like the google group, the wiki, the blog)
>
> The biggest underutilized toolset we have is coworking.com, etc, and we want
> to make it a rallying point for all of the things we have to share. It's a
> Again, each team needs a manager that will take on the responsibility of
> being accountable for the team as a whole. Consider this very carefully
> before taking on this commitment. How the individual teams are organized is
> left up to that team. We'll work together to learn from and develop a plan
> for how the teams come together and how everything is presented on the
> website as information is gathered and shared.
>
> This tactical model lets small teams form that contain leadership and
> volunteers. That's it. There was a lot of discussion around a "coworking
> association" or an organization. While this model provides organization, it
> is not THE organization. It is simply a mechanism for people to get more
> done, and that benefits everybody who contributes and participates - just
> like this group always has operated, but with more action & orientation.
>
> We did, however, determine that it would be universally valuable to
> consolidate the now "leftover" funds from things like the
> projects. A team is heading up the work to determine what options we have
> and what remaining questions exist before we come back to the group. That
> working group (myself, Jerome, Bill Jacobson, Iris Kavanagh) is researching
> solutions, not making an autonomous decision.
>
> Some of our initial projects are broken out by "topic" leaders. Each topic
> group will contain a topic "manager" as well as a team of volunteers. In
> order for a topic team to form, there needs to be one person who "owns" the
> topic as well as supporting people to help contribute to working on the
> topic.
>
> To get started we want to take on a few specific topics and improve the
> coworking.com website by the Coworking Unconference in Austin during SXSW in
> March. This isn't all of the teams, or all of the work, nor is it an
> indication of priority - it's simply what self selected during our
> discussions! The intention is to learn as much as we can from the formation
> and execution of these first few teams before we take on more ambitious
> projects.
>
> There's a lot of ambition in this community, and that's a great problem to
> have. Baby steps take us closer to our goals!
>
> So who's in? We are learning from experience and building the teams before
> we tackle each project. A few of them have topic managers that have already
> stepped up and need volunteers. Others need topic managers. And clearly, we
> haven't thought of everything.
>
> In addition the ongoing teams, we need a technology team to evaluate the
> system(s) we'll use for publishing and commit to helping us maintain it.
>
> We've got a quick form that can give you an idea of some of the topics that
> need working on.
>
> you would like to act as a volunteer or a topic manager, or suggest a new
> topic team that you'd like to manage or be a part of.
>
> Myself, Jacob, and Jerome are working together as "coordinators" to keep
> teams moving, assisting in communicating cross teams, helping identify teams
> that need help, and help managers/volunteers through issues as we learn what
> works and what doesn't.
>
> More than anything, we're here to help teams achieve their self-determined
> objectives. This "meta-team" is also volunteers representing ourselves, not
> our respective spaces, so please understand that we're here to help, not to
> control.
>
> Onward and upward, coworking friends. We've got a lot of work ahead of us!
>
Susan Evans
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Josh
Jeannine
Jeannine
On Oct 4, 4:39 pm, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Coworking World!
>
> As promised, we've returned from the weekend in Santa Monica with some tasks
> and topics for further discussion. Our #1 priority for holding this weekend
> was to have some focused discussion on what the global coworking community
> wasn't doing - what the biggest opportunities to work together to further
> coworking for everyone are.
>
> We're consolidating everybody's notes (and lots of photos as well) because a
> LOT of amazing information was shared and we want you to have access to as
> much of that as possible.
>
> In the mean time, want to share an overview of the weekend and some of the
> results in the form of a call to action!
>
> weekend.*
>
> *More background on how we got there is included below. The "directors cut"
> 1. Coworking's "ad-hoc" community has generated great projects in the past,
> but we never had a consistent method in place to maintain them. The
> following is what we've come up to address that:
>
> - we'll have a group of 'coordinators' (initially, myself Jerome and
> the teams, and teams focus on their topics/projects
>
> 2. We came up with a few goals to achieve, and some people have stepped up
> to work on them already. Some of these topic focuses are awareness,
> research, group buying/leverage, best practices documentation. This is not
> all-encompassing, it's just a start.
>
> Additionally, coworking.com leaves room for improvement as a tool to house
> high-value material that's currently buried in the wiki, google group, etc.
> This means we need to both determine the [CMS] platform, and migrate that
> content via the above mentioned teams.
>
> This form will allow you to sign up for a team, either as a volunteer or a
>
> 3. While we do *not* at all plan to incorporate an association at this time,
> to hold funds, as we now have leftover "community funds" from projects being
> held by multiple members of the community without any clear path to
> distribution for services such as hosting coworking.com, etc. A team is
> heading up the work to determine what options we have and what remaining
> questions exist before we come back to the group. That working group is
> researching solutions, not making an autonomous decision.
>
> The attendance was diverse, and a lot of the topics raised tense
> conversations. What we all agreed was that there were common goals that we
> could work on together even considering our differences of opinion. Apart
> from dense sharing of our experiences and knowledge, this weekend generated
> the need for two primary tools:
>
> 1) an easy & common organizational structure - not an organization, though -
> for tactical teams to form and execute coworking related projects.
>
> Many new projects form and quickly die, and others run because of the
> ongoing effort of contributors. We want to make sure that any time a new
> coworking project (not a space, but a resource or tool to help the coworking
> community) is forming, people can do it in a way so that an effort has a
> chance to survive.
>
> 2) an effort to improve our living repository of knowledge at coworking.com and
> related properties (like the google group, the wiki, the blog)
>
> The biggest underutilized toolset we have is coworking.com, etc, and we want
> to make it a rallying point for all of the things we have to share. It's a
> Again, each team needs a manager that will take on the responsibility of
> being accountable for the team as a whole. Consider this very carefully
> before taking on this commitment. How the individual teams are organized is
> left up to that team. We'll work together to learn from and develop a plan
> for how the teams come together and how everything is presented on the
> website as information is gathered and shared.
>
> This tactical model lets small teams form that contain leadership and
> volunteers. That's it. There was a lot of discussion around a "coworking
> association" or an organization. While this model provides organization, it
> is not THE organization. It is simply a mechanism for people to get more
> done, and that benefits everybody who contributes and participates - just
> like this group always has operated, but with more action & orientation.
>
> We did, however, determine that it would be universally valuable to
> consolidate the now "leftover" funds from things like the
> projects. A team is heading up the work to determine what options we have
> and what remaining questions exist before we come back to the group. That
> working group (myself, Jerome, Bill Jacobson, Iris Kavanagh) is researching
> solutions, not making an autonomous decision.
>
> Some of our initial projects are broken out by "topic" leaders. Each topic
> group will contain a topic "manager" as well as a team of volunteers. In
> order for a topic team to form, there needs to be one person who "owns" the
> topic as well as supporting people to help contribute to working on the
> topic.
>
> To get started we want to take on a few specific topics and improve the
> coworking.com website by the Coworking Unconference in Austin during SXSW in
> March. This isn't all of the teams, or all of the work, nor is it an
> indication of priority - it's simply what self selected during our
> discussions! The intention is to learn as much as we can from the formation
> and execution of these first few teams before we take on more ambitious
> projects.
>
> There's a lot of ambition in this community, and that's a great problem to
> have. Baby steps take us closer to our goals!
>
>
> we tackle each project. A few of them have topic managers that have already
> stepped up and need volunteers. Others need topic managers. And clearly, we
> haven't thought of everything.
>
> In addition the ongoing teams, we need a technology team to evaluate the
> system(s) we'll use for publishing and commit to helping us maintain it.
>
> We've got a quick form that can give you an idea of some of the topics that
> need working on.
>
> you would like to act as a volunteer or a topic manager, or suggest a new
> topic team that you'd like to manage or be a part of.
>
> Myself, Jacob, and Jerome are working together as "coordinators" to keep
> teams moving, assisting in communicating cross teams, helping identify teams
> that need help, and help managers/volunteers through issues as we learn what
> works and what doesn't.
>
> More than anything, we're here to help teams achieve their self-determined
> objectives. This "meta-team" is also volunteers representing ourselves, not
> our respective spaces, so please understand that we're here to help, not to
> control.
>
> Onward and upward, coworking friends. We've got a lot of work ahead of us!
>
Will Bennis
This post is a follow up to the post from Alex, Jerome, and Jacob
about the coworking owners retreat in Santa Monica at the end of Sept./
beginning of October calling for volunteers to help improve
coworking.com (http://bit.ly/neWCar; and appended to the end of this
email).
I am managing the "Research" task, and I wanted to tell people more
about it so you have some idea whether you want to volunteer to help
with research (if you haven't already volunteered).
This is just a basic outline. Please email me for the longer version
if you are or might be interested in helping out. And PLEASE FORWARD
THIS EMAIL TO YOUR COWORKING-SPACE MEMBERS to give them the
opportunity to get involved, since it’s really important we have their
input/help with designing the research (and since many space members
are top-quality researchers in their own right, and some are already
involved in studying coworking)!
The purpose of the "Research" is to collect, analyze, organize, and
disseminate high-quality scientific data about coworking and its
relationship to work psychology and human behavior (motivation,
performance, and subjective well-being). The reasons for doing this
are manifold, but include (a) more accurate and compelling
communication with the public and the media about the value of
coworking; (b) teach/educate coworking-space owners and designers
about best practices in coworking-space design with respect to its
contribution to human/social capital; (c) contribute to the body of
scientific knowledge to our understanding of workplace design and
human performance and well-being.
For the research to be top quality, we need several kinds of
volunteers, from experienced researchers, to coworking space owners
who want to have a hand in deciding what kinds of questions are asked
and answered, to coworking space members who provide unique insight
into the value of coworking and what we need to know more about.
SPECIFICALLY, we'll need people to (a) be part of a coworking space
ETHICS COMMITTEE, (b) help in top-level design of the research
projects, c) provisionally volunteer their coworking spaces as
potential research sites, including helping to recruit participants
from their coworking membership and helping to provide incentives to
participants such as discounts on membership (depending of course on
the level of participation). We especially need volunteers from non-
English speaking countries to help make this research as
international / cross-cultural as possible.
There are seven parts to the longer version of this email, in case
that helps you decide whether you want the longer version: (1) The
purpose of the research; (2) The scope of the research, (3) Initial
and potential future research projects, (4) Development of a coworking
community research ETHICS committee, that is, an "Internal Review
Board" (IRB), (5) What do you get out of helping? (6) Getting
involved: who and how (including for the ethics committee), and (7) My
own research related background.
Let me know (wmbe...@locusworkspace.com) if you’d like the know more
and I’ll send you a more detailed version of this email, including
details on how to volunteer! If you've already volunteered, I'll soon
send that longer email to you. Looking forward to the collaboration!
Best,
Will
--
Will Bennis
Locus Workspace
Krakovská 22, 110 00 Praha 1
http://www.locusworkspace.com
Tel: +420 223 017 593
Mob: +420 604 776 440
Twitter: @locusworkspace
Facebook: facebook.com/locusworkspace
Blog: blog.locusworkspace.com
> On Oct 4, 4:39 pm,AlexHillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hello Coworking World!
>
> > As promised, we've returned from the weekend in Santa Monica with some tasks
> > and topics for further discussion. Our #1 priority for holding this weekend
> > was to have some focused discussion on what the global coworking community
> > wasn't doing - what the biggest opportunities to work together to further
> > coworking for everyone are.
>
> > We're consolidating everybody's notes (and lots of photos as well) because a
> > LOT of amazing information was shared and we want you to have access to as
> > much of that as possible.
>
> > In the mean time, want to share an overview of the weekend and some of the
> > results in the form of a call to action!
>
> > *Here is the "fast-forward" summary of the actionable results of the
> > weekend.*
>
> > *More background on how we got there is included below. The "directors cut"
> > below provides more background and insight. If you have questions, please be
> > sure to read that as well before replying.*
>
> > 1. Coworking's "ad-hoc" community has generated great projects in the past,
> > but we never had a consistent method in place to maintain them. The
> > following is what we've come up to address that:
>
> > - help people build a team first, then execute tasks and topics.
> > - we'll have a group of 'coordinators' (initially, myselfJeromeand
>
> > *The First Topics*
>
> > Some of our initial projects are broken out by "topic" leaders. Each topic
> > topic as well as supporting people to help contribute to working on the
> > topic.
>
> > To get started we want to take on a few specific topics and improve the
> > coworking.com website by the Coworking Unconference in Austin during SXSW in
> > March. This isn't all of the teams, or all of the work, nor is it an
> > indication of priority - it's simply what self selected during our
> > discussions! The intention is to learn as much as we can from the formation
> > and execution of these first few teams before we take on more ambitious
> > projects.
>
> > There's a lot of ambition in this community, and that's a great problem to
> > have. Baby steps take us closer to our goals!
>
> > *How You Can Get Involved!*
>
> > So who's in? We are learning from experience and building the teams before
> > we tackle each project. A few of them have topic managers that have already
>
> > In addition the ongoing teams, we need a technology team to evaluate the
> > system(s) we'll use for publishing and commit to helping us maintain it.
>
> > We've got a quick form that can give you an idea of some of the topics that
> > need working on.
>
> > SIGN UP HERE<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGQxdVhHVzBGQVlG...>
> > if
> > you would like to act as a volunteer or a topic manager, or suggest a new
> > topic team that you'd like to manage or be a part of.
>
>
> > More than anything, we're here to help teams achieve their self-determined
Jacob Sayles
Jacob
---
Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation
http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500
--