Free coworking stresses the importance of community building and social capital
Felix Schürholz
Already one of the great fruits of the widespread discussion on free coworking is the acknowledgement that paid coworking has lost its bearings in many instances. Alex Hillman on his blog dangerouslyawesome puts it like this: “MANY paid coworking spaces aren’t differentiating themselves from business centers and aren’t keeping in line with the coworking core values. Social capital is often missing from the exchange between the provider and the member.” I fully agree with Alex!!!
To address these aspects free coworking stresses the importance of shared/common projects of the coworkers, social capital and community building. In this article I like look particularly at the last two namely community building and social capital.
Up to now community building in coworking spaces has largely if not exclusively been the task of the coworking space operator or manager. This is and was fine in a time where coworking was just starting up and developing. In Germany for example in 2009, when coworking started to spread across the country, many coworking operators felt as if they had “invented coworking” themselves. While this was always said with a smile, there was some real truth in it. In those days and in many instances today coworking space operators were and are still pioneers. It was normal that they would take care and focus on community building in their individual spaces.
But times have changed and things have developed a great deal. With several hundred coworking spaces worldwide now, there is a huge knowledge base now that every new operator can draw upon. On top of that there is now a wonderful physical network of spaces worldwide that did not exist before. Now coworkers can travel through the world and they will find a coworking space in nearly every major city of the world. With this network in place I believe there should also be a shift in terms of community building in coworking.
Now the coworkers themselves should become more active in community building. This community building can take various forms. One aspect can be in carrying out various jobs within the space itself as is done in the free coworking model of Gangplank. One task or role here is called “the anchor” (see video in article, or press link to video).
Another task of community building should take place on the internet. It is very easy, there are manyfacebook groups on coworking or meetup groups already. But the focus of these groups is largely local and limited by the functions that facebook or meetup offers. For free coworking to develop we need aninfrastructure that is owned and developed by the coworkers themselves. Fortunately we have already started a tool which we like to develop with everybody who feels that coworkers themselves should be more active in community building. The tool is the “Free Coworking Skill Sharing“. With its latest development we particularly focussed on team building, which we believe is essential for the spread of free coworking.
Coworkers, get involved!!! Now is the time that coworkers themselves should take more responsibility for their communities. In the great wikipedia article on community building, Lew Feldstein is quoted as follows:”We must learn to view the world through a social capital lens” … “We need to look at front porches as crime fighting tools, treat picnics as public health efforts and see choral groups as occasions of democracy…”. I like to add:”We should see coworking spaces as places for vital social exchanges and a base for a new sustainable economy.”
For more information on free coworking, please refer to our resource page.
Randall G. Arnold
At least Alex used the word "MANY" in his article instead of "most" (used earlier in the dialog); I suspect the latter to be hyperbolic.
And not to axle-wrap over mere semantics, but I do wonder how many is "MANY". I think that's actually important to the discussion, because I have to wonder what the NORM is.
I also suspect that part of the distinction problem stems from those getting into this space without first understanding how and why they should separate their offerings from traditional establishments, as well as thinking through the pitfalls before opening up a coworking operation.
But as was raised earlier, this isn't a black and white subject; coworking lives along a gradient of communal/corporate philosophy. There's room for all flavors, BUT operators do need to define their offerings clearly to customers IMO.
Here is where my old military nomenclature experience rears its ugly head and wonders if qualifiers might help clear the confusion. "Corporate Coworking" vs "Community Coworking", et al. Maybe my subconsious is reflexively overthinking it though.
Anyway, it's also possible this is much ado about, ultimately, nothing. Still, the discussion has been (mostly) good, clean fun. :D
Randy
On April 10, 2012 at 4:41 PM "Felix Schürholz" <cale...@coworking-news.de> wrote:
> link to article with video: http://bit.ly/HsRlKH
>
> Already one of the great fruits of the widespread discussion on free
> coworking is the acknowledgement that paid coworking has lost its bearings
> from business centers and aren’t keeping in line with the coworking core
> values. Social capital is often missing from the exchange between the
> provider and the member.” I fully agree with Alex!!!
>
> To address these aspects free coworking stresses the importance of
> shared/common projects of the coworkers, social capital and community
> building. In this article I like look particularly at the last two namely
> community building and social capital.
>
> Up to now community building in coworking spaces has largely if not
> exclusively been the task of the coworking space operator or manager. This
> is and was fine in a time where coworking was just starting up and
> developing. In Germany for example in 2009, when coworking started to
> spread across the country, many coworking operators felt as if they had “invented
> truth in it. In those days and in many instances today coworking space
> operators were and are still pioneers. It was normal that they would take
> care and focus on community building in their individual spaces.
>
> But times have changed and things have developed a great deal. With several
> hundred coworking spaces worldwide now, there is a huge knowledge base now
> that every new operator can draw upon. On top of that there is now a
> wonderful physical network of spaces worldwide that did not exist before.
> Now coworkers can travel through the world and they will find a coworking
> space in nearly every major city of the world. With this network in place I
> believe there should also be a shift in terms of community building in
> coworking.
>
> Now the coworkers themselves should become more active in community
> building. This community building can take various forms. One aspect can be
> in carrying out various jobs within the space itself as is done in the free
> One task or role here is called “the anchor<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEBy7idILDY&feature=player_embedded>”
>
> Another task of community building should take place on the internet. It is
> or meetup groups <http://coworking.meetup.com/all/> already. But the focus
> or meetup offers. For free coworking to develop we need aninfrastructure
> everybody who feels that coworkers themselves should be more active in
> With its latest development we particularly focussed on team building<http://www.coworking-news.de/2012/03/team-building-by-skill-sharing-identify-your-key-style-of-thinking-in-a-team/>,
>
> Coworkers, get involved!!! Now is the time that coworkers themselves should
> take more responsibility for their communities. In the great wikipedia
> a social capital lens” … “We need to look at front porches as crime
> fighting tools, treat picnics as public health efforts and see choral
> groups as occasions of democracy…”. I like to add:”We should see coworking
> spaces as places for vital social exchanges and a base for a new
> sustainable economy.”
>
> .
>
>
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Alex Hillman
Randall G. Arnold
Thanks Alex, and agreed on every point with one tiny caveat: mainstream media is going to always lean toward oversimplifying. So that will mean a continual struggle for coworking advocates to keep the message clean. We just need to do our parts to be clear and especially concise in everything we do, especially in interviews, press releases, etc.
To that end, as I've noted before I recently started a digital magazine, http://post404.com , geared toward community and collaboration. Coworking will be a big part of our coverage. We will definitely do our part to help the signal-to-noise ratio. We welcome any and all contributions and in fact are hoping to add some full and occasional volunteer writers. If you ever need a podium, we'll be glad o provide it! That includes republishing original articles, in either direction.
Randy
Editor-in-Chief, post404
@texrat & @post404_Mag on twitter
On April 10, 2012 at 6:17 PM Alex Hillman <dangerous...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for recognizing the change from most to many. That was intentional.
>
> As far as norms, I think the point (and perhaps the problem) is that they are changing. As more players enter the fray, and as the intentions and models diversify, the norms change and diversify as well.
>
> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+...@googlegroups.com (mailto:coworking+...@googlegroups.com).
> > >
> >
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Alex Hillman
Jerome Chang
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