Christian Science Monitor on Coworking

[sk...@emergentresearch.com]

At: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0303/p13s03-wmgn.html

Steve

[Tara Hunt]

Talk about historical revision! Still...any article promoting the movement is good.

Tara

On Sun, Mar 2, 2008 at 1:29 PM, sk...@emergentresearch.com <sk...@emergentresearch.com> wrote:

At:  http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0303/p13s03-wmgn.html

Steve

--
tara 'miss rogue' hunt
coFounder
Citizen Agency (www.citizenagency.com)
blog: www.horsepigcow.com
phone: 415-694-1951
fax: 415-727-5335

[Chris Messina]

> 'Every morning, Mr. Neuberg set up tables and waited for coworkers.
>
> '"For the first two months, no one showed up," he says, laughing at his
> initial hubris. "But people started trickling in and the word spread." Soon
> enough, he had started a movement.'

Heh.

Well, that's not how it happened, but it's nice prose. ;)

Chris

--
Chris Messina
Citizen-Participant &
Open Source Advocate-at-Large
Work: http://citizenagency.com
Blog: http://factoryjoe.com/blog
Cell: 412.225.1051
IM: factoryjoe
This email is: [ ] bloggable [X] ask first [ ] private

[Geoff DiMasi]

How did it happen?

I probably should know that.

Geoff

[Tara Hunt]

There have been many good stories on coworking in many newspapers across the US, the best one is probably coming out soon.

The story we've told a zillion reporters:

Chris blogged about the need for civic spaces back in early 2005? Chris will have the reference to that...then he met Brad N who was doing the one day a week coworking thing at Spiral Muse. The two of them talked. Brad, of course, wanted to see coworking grow, but he was having a tough time getting it off the ground. Chris asked if it was okay to take it and run with it and Brad said, "Of course!"

Chris first started helping promote Coworking at spiral muse by throwing a Mashpit there. It was successful, but Chris wanted something bigger. So, we posted an event on Upcoming for a coworking meetup and a whole bunch of people showed up! Ryanne and Jay were all over it and we started hunting for a space, all the time, posting photos, progress, budgets, blog posts, etc. Brad was really busy at the time, so he actually wasn't involved in the search, but he did join us as an anchor at The Hat Factory.

Chris and I made the deal at The Hat Factory with Schlomo and we ran that as a collective. Didn't work too well and we decided to open Citizen Space, once again, using an open process. We were also communicating with many others interested in opening their spaces at the time, traveling in some cases to meet with them. We would go to BarCamps around the world and talk about how we were setting up our space.

When we opened CS, we asked the HF peeps if we could make the coworking google group (this one) more public. There was a bit of a rouse, but it all ended fine and they started their own separate list. It really started to grow from there and soon, we were taking phonecalls and directing people to this list almost weekly. We wanted to encourage everyone to develop openly.

Now Alex Hillman, one of the people we helped early on, has taken a huge leadership role as has Patrick Tanquay as has Jacob Sayles as has many great people from other spaces. It's no longer a 'Tara and Chris' project, really. It belongs to anyone, but the growth wasn't accidental. It was very much deliberate and driven by our passion for spreading it.

The article makes it sound like there was none of that.

Tara

[Alex Hillman]

Tony B (or someone),
Could you please publish this in the "best of" section of the google group/wiki? Maybe on the blog, too? I think having clarity of this story as more and more people are looking at this an researching it would be beneficial.

Mostly related, I was SO happy to have Brad a the coworking session that I led at Barcamp Miami this weekend. I got some really great response all weekend long and the Miami scene is looking like it's going to really explode very soon. I like interacting with communities when cool things happen that feel "familiar".

-Alex, IndyHall, Philadelphia

--
-----
--
-----
Alex Hillman
web.developer.innovation.consultant
vocal: 484.597.6256
digital: al...@weknowhtml.com | skype: dangerouslyawesome
visual: www.weknowhtml.com | www.dangerouslyawesome.com
local: www.indyhall.org

[Ray Baxter]

Small correction: Coworking at Spiral Muse was two days a week. Monday and Tuesday.

Ray

[Tony Bacigalupo]

Alex,

Oh, I created an linked a page in the other thread-- check it out here: https://coworking.pbwiki.com/Useful-Posts-and-Messages

Feel free to rework as you see fit. The posts you have starred should be a solid start.

If one of you would like to add references to this page or otherwise to the Google Group main page or to the blog once it's populated a bit, feel free to do so. I don't have those sorts of admin skills.

Tony Bacigalupo
CoworkingNY / CooperBricolage / Jelly NYC

[Raines Cohen]

I dunno, accuracy may be overrated. ;-) It's worth it to be able to see phrases like "laughing at his initial hubris". Powerful imagery. Brad, maybe we could record a video of you laughing at your initial hubris? I think it would make the charts at YouTube, and be a strange insider-reference promo for the movement.

So what else is wrong with the article, besides singularizing Office Nomads? (and what Tara/Chris said)

There's the emphasis in the YourStreet CEO quote, implying that coworking is implicitly temporary, always followed by graduation to a real office. Although this may be the path for some (any documented examples yet?), I'd find it hard to imagine giving up the benefits of coworking as a business grows; I'd expect that some coworkers would rather create new spaces with larger capacities or different mixes if they outgrow existing spaces.

The Dublin reference could be read to imply that the place there is the main location internationally, but I think it's mostly resolved by context by the end of the paragraph.

Interesting that it mentions that there are several websites for coworking, but only lists coworking.ie; sometimes this is a sign that there's a sidebar in the print edition that didn't translate to the web version of the article.

While the website doesn't allow comments, there is a convenient "Letter to the Editor" button up top that can make it easy to set the record straight, in print and online; it seems like some of the principals here would be in a good position to do so.

Raines, Coworking Coach
L: near Washington, DC for another 24 hours after eDemocracyCamp

P.S. I liked the phrase "laptop bedouins" so much that I registered laptopbedouins.com. I'll redirect it to coworking.info pending better ideas for a site/project. And "regular denizens" has potential, too...

P.P.S. This article seems like a good one to add to the WIkipedia article on coworking at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/coworking

[Brad Neuberg]

I need to practice my initial hubris laugh. I've got the evil cackle down though.

Sent from my cell phone

[Brad Neuberg]

Hi Ray! Long time no chat. Ray was the first person to join the first coworking space in San Francisco. How are you?

Sent from my cell phone

[Brad Neuberg]

Hi Chris; the spiral muse space did have two months where no one
showed up and I had to hold the space myself. How is that historical
revisionism?

Sent from my cell phone

[Brad Neuberg]

I find that mainstream newspapers don't like urls in general - editors seem to constantly mangle them, and they don't print them in places you'd expect and want them. Maybe this will change as new journalists come out of college.

Sent from my cell phone

On Mar 3, 2008, at 5:35 AM, "Raines Cohen" <rai...@gmail.com> wrote:

[sk...@emergentresearch.com]

My view is if an article is positive and more than 50% correct, I am
very happy.

Also, myths often play a big role in spreading the news. For example,
the myth that Pierre Omidyar started eBay to help his girl friend buy
and sell Pez dispensers was very powerful for them. eBay even has a
Pez dispenser display in their lobby.

The image of Brad setting up tables and waiting for people to show up
is a good one. Sort of a "Maytag repairman" image. I also like the
hubris laugh line.

Steve

On Mar 3, 8:30 am, Brad Neuberg <bradneub...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I need to practice my initial hubris laugh. I've got the evil cackle  
> down though.
>
> Sent from my cell phone
>

> > On Sun, Mar 2, 2008 at 4:40 PM, Tara Hunt <horsepig...@gmail.com>  

> > wrote:
> > Talk about historical revision! Still...any article promoting the  
> > movement is good.
>
> > Tara
>
> > On Sun, Mar 2, 2008 at 1:29 PM, sk...@emergentresearch.com <sk...@emergentresearch.com
> > > wrote:
>
> > At:  http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0303/p13s03-wmgn.html
>
> > Steve
>
> > --
> > tara 'miss rogue' hunt
> > coFounder
> > Citizen Agency (www.citizenagency.com)
> > blog:www.horsepigcow.com

> > phone:              415...       
> > fax: 415-727-5335- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Alex de Carvalho]

Alex, thanks for the great presentation on coworking you gave at
BarCampMiami, it really helps our community. We had just started
talking about coworking on the RefreshMiami list and the learning and
tips you shared will guide our efforts.

-Alex
Scrapblog.com / BarCampMiami / @alexdc
(cross-posted to RefreshMiami group)

[Bryce]

On Mar 3, 12:20 pm, "Alex de Carvalho" <adecarva...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Alex, thanks for the great presentation on coworking you gave at
> BarCampMiami, it really helps our community. We had just started
> talking about coworking on the RefreshMiami list and the learning and
> tips you shared will guide our efforts.

Alex(es) -- I'll be in Miami (w/a free day to spare, even!) in April
and would love to spend a half-day in any available spaces down there.
I checked the wiki but don't see anything active in Miami.. Do you
have a space yet, or still in early planning?

- bryce

[Alex de Carvalho]

Hi Bryce,

Miami still doesn't have a coworking location yet, everything's still in early planning stages. What days will you be here? Please send me an email directly to spare the group. :)

-Alex

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: Bryce <bryce...@gmail.com>

Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 09:59:25
To:Coworking <cowo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Coworking] Re: Christian Science Monitor on Coworking

[Todd Sundsted]

Regarding "graduation", the future of companies that start in
coworking spaces, etc. I think this is where the story gets
interesting. Because at the same time that you have small companies
in coworking spaces growing you have large companies investing in
telecommuting and those telecommuters showing up in coworking spaces
and at jellies. What happens when a company that anchors a coworking
space needs to grow? Does it slowly (via attrition or other means)
take over the desks of coworkers? Does it move (company and
coworkers) to a new, larger space? Does it split and put its own
people in other coworking spaces around town? What happens when a
company in a coworking space grows larger than 5, 10, 20, 50 people?
What's the size of the largest company involved 100% in coworking
right now (meaning, most or all of the employees are in coworking
spaces)? I have no idea, but someone please tell me. Round3Media is
3. Conjunctured is 5. Is anyone bigger than 5? I'm not implying
that size is the name of the game, but some groups are going to want
to grow. How big can you get and still maintain the core values
implicit in coworking? How big can a single coworking space become?
How big can a single company in a coworking space become?

We're at the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg. I can't wait
to see how this unfolds.

Todd

P.S. Some small introduction is in order. I woke up one day and found
out that I was "coworking". I have a small healthcare startup that
shares office space with a larger software development services
company. We'd all been working at home or from coffee shops for the
last 16+ months and wanted to work alongside peers for reasons you all
already understand. Last September we got a space and moved in
together. Drew Jones came along and pointed out that we were, in
fact, doing something called "coworking". A name is a powerful
thing...

--
Todd Sundsted
http://NotAnMBA.com/
http://twitter.com/NotAnMBA
ban...@NotAnMBA.com

[Brad Neuberg]

I know this thread is a bit old, but I'd like to give how I experienced the start of coworking and why I feel its fair to be credited with creating the term and starting coworking. Coworking would not exist without the amazing work of Chris, Tara, and others, but its important that I'm credited with starting coworking. As I told Chris about a year after coworking, its important that I receive credit not for ego reasons but because as an inventor successful inventions help legitimize me and have people take me more seriously with the next strange idea I might have. I also acknowledge that there have been spaces and movements before coworking that are very similar to it; coworking as an organized idea however is new.

Here's how I view things:

In 2004 I was working for a startup company that I was unhappy at, named Rojo. I had worked for myself before Rojo and enjoyed the freedom and independence, but found it hard not to have structure or community. At Rojo I enjoyed the community and the structure, but wanted more freedom and independence. I couldn't figure out what to do, so got a life/career coach (Audrey Seymour) to help me plan things and figure out what my next step would be career wise. I worked with her for a few months coming up with various ideas. One of the ones I created was coworking; why couldn't I have both freedom and independence as well as structure and community?

I quit Rojo in June 2005. I had some tricky requirements for coworking; I didn't want it to be a business or take up all my time, since it was a means to an end rather than my main goal. My main goal was to do invention-engineering, especially in open source. I had to find a space that was affordable enough and didn't require a capital investment. A women's collective named Spiral Muse said I could use the space for 2 days a week for a cheap price. The one caveat was that I had to set everything up every day and then break it down myself.

For the first two months no one showed up. I would go and set up folding card tables, the networking equipment, everything and then break it down at the end of the day. I advertised on Craigslist, went to coffee shops, etc. I showed up though to hold the space and keep it going.

After awhile people started trickling in. The first dedicated coworker was Ray Baxter, a computer entrepreneur who was building software and a web site using Ruby on Rails. Others starting joining, such as a computer science researcher and someone working on a film script. I eventually reached the spaces capacity, which was five.

Something else happened, though. Lots of folks started showing up who were interested in the idea of coworking but weren't in a place to join the coworking space I had set up. This included Chris, Tara, and many of the folks who ended up creating the Hat Factory. I always wanted coworking to be larger than one space, but was just one person. When people came I would tell them: "If you were to steal this idea and make it your own, what would you do?" They would go "huh" and nod. I was giving people permission to steal and remix the idea, taking ownership and taking it in their own direction.

After about eight months I ended up closing the San Francisco coworking space because it was taking up too much of my time, and I needed to focus on my consulting. Whats cool, though, is about a month later many of the people I had talked with who visited the earlier space were planning a new space, named the Hat Factory. I ended up joining the Hat Factory as a member.

I want to acknowledge: coworking would simply not exist without the evangelizing that Chris and Tara did, plus their work with the Wiki, blog and events. Coworking would also not have existed without the initial work I did. In much of the work I do I get out the 1.0 and 1.5, doing the initial work to get beyond a basic prototype and prove that some weird idea has merit and can work. Its important to me that I get credit on coworking so the next time I approach people with some strange idea they don't immediately discount me (which happened with coworking at the beginning, BTW -- people thought it was silly or dumb).

Best,
  Brad

[noel hidalgo]

brad,

thanks for taking the time to write all of this up...

i know from personal experience that some early members are no longer
participate due to political, social, or ideological snubbing. too
boot, i know five new yorkers who feel snubbed by the miss
interpretation of west coast evangelism, but that's not the point of
this email.

yes, we can all cry about how people interpret the past. personally, i
know this global community is smarter than that...

i also know the highways of rome were built on blood, sweat and tears
of people who thought they were helping the common good. in due time,
i do hope that we ALL can realize that there doesn't need to be
ownership. (this is a starfish right?) it is also wonderful to see
that a few people are starting to understand the difference between a
global movement vs. a controlled network. (ah, how i'm remembering
some of those early email threads...)

for the past 13 months, it's been refreshing to travel the world and
meet fellow coworkers with the support from fellow coworkers. sadly,
there came a point where i discovered the true meaning of support and
you proved your worth in gold. on the other hand, there where some in
SF who got caught up in their own politics to entertain the idea of
global ownership of all the ideas that are summ'd up in one little
word - Coworking.

brad, thank you for 1.0 - 1.2 - 1.5 and 1.6a...

for everyone else on this list, please know there is an unwritten
political history of coworking... if we can survive the early battles,
i know we can survive anything in the future... now is the time to
embolden ourselves with the idea we are creating the future...

with all the love in the world,
noneck

btw, after my participation on this list... take home this one little
rule of thumb... BLOG IT! apparently we are now living in a world
where if someone didn't blog, vlog, photoblog a session of some sort-
it didn't happen.

[Raines Cohen]

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 1:21 AM, noel hidalgo <no...@noneck.org> wrote:

 too
boot, i know five new yorkers who feel snubbed by the miss
interpretation of west coast evangelism, but that's not the point of
this email.

I'd love to hear and understand more about this so we can bridge the cultural chasms as we build this global movement. It's well worth understanding how much coworking is a reflection of local micro-economic conditions in the office-space rental market and the mix of worker types vs. deeper patterns that emerge.

btw, after my participation on this list... take home this one little
rule of thumb... BLOG IT! apparently we are now living in a world
where if someone didn't blog, vlog, photoblog a session of some sort-
it didn't happen.

Thanks for bringing this up, Noel.

This is a personal pet peeve of mine: the blogocentric/open-source community view of the universe tends to discount pre-internet and non-blogged lives, work, content, and relationships. There's a constant pressure (some of it good) to join the club and become hyperpublic and super-sharing. While this same force is part of what makes possible the collaboration and movement-building, both in a coworking community and networking between communities, and leverages our connections to foster future growth, it is worth, IMNSHO, taking the time to appreciate the costs and trade-offs involved, and perhaps stepping back to a long-term, whole-life, big-picture perspective.

Raines Cohen, Coworking Coach

[myas...@gmail.com]

San Francisco locations are seeking co-working memberships sales director.

[Ray Baxter]

noel hidalgo wrote:
> btw, after my participation on this list... take home this one little
> rule of thumb... BLOG IT! apparently we are now living in a world
> where if someone didn't blog, vlog, photoblog a session of some sort-
> it didn't happen.
>

I'm not sure what the political struggles were in the later early days
of coworking as I was only an observer on this list once coworking left
Spiral Muse, and I agree with Raines that unblogged events do happen,
but in any case the early days of coworking were quite well blogged.

Here's Brad's bio for August 9, 2005, mentioning coworking:
http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005_08_09_archive.html

Here's another blogger noticing what Brad is doing on August 10th:
http://yergler.net/blog/2005/08/10/coworking-thats-a-good-word-for-it/

Here's Brad live blogging his sitting alone in the coworking space,
waiting for people to show on August 15, 2005:
http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005/08/morning-ramblings.html

The first major mention of coworking of which I am aware was on August
31, 2005, from Dave Winer's Scripting News:
http://www.scripting.com/2005/08/31.html#When:7:47:45PM

Winer referenced Brad's announcement of the same day:
http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005/08/coworking-event-alternative-office-for.html

I started coworking on September 6, 2005:
http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005_09_06_archive.html

Raines Cohen may have come into coworking through multiple paths, but I
met Raines at a Geek dinner in Berkeley on October 24, 2005 that he,
Brad and I attended:
http://archive.scripting.com/2005/10/24#When:1:20:42PM
Since he was working in cohousing and Brad was working in coworking, I
introduced them (not blogged, but it did happen. I have the e-mail for
October 25th.)

There was a coworking Christmas party on December 14, 2005 at the Lone Palm:
http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005/12/coworking-christmas-bash.html
The guest list was not blogged, but as I remember, it included Chris
Messina, Tara Hunt, Kragen Sitaker, Beatrice Murch, and a handful of
other people I whose names I can't recall.

We had 5 coworkers at Spiral Muse on January 9, 2006:
http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2006_01_09_archive.html

Mashpit came along later. Here is Chris's annoucement of the the January
17, 2006 Mashup Camp at Spiral Muse:
http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2005/12/30/announcing-mashup-camp/

Here's a quote from Chris in that announcement, "I want Brad Neuberg’s
Coworking idea to spread."

Here's Chris' photo of Brad in the Sprial Muse at the first Mashpit on
January 17, 2006:
http://flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/88322807/in/pool-mashpit

The first post on the Coworking wiki was January 25, 2006:
http://coworking.pbwiki.com/FindPage?RevisionsFor=FrontPage

Looking through the oldest pages there, you can see some references to
other places where solo individuals were working in common spaces. As
early as February 10, 2006, there was a reference to the Queen Street
Commons on PEI:
http://coworking.pbwiki.com/InterestedPeopleAndGroups.2006-02-11-00-13-01
and
http://www.queenstreetcommons.org/
As of today, it appears that Queen Street Commons is a coworking space,
I'm not sure what it was at that time.

The first message in this group was a test message from Brad Neuberg on
February 7, 2006:
http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/browse_frm/month/2006-02

Coworking at Spiral Muse continued through the end of March 2006
according to my personal mail archive. Coworking at the Hat Factory
started after May 28,
2006:http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/browse_frm/thread/1805a08749ab1f6/643849277919e6af

So, these events did really happen. None of it implies that other people
weren't thinking the same or similar ideas at the same time, or even
before Brad was, but it is clear that the early participants in
coworking in San Francisco recognized that Brad was the sole originator
of the idea of coworking and the first to actually put people in seats
in a coworking space.

Hope that helps,

Ray

[Gmail User]

I don't think that was ever a question as to who started coworking.
There were many inaccuracies in the CSM as well as other articles
since then.

Can we please drop this discussion? The community doesn't benefit much
from it.

Tara

Sent from my iPhone

[Tony Bacigalupo]

Just a few thoughts, in no obvious order--

1. Dropping the discussion

Can we please drop this discussion? The community doesn't benefit much from it.

I agree that arguing over the past is pretty unproductive, but I do think that it's been helpful to me to get such a comprehensive history of things relating to the Coworking movement that predate my involvement and the involvement of others. Many of us find ourselves telling the history of coworking to others, and while it's to be fully expected that we and the news media will consistently mix up the story and the facts, it is helpful for us to have a fuller picture of how the Coworking movement began so we can retell it as accurately as possible-- even if most of the details are irrelevant.

I don't think much more needs to be said that hasn't already been said, though, so I don't see us needing to discuss this much further. Except for what I'm saying now. That's totally important :-)

2. Ray's history

Thanks for collecting all that together! One day I hope I'll have time to read through all of it. Great to have all that stuff in one place.

3. Brad

I'm happy to hear from you and your perspective on your role in things, if only because I've heard your name and read stories of your involvement so many times but haven't really heard it from you. Thanks for checking in.

4. What does it matter?

I think it's safe to say that the Coworking movement has grown to be a very successful thing, with lots of amazing people getting involved and helping build it into what it has become today.

It's certainly larger than any of us can individually contain-- coworking, as a concept, is in the hands of the people.

So however we got here, we got here. And what we have now is beautiful, and awesome. We all share common values that bring us together, voluntarily, to be here, so let's continue to embrace that and continue to do some awesome things together.


YOU... with a little bit of me... we're changing the working world :-)

(Sorry Garyvee)

[Tara Hunt]

What I DO suggest is that someone takes the history, with all of the pieces, including Brad's early beginnings, Chris' involvement and the launch of the Hat Factory onwards (so, tying together all of the perspectives) and making a history page on the wiki if it isn't already there.

This way, we can point any and all reporters there.

Remember, EVERY movement has an inventor (Brad) a catalyst (Chris) and multiple champions (me, Noel, Alex, Christophe, David, Eva, Jacob, Tony, etc.). Without any one of these roles, it doesn't exist. This shouldn't be 'who is responsible for coworking', as Tony aptly put it WE ALL ARE, but the history should be told with all of us as a team. It's the way I always tell it, anyway.

Sorry for the snippiness earlier. I'm on some serious pain meds right now and I just don't like having us fight over details (for so long) when this is such a rockin' community.

Ray, do you want to start by adding your references to a history page? Or did someone already start one? I can't remember? Let's just point people there from now on. It should also probably be reflected on the wikipedia entry page.

Tara

[Brad Neuberg]

Well said.

Sent from my cell phone

[Brad Neuberg]

One thing that folks might find useful are some of the original thought experiments I started from; coworking has morphed from these which is the right thing, but I thought folks might find some of the original philosophy interesting:

1) how can I have structure and community while also having freedom and independence (the most common reason I've told most reporters)?

2) is it possible to create a space that has the same kind of creative energy as the famous Homebrew Computer Club or the cafes in Paris in the early 20th century?

3) is it possible to merge some of the hippie lifestyle stuff I enjoy from Esalen, the bay area improv dance community, harbin, burningman, etc into a maintstream urban work environment? Things like morning check ins, yoga, focus on community, bohemian, meditation, etc.

4) is it possible to create a work environment for independents that replicates Googles environment without having to work for Google, includng smart people, speakers and events, classes, yoga and massage therapists nearby, etc? (the irony is I work for google now :)

Those were the four instigating what if questions for me. Some appealed to others, some didn't, like the more hippie stuff which I love but which was a tougher sale in the geek sphere (turns out there don't seem to be that many geek hippies like me, or else their hiding in the woodwork - come out!)

Btw, asking what if questions is a big part of how I like creating new ideas. Check out the Paper Airplane project from 2004 for another set of what if questions - http://codinginparadise.org/paperairplane

Brad

Sent from my cell phone

On Mar 21, 2008, at 10:57 AM, "Tony Bacigalupo" <tonybac...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Brad Neuberg]

Hi Tara, completely agree with you. I like how you mapped out the different roles each of us played as well.

Hope you feel better. Pain sucks :)

Brad

Sent from my cell phone

[Todd Sundsted]

Beautifully stated, Tony. This thread is the best record of coworking
I've found.

From the practical perspective, nothing matters except what we do from
this point forward. On the other hand, people want context and these
stories are our context--especially for the newcomers.

Every movement has its founding stories.

Todd

--
Todd Sundsted
http://NotAnMBA.com/
http://twitter.com/NotAnMBA
ban...@NotAnMBA.com

On Mar 21, 12:57 pm, "Tony Bacigalupo" <tonybacigal...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Just a few thoughts, in no obvious order--
>

> *1. Dropping the discussion*

>
> Can we please drop this discussion? The community doesn't benefit much from
>
> > it.
>
> I agree that arguing over the past is pretty unproductive, but I do think
> that it's been helpful to me to get such a comprehensive history of things
> relating to the Coworking movement that predate my involvement and the
> involvement of others. Many of us find ourselves telling the history of
> coworking to others, and while it's to be fully expected that we and the
> news media will consistently mix up the story and the facts, it is helpful
> for us to have a fuller picture of how the Coworking movement began so we
> can retell it as accurately as possible-- even if most of the details are
> irrelevant.
>
> I don't think much more needs to be said that hasn't already been said,
> though, so I don't see us needing to discuss this much further. Except for
> what I'm saying now. That's totally important :-)
>

> *2. Ray's history*

>
> Thanks for collecting all that together! One day I hope I'll have time to
> read through all of it. Great to have all that stuff in one place.
>

> *3. Brad*

>
> I'm happy to hear from you and your perspective on your role in things, if
> only because I've heard your name and read stories of your involvement so
> many times but haven't really heard it from you. Thanks for checking in.
>

> *4. What does it matter?*

>
> I think it's safe to say that the Coworking movement has grown to be a very
> successful thing, with lots of amazing people getting involved and helping
> build it into what it has become today.
>
> It's certainly larger than any of us can individually contain-- coworking,
> as a concept, is in the hands of the people.
>
> So however we got here, we got here. And what we have now is beautiful, and
> awesome. We all share common values that bring us together, voluntarily, to
> be here, so let's continue to embrace that and continue to do some awesome
> things together.
>
> YOU... with a little bit of me... we're changing the working world :-)
>
> (Sorry Garyvee)
>

> On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 1:23 PM, Gmail User <horsepig...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I don't think that was ever a question as to who started coworking.
> > There were many inaccuracies in the CSM as well as other articles
> > since then.
>
> > Can we please drop this discussion? The community doesn't benefit much
> > from it.
>
> > Tara
>
> > Sent from my iPhone
>

> > On Mar 21, 2008, at 10:12 AM, Ray Baxter <ray.bax...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > noel hidalgo wrote:
> > >> btw, after my participation on this list... take home this one little
> > >> rule of thumb... BLOG IT! apparently we are now living in a world
> > >> where if someone didn't blog, vlog, photoblog a session of some sort-
> > >> it didn't happen.
>
> > > I'm not sure what the political struggles were in the later early days
> > > of coworking as I was only an observer on this list once coworking
> > > left
> > > Spiral Muse, and I agree with Raines that unblogged events do happen,
> > > but in any case the early days of coworking were quite well blogged.
>
> > > Here's Brad's bio for August 9, 2005, mentioning coworking:
> > >http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005_08_09_archive.html
>
> > > Here's another blogger noticing what Brad is doing on August 10th:
> > >http://yergler.net/blog/2005/08/10/coworking-thats-a-good-word-for-it/
>
> > > Here's Brad live blogging his sitting alone in the coworking space,
> > > waiting for people to show on August 15, 2005:
> > >http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005/08/morning-ramblings.html
>
> > > The first major mention of coworking of which I am aware was on August
> > > 31, 2005, from Dave Winer's Scripting News:
> > >http://www.scripting.com/2005/08/31.html#When:7:47:45PM
>
> > > Winer referenced Brad's announcement of the same day:
>

> >http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005/08/coworking-event-alternativ...

> >http://coworking.pbwiki.com/InterestedPeopleAndGroups.2006-02-11-00-1...

> > > and
> > >http://www.queenstreetcommons.org/
> > > As of today, it appears that Queen Street Commons is a coworking
> > > space,
> > > I'm not sure what it was at that time.
>
> > > The first message in this group was a test message from Brad Neuberg
> > > on
> > > February 7, 2006:
> > >http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/browse_frm/month/2006-02
>
> > > Coworking at Spiral Muse continued through the end of March 2006
> > > according to my personal mail archive. Coworking at the Hat Factory
> > > started after May 28,
> > > 2006:

> >http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/browse_frm/thread/1805a08749...

[Brad Neuberg]

I agree - this is just how history and the disemination of ideas work.
I'd rather have something spread and be remixed by others, with them
taking ownership. Its alot more fun that way.

Sent from my cell phone

[thomas knoll]

/me begs people to copy this content to the wiki

muh reasons => http://dydimustk.com/blog/?p=90618

[Todd Sundsted]

There probably a more delicate way to ask this question, but...

What about the places/spaces/groups that predate "coworking" but share
many of the same values? What about Jelly? To what extent are the
influences that Brad mentions in a separate branch of this thread
worth fitting in to this history?

I'm all for using the term "coworking" broadly in the same way that I
adopted "open source" in preference to "free software". But I'm
really interested in all your thoughts on this.

Is "coworking" only reserved for lineal descendants for Brad's
original effort, or can it be applied, even retroactively, to give a
name to things that are its kin?

Thanks,

Todd

--
Todd Sundsted
http://NotAnMBA.com/
http://twitter.com/NotAnMBA
ban...@NotAnMBA.com

On Mar 21, 1:05 pm, "Tara Hunt" <horsepig...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What I DO suggest is that someone takes the history, with all of the pieces,
> including Brad's early beginnings, Chris' involvement and the launch of the
> Hat Factory onwards (so, tying together all of the perspectives) and making
> a history page on the wiki if it isn't already there.
>
> This way, we can point any and all reporters there.
>
> Remember, EVERY movement has an inventor (Brad) a catalyst (Chris) and
> multiple champions (me, Noel, Alex, Christophe, David, Eva, Jacob, Tony,
> etc.). Without any one of these roles, it doesn't exist. This shouldn't be
> 'who is responsible for coworking', as Tony aptly put it WE ALL ARE, but the
> history should be told with all of us as a team. It's the way I always tell
> it, anyway.
>
> Sorry for the snippiness earlier. I'm on some serious pain meds right now
> and I just don't like having us fight over details (for so long) when this
> is such a rockin' community.
>
> Ray, do you want to start by adding your references to a history page? Or
> did someone already start one? I can't remember? Let's just point people
> there from now on. It should also probably be reflected on the wikipedia
> entry page.
>
> Tara
>

> On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 10:57 AM, Tony Bacigalupo <tonybacigal...@gmail.com>

> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Just a few thoughts, in no obvious order--
>

> > *1. Dropping the discussion*

>
> > Can we please drop this discussion? The community doesn't benefit much
> > > from it.
>
> > I agree that arguing over the past is pretty unproductive, but I do think
> > that it's been helpful to me to get such a comprehensive history of things
> > relating to the Coworking movement that predate my involvement and the
> > involvement of others. Many of us find ourselves telling the history of
> > coworking to others, and while it's to be fully expected that we and the
> > news media will consistently mix up the story and the facts, it is helpful
> > for us to have a fuller picture of how the Coworking movement began so we
> > can retell it as accurately as possible-- even if most of the details are
> > irrelevant.
>
> > I don't think much more needs to be said that hasn't already been said,
> > though, so I don't see us needing to discuss this much further. Except for
> > what I'm saying now. That's totally important :-)
>

> > *2. Ray's history*

>
> > Thanks for collecting all that together! One day I hope I'll have time to
> > read through all of it. Great to have all that stuff in one place.
>

> > *3. Brad*

>
> > I'm happy to hear from you and your perspective on your role in things, if
> > only because I've heard your name and read stories of your involvement so
> > many times but haven't really heard it from you. Thanks for checking in.
>

> > *4. What does it matter?*
>

> > I think it's safe to say that the Coworking movement has grown to be a
> > very successful thing, with lots of amazing people getting involved and
> > helping build it into what it has become today.
>
> > It's certainly larger than any of us can individually contain-- coworking,
> > as a concept, is in the hands of the people.
>
> > So however we got here, we got here. And what we have now is beautiful,
> > and awesome. We all share common values that bring us together, voluntarily,
> > to be here, so let's continue to embrace that and continue to do some
> > awesome things together.
>
> > YOU... with a little bit of me... we're changing the working world :-)
>
> > (Sorry Garyvee)
>

> > On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 1:23 PM, Gmail User <horsepig...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > I don't think that was ever a question as to who started coworking.
> > > There were many inaccuracies in the CSM as well as other articles
> > > since then.
>
> > > Can we please drop this discussion? The community doesn't benefit much
> > > from it.
>
> > > Tara
>
> > > Sent from my iPhone
>

> > > On Mar 21, 2008, at 10:12 AM, Ray Baxter <ray.bax...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > noel hidalgo wrote:
> > > >> btw, after my participation on this list... take home this one little
> > > >> rule of thumb... BLOG IT! apparently we are now living in a world
> > > >> where if someone didn't blog, vlog, photoblog a session of some sort-
> > > >> it didn't happen.
>
> > > > I'm not sure what the political struggles were in the later early days
> > > > of coworking as I was only an observer on this list once coworking
> > > > left
> > > > Spiral Muse, and I agree with Raines that unblogged events do happen,
> > > > but in any case the early days of coworking were quite well blogged.
>
> > > > Here's Brad's bio for August 9, 2005, mentioning coworking:
> > > >http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005_08_09_archive.html
>
> > > > Here's another blogger noticing what Brad is doing on August 10th:
> > > >http://yergler.net/blog/2005/08/10/coworking-thats-a-good-word-for-it/
>
> > > > Here's Brad live blogging his sitting alone in the coworking space,
> > > > waiting for people to show on August 15, 2005:
> > > >http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005/08/morning-ramblings.html
>
> > > > The first major mention of coworking of which I am aware was on August
> > > > 31, 2005, from Dave Winer's Scripting News:
> > > >http://www.scripting.com/2005/08/31.html#When:7:47:45PM
>
> > > > Winer referenced Brad's announcement of the same day:
>

> > >http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005/08/coworking-event-alternativ...

> > >http://coworking.pbwiki.com/InterestedPeopleAndGroups.2006-02-11-00-1...

> > > > and
> > > >http://www.queenstreetcommons.org/
> > > > As of today, it appears that Queen Street Commons is a coworking
> > > > space,
> > > > I'm not sure what it was at that time.
>
> > > > The first message in this group was a test message from Brad Neuberg
> > > > on
> > > > February 7, 2006:
> > > >http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/browse_frm/month/2006-02
>
> > > > Coworking at Spiral Muse continued through the end of March 2006
> > > > according to my personal mail archive. Coworking at the Hat Factory
> > > > started after May 28,
> > > > 2006:

> > >http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/browse_frm/thread/1805a08749...

[Tara Hunt]

I like the way that Tony B worded it at BarCampNYC3: coworking is both an action (getting together and working) and a movement. Coworking (big C) is the starfish organization of spaces that exist and participate in this list, supporting and helping one another.

Jelly is definitely part of the action.

T

[Alex Hillman]

This description from Tony is brilliant. I've stashed this quote to supplement my own description of the movement vs individual instances of the concept. Well said Tony!

-Alex

--

--
-----
--
-----
Alex Hillman

round(3)media new! ask me about it
digital: al...@round3media.com
visual: www.round3media.com | www.dangerouslyawesome.com
local: www.indyhall.org

[Todd Sundsted]

That's a good description... Thanks Tara (and Tony).

--
Todd Sundsted
http://NotAnMBA.com/
http://twitter.com/NotAnMBA
ban...@NotAnMBA.com

On Mar 21, 8:51 pm, "Tara Hunt" <horsepig...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I like the way that Tony B worded it at BarCampNYC3: coworking is both an
> action (getting together and working) and a movement. Coworking (big C) is
> the starfish organization of spaces that exist and participate in this list,
> supporting and helping one another.
>
> Jelly is definitely part of the action.
>
> T
>

> ...
>
> read more »

[Brad Neuberg]

Sure, why not?

Sent from my cell phone