Lets Do It In Public - A New Coworking Book

[Alex Hillman]

In the Spring of 2010, I started in on a project that I hoped was going to be the coworking book that the world needed. A few months later, I stopped - discontent with where I’d started, and unconfident that I knew what book about coworking the world needed.

The original idea was a curated shared narrative that would help people create successful coworking communities. I’m still in love with that idea, I’m just not sure that I know enough alone to start that curated narrative.

This past week I spent a bunch of time writing a new talk titled “Doing it in Public”, about the value of taking ideas that are incomplete and, in spite of your fears and insecurities, executing them in public - either the the end of learning new perspectives, finding collaborators, or simply finding out that you’re not alone.

I realized that perhaps that was my path to finding the coworking book that the world needed.

So I am taking the beginnings of the book that I’m not pleased or proud of, and am sharing them with the hopes that the world will help tell me what book they’d like me to write. Even more, I’m sharing them in a publicly editable document. Editable by anybody, even if you’re anonymous. Add things delete things, comment as much as you’d like. Reply to others’ comments. Point me in a new direction.

Google Docs keeps revision history so if nothing else, we can always look through the revisions. I can also scrap the whole thing and start over.

I hope you’re join me in doing it in public. Let’s see what happens.

http://bit.ly/coworkingbook-in-public

-Alex
/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

[Chad Ballantyne]

This is great Alex - already digging in!

Funny how the shift from home, to coffee shop to Exec suite to coworking is so common.  In fact, it was my story, and we've been working it  into a cute cartoon animation (to be completed in August...I hope)  I actually hope it can serve many spaces as they try and explain the benefits of coworking and as the cartoon explains - coworking is the combination of all the good things from home, coffee shop and exec suite.

See slide illustration I use a lot to share when people ask, "What the hell is coworking?"  and "Why would I join?"

Anyway - great work on opening this up and doing it in public.

In this world of independence and "look out for #1" we've seldom see truly great works or live our lives leaving a lasting legacy. (wow - that's a lot of "L"s)  The best stuff in life happens when we are surrounded by people we trust and we let go and let others at our ideas, our art, our dreams.  We call it "trusted critique."  The term we use a lot is "Doing life together."

The coworking community is not just a cool work space idea, it's getting back to the key ingredients proven to be the catalyst to innovation and it is changing our world.  Relate, Collaborate, Create

If I see something to contribute, I'll chime in.

Peace!

Chad

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Chad Ballantyne

The Creative Space Director

(705) 252-2423

www.thecreativespace.ca

[Leif Utne]

Alex: This is awesome. Tweeted.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 21, 2011, at 4:41 PM, Chad Ballantyne <ch...@thecreativespace.ca> wrote:

This is great Alex - already digging in!

Funny how the shift from home, to coffee shop to Exec suite to coworking is so common.  In fact, it was my story, and we've been working it  into a cute cartoon animation (to be completed in August...I hope)  I actually hope it can serve many spaces as they try and explain the benefits of coworking and as the cartoon explains - coworking is the combination of all the good things from home, coffee shop and exec suite.

See slide illustration I use a lot to share when people ask, "What the hell is coworking?"  and "Why would I join?"

Anyway - great work on opening this up and doing it in public.

In this world of independence and "look out for #1" we've seldom see truly great works or live our lives leaving a lasting legacy. (wow - that's a lot of "L"s)  The best stuff in life happens when we are surrounded by people we trust and we let go and let others at our ideas, our art, our dreams.  We call it "trusted critique."  The term we use a lot is "Doing life together."

The coworking community is not just a cool work space idea, it's getting back to the key ingredients proven to be the catalyst to innovation and it is changing our world.  Relate, Collaborate, Create

If I see something to contribute, I'll chime in.

Peace!

Chad

<coworking123.jpg>

On 2011-06-21, at 6:29 PM, Alex Hillman wrote:

In the Spring of 2010, I started in on a project that I hoped was going to be the coworking book that the world needed. A few months later, I stopped - discontent with where I’d started, and unconfident that I knew what book about coworking the world needed.

The original idea was a curated shared narrative that would help people create successful coworking communities. I’m still in love with that idea, I’m just not sure that I know enough alone to start that curated narrative.

This past week I spent a bunch of time writing a new talk titled “Doing it in Public”, about the value of taking ideas that are incomplete and, in spite of your fears and insecurities, executing them in public - either the the end of learning new perspectives, finding collaborators, or simply finding out that you’re not alone.

I realized that perhaps that was my path to finding the coworking book that the world needed.

So I am taking the beginnings of the book that I’m not pleased or proud of, and am sharing them with the hopes that the world will help tell me what book they’d like me to write. Even more, I’m sharing them in a publicly editable document. Editable by anybody, even if you’re anonymous. Add things delete things, comment as much as you’d like. Reply to others’ comments. Point me in a new direction.

Google Docs keeps revision history so if nothing else, we can always look through the revisions. I can also scrap the whole thing and start over.

I hope you’re join me in doing it in public. Let’s see what happens.

http://bit.ly/coworkingbook-in-public

-Alex
/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

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Chad Ballantyne

The Creative Space Director

(705) 252-2423

www.thecreativespace.ca

<tcs-sign-1.png>

[Thomas Riboulet]

hello Alex,

this is awesome indeed, very interesting !

-- 

Thom

-- 
Thomas Riboulet

--

[Thomas Riboulet]

ok, just finished the book a first time

first of all : it's great : well written, easy to read

then, well it's really interesting from my point of view : I'm trying to start a space and I'm going through all those points.

for the end of the book I think that what would be nice is that you don't necessarily talk about specifics or not too much. some of them might depend heavily on the country we are building coworking spaces (culture, law ...) but I might be wrong.

most of those points also vary from one place to the other what could be good is to have short extracts from this mail group with real life cases or explanations using those stories as examples ?

-- 
Thomas Riboulet

[Chad Ballantyne]

Hey Alex,

I saw your note about it getting too technical.   As some had stated, coworking looks a bit different n different cultures and even differently within same regions.

One thing I think you can do is state the common factors and then open it up to a few mini-stories from others that have success doing it differently.  Heck, stories period would be cool to read.  

I'm visual.  Got an illustrator to add to the mix?  I'm thinking "Orbiting the Giant Hairball" style.  A must read for any creative and I think the style is a good fit for coworking.  Quirky cartoons, charts and illustrations.

The history of workspace is cool - would make for a great foldout timeline with illustrations!  Interestingly we've touched down on a form of coworking through history.  I'm thinking about the police precincts and publishing companies in the 50s and 60's.  Or go all the way back to the Renascence when artists coworked and lived together and they created the best art in the world.

Hmmm - something great happens when we tear down the walls.

Chad

On 2011-06-21, at 6:29 PM, Alex Hillman wrote:

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Chad Ballantyne

The Creative Space Director

(705) 252-2423

www.thecreativespace.ca

[Bianca Rico]

That idea sounds awesome! I love to hear stories from coworking spaces all over. That would be a fun read.

On 6/22/2011 8:19 AM, Chad Ballantyne wrote:

Hey Alex,

I saw your note about it getting too technical. � As some had stated, coworking looks a bit different n different cultures and even differently within same regions.

One thing I think you can do is state the common factors and then open it up to a few mini-stories from others that have success doing it differently. �Heck, stories period would be cool to read. �

I'm visual. �Got an illustrator to add to the mix? �I'm thinking�"Orbiting the Giant Hairball"�style. �A must read for any creative and I think the style is a good fit for coworking. �Quirky cartoons, charts and illustrations.

The history of workspace is cool - would make for a great foldout timeline with illustrations! �Interestingly we've touched down on a form of coworking through history. �I'm thinking about the police precincts and publishing companies in the 50s and 60's. �Or go all the way back to the Renascence when artists coworked and lived together and they created the best art in the world.

Hmmm - something great happens when we tear down the walls.

Chad

On 2011-06-21, at 6:29 PM, Alex Hillman wrote:

In the Spring of 2010, I started in on a project that I hoped was going to be the coworking book that the world needed. A few months later, I stopped - discontent with where I�d started, and unconfident that I knew what book about coworking the world needed.

The original idea was a curated shared narrative that would help people create successful coworking communities. I�m still in love with that idea, I�m just not sure that I know enough alone to start that curated narrative.

This past week I spent a bunch of time writing a new talk titled �Doing it in Public�, about the value of taking ideas that are incomplete and, in spite of your fears and insecurities, executing them in public - either the the end of learning new perspectives, finding collaborators, or simply finding out that you�re not alone.

I realized that perhaps that was my path to finding the coworking book that the world needed.

So I am taking the beginnings of the book that I�m not pleased or proud of, and am sharing them with the hopes that the world will help tell me what book they�d like me to write. Even more, I�m sharing them in a publicly editable document. Editable by anybody, even if you�re anonymous. Add things delete things, comment as much as you�d like. Reply to others� comments. Point me in a new direction.

Google Docs keeps revision history so if nothing else, we can always look through the revisions. I can also scrap the whole thing and start over.

I hope you�re join me in doing it in public. Let�s see what happens.

http://bit.ly/coworkingbook-in-public

-Alex
/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

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Chad Ballantyne

The Creative Space Director

(705) 252-2423

www.thecreativespace.ca

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Sincerely,
Bianca Rico
Client Services
MiamiShared.com
Tel: 305-929-8688, ext. 143
Fax: 305-397-1250
http://www.miamishared.com

[Alex Hillman]

Hey All,

Thanks for the awesome feedback. I feel something interesting brewing. 

It seems that the document that was meant to be editable, wasn't.

Can somebody check and see if the document is editable now? Thanks!

-Alex

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 6:21 AM, Bianca Rico <ri...@miamishared.com> wrote:

That idea sounds awesome! I love to hear stories from coworking spaces all over. That would be a fun read.

On 6/22/2011 8:19 AM, Chad Ballantyne wrote:

Hey Alex,

I saw your note about it getting too technical.   As some had stated, coworking looks a bit different n different cultures and even differently within same regions.

One thing I think you can do is state the common factors and then open it up to a few mini-stories from others that have success doing it differently.  Heck, stories period would be cool to read.  

I'm visual.  Got an illustrator to add to the mix?  I'm thinking "Orbiting the Giant Hairball" style.  A must read for any creative and I think the style is a good fit for coworking.  Quirky cartoons, charts and illustrations.

The history of workspace is cool - would make for a great foldout timeline with illustrations!  Interestingly we've touched down on a form of coworking through history.  I'm thinking about the police precincts and publishing companies in the 50s and 60's.  Or go all the way back to the Renascence when artists coworked and lived together and they created the best art in the world.

Hmmm - something great happens when we tear down the walls.

Chad

On 2011-06-21, at 6:29 PM, Alex Hillman wrote:

In the Spring of 2010, I started in on a project that I hoped was going to be the coworking book that the world needed. A few months later, I stopped - discontent with where I’d started, and unconfident that I knew what book about coworking the world needed.

The original idea was a curated shared narrative that would help people create successful coworking communities. I’m still in love with that idea, I’m just not sure that I know enough alone to start that curated narrative.

This past week I spent a bunch of time writing a new talk titled “Doing it in Public”, about the value of taking ideas that are incomplete and, in spite of your fears and insecurities, executing them in public - either the the end of learning new perspectives, finding collaborators, or simply finding out that you’re not alone.

I realized that perhaps that was my path to finding the coworking book that the world needed.

So I am taking the beginnings of the book that I’m not pleased or proud of, and am sharing them with the hopes that the world will help tell me what book they’d like me to write. Even more, I’m sharing them in a publicly editable document. Editable by anybody, even if you’re anonymous. Add things delete things, comment as much as you’d like. Reply to others’ comments. Point me in a new direction.

Google Docs keeps revision history so if nothing else, we can always look through the revisions. I can also scrap the whole thing and start over.

I hope you’re join me in doing it in public. Let’s see what happens.

[Kim Slawson]

Thanks Alex, it's editable now.

mid|coast       Kim Slawson           The Way Work Should Be
 co|working    (207)370-7401     Coworking in Midcoast Maine
mid|co         wo...@midco.org              Come Work with Us!

[Karine]

This is great.
Easy to read, straight to the point.
I hope we will be able to help;
Anyway you were right to share it and thanks for doing so

Karine
la cantine numérique rennaise (Rennes, France)

On Jun 22, 12:29 am, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> In the Spring of 2010, I started in on a project that I hoped was going to
> be the coworking book that the world

> needed<http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2010/03/sxsw-launch-chapter-excerpt-the...>.

[Liu Yan]

Dear Alex,
So happy that you took this initiative! I am giving a lecture to a group of MBA's about open innovation tomorrow, have sent your EXACT text to them and ask them to read it (and the coworking book) before attending the lecture.

I will be more than happy to co-edit the book, proud of it!

Thanks and best regards,

Liu Yan
Xindanwei.com
Shanghai

[Alex Hillman]

All - thanks so much for your support.

It'd be awesome if, as you read through, you not only suggest edits, but ask more questions! As you've seen on the list, some of my best work comes as the answers to questions. 

Ask about things that I've written that perhaps spark new ideas, or ask about things that perhaps are gaps in the framework. 

What I started is absolutely NOT complete. The more insight I have from all of you into what's missing will help me tons!

-Alex

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia