Citizen Space: End of one era, beginning of the next

[Tara Hunt]

Mark your calendars for late March as we are going to have the biggest closing party you've ever witnessed.

http://www.horsepigcow.com/2011/02/citizen-space-end-of-one-era-beginning-of-the-next/

--
tara 'missrogue' hunt

Company: Shwowp (http://www.shwowp.com)
Book: The Whuffie Factor (http://www.horsepigcow.com/book-the-whuffie-factor/)
Blog: HorsePigCow: Marketing Uncommon (http://horsepigcow.com)
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/missrogue
phone: 514-679-2951

[Matthew Wettergreen]

Tara, Chris, Hilary, everyone at Citizen Space,

Thanks for all of your help, support, guidance and vision over the past several years. None of us would be doing as well or be half as inspired without your presence.

Matthew

Caroline Collective

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[David Troy]

Hear hear... we at Beehive Baltimore thank each of you for your leadership and generous support. As we begin our third year here we all owe you a debt of gratitude for the path that you (and Alex and Geoff) and so many others have made available to transform communities – including your own!

Best,

Dave

[Blair Gordon]

as someone new to this. Thankyou for helping forge the way so that we may follow

[Susan Evans]

The crew at Office Nomads cannot thank you all enough for your leadership, vision, and openness. Our space and many others wouldn't be where we are without Citizen Space. 

And of course while the space might be moving on,we know that all of you will continue to play a key role in coworking. And thank goodness for that. :)

Cheers Tara, Chris, Hilary and the rest of the CS team.

Susan
__
Office Nomads         
officenomads.com  
206-484-5859

[Alex Hillman]

I imagine this is a great example of knowing when to stop being almost as important, if not more important, as knowing when to start.

My life today would be remarkably different if it weren't for Chris, Tara, & Citizen Space. 

I've got a lot of mixed emotions about this, but completely agree with the reasons for this and find the closing of this chapter an important preclude to many other chapters.

Thanks.

-Alex

 
/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

--

[Tara Hunt]

Thank you everyone. It wasn't the easiest of decisions, but it feels right. The community is being served well and I welcome any other coworking space in SF to come forward and make an appeal to our current members (or take over the space!).

I'm still so proud of what has happened over the past 5 years. This is one helluva great group of people doing great things beyond providing a space. At the end of the day, it's not about the space, it's about the community and serving a need. 

T

--
Tara Hunt

CEO & CoFounder

http://www.shwowp.com
http://www.twitter.com/missrogue
phone: 514-679-2951

[Jerome Chang]

Wow, first C'nC and now CS.  I guess this emphasizes the importance of a strong transition plan early on.

Jerome

______________
BLANKSPACES
"work FOR yourself, not BY yourself"

www.blankspaces.com
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea)
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.330.9505 (office)

[Alex Hillman]

Or the importance to build something with longevity and sustainability (not just green, but in business) in mind.

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

[Tara Hunt]

???

Like I said on Twitter, CS was never intended to be a business...only a community service. To keep it running, we'd have to make it into a 'business'. I already run one of those. ;) Besides, with the 6 or 7 other spaces providing the service (and business) in the city, it's not a good idea.

Please don't take us shutting down as:

1. a failure

2. a pity

3. any other sign of anything negative

It was a decision. And we are happy with that decision.

On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 4:15 PM, Jerome Chang <jer...@blankspaces.com> wrote:

[Alex Hillman]

Amen.

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

[Joel Bennett]

Tara- Thanks to you and the gang for all you have done for the coworking movement.  Our space existing today is due in large part to spaces like yours who forged the path, shared the model, and set the bar.  Blessings to you as you start a new chapter.

 

Joel Bennett

Veel Hoeden

--

[Chad Ballantyne]

Thank you Tara!

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Chad Ballantyne

The Creative Space Director

(705) 252-2423

www.thecreativespace.ca

[IDEA REPUBLIC]

thank you Tara & Chris! citizen space and its vision was the best
practice example needed so badly to make coworking in germany (http://
www.coworking.de) possible to happen in the early days back than in
2008!

Peter

On 11 Feb., 21:34, Tara Hunt <horsepig...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Mark your calendars for late March as we are going to have the biggest
> closing party you've ever witnessed.
>

> http://www.horsepigcow.com/2011/02/citizen-space-end-of-one-era-begin...

[Margaret Rosas]

Tara,

I applaud you for your never ending contributions to coworking. Do you
recall the cohopping tour in December 2007? That event inspired a
movement in Santa Cruz. Several Santa Cruzans (Rob Knight, Tracy Smith
and William Lawrence) came into the city to see what the coworking
movement was all about. They came back enthused and invigorated and
the spark was lit for Santa Cruz. That spark passed off to Jeremy
Neuner who started NextSpace.

The movement you and Chris (and others I know) started inspired us to
create a Santa Cruz that did not previously exist. Our community today
is transformed because of your contributions. I talk more about it in
a video here: http://ipsociety.net/admin/coworking-santa-cruz-margaret-rosas.
It's a bit long .... but I get to the story eventually!

I'm excited about the future for coworking and the next wave. You
should be beaming with every ounce of your beautiful self!!

Hugs,

Margaret

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Margaret Rosas
Founder & Chief Strategist
Quiddities - A Creative Web Solutions Agency

http://quiddities.com
831.466.0110

[JeanYves]

In may 2009, during a trip to SF, we were invited by an acquaintance,
Candide Kemmler, to visit a very exciting place where freelances and
startup could get in touch with the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Arriving from Brussels, we had never heard of Citizen Space before.
I remember the first impression I got while entering the space :"hey,
how can they stay all day in this windowless warehouse ?"
Then we had the lunch with some of the members who told us how good it
was to be part of such an energetic community.
I'm not sure we mentioned the term coworking, then.

Back to Europe, we kept in mind this experience. When The Hub opened,
a few months later, we started to enjoy the reality of coworking. We
could say : we have this space now in Brussels. Look what they
achieved with the Citizen Space in San Francisco, the Walhalla of
entrepreneurs.
20 months later, six coworking spaces have opened in Belgium. As many
are incubating. The story is the same in Germany or France.

Citizen space is not the only coworking model we can find in the
community. But it's a symbol.
You guys have been incredibly important for the rise of coworking far
beyond the Bay area.
However, whether you like it or not, the end of this chapter for
Citizen Space is not a good news.
An analysis of what led to this exit is maybe as important for the
community. Why did CS see its momentum decrease in SF ? Is it due to
the growing competition within the coworking industry in the area ?
Did Citizen Space lose contact with its natural public ? Are the
values changing ? Etc.

Tara, Hilary, I hope you will share your thoughts with us about that.

All the best for the next era of CS.

Jean-Yves Huwart
Coworking Europe 2010 conference

> > For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.

[Hillary Hartley]

A "sunset" post is definitely due. We'll put something together once the dust has settled. But I think Tara summed it up in her tweets on Friday: the community in SF is well-served, and the idea behind CS was more of a community service than a business...which in the end is not a totally viable business plan. :)

Thanks for your thoughts, Jean-Yves -- and everyone else who has sent messages of support and inspiration!

Hillary

[Liu Yan]

Tara, you have been a great source of inspiration for Xindanwei in China. Thank you!

We will keep in touch. Don't forget to pass Xindanwei while you are in China.

luv and warm regards from freezing Shanghai,

Yan

Liu Yan 刘妍

CEO/Co-founder

Xindanwei 新单位

(+86) 021 3428 0783

50 Yongjia Rd, Shanghai,CHINA

中国上海徐汇区永嘉路50号

http://xindanwei.com

https://gist.com/theliuyan

Thank you Tara!

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