dangerouslyawesome

For the last few months, I’ve been quietly been working on a new project. Actually, I’ve been working on the contents of the project for over 3 years now, but recently, I’ve been plugging it into a new framework.

Back in the fall, I was approached by David Hauser from Grasshopper with interest in helping him set up a new coworking space in Boston. David’s whole “empowering entrepreneurs to change the world” value statement for Grasshopper is clear alignment with coworking, far beyond the business proposition. Furthermore, on a very personal note, he might be the only person I’ve met in business who harps on core values as an operating model more than me.

I dig that.

David and I quickly made it past the superficial conversations about coworking spaces and got to talking about community, people, empowerment, higher purpose, and the big questions like “why” we do things the way we do them at IndyHall. David’s eyes went wide and I watched him “get it”. He said, “more people need to hear this, why haven’t you written it down?”

Fact is, I have written it down. Most of it, in fact. The problem was that it was all over the place. Blog posts on this site as well as IndyHall.org. Literally hundreds of posts to the Coworking Google Group. But no cohesive story arc unless you got me in a room and put a beer in my hand.

So we decided that it was valuable enough for David to get behind the project, not just for himself, but with the goal to create something that would help many others kick ass. The end result of the project be something with larger value.

And so, I began writing The Coworking Book.

Now before I go on to post the excerpt, I’m sure you’re asking,

“But what about everybody else that’s written about their experiences? Who the hell are you, one guy, to tell this story by yourself?”

If you’re not asking that question, you should be, because I asked myself the question long and hard before deciding how this project would take form.

Instead of thinking I could take on that task, I instead set out to write the framework. That’s it. I’m building a framework that we can hang ideas from, and to guide people in to coworking from whatever vantage point they are coming from.

I’m writing what I hope is a cohesive story arc that makes the content interesting, valuable, and somewhat linear. And I’m telling it from a single lens: my own.

That’s version 0.1. The alpha. My version. That’s what I’m releasing this week at SXSWi. I’m going to be taking time out of my schedule while in Austin to put the finishing touches on the work I’ve done so far, and to follow my own advice - just effing ship.

Beyond alpha

My plans for next steps are to begin something that begins to look like the communal composition of some of the oldest texts in history. I’ve decided that within the margins of each paragraph of each chapter of version 0.1, I’m inviting people to tell their stories.

Through their own lense.

There are going to be holes that need filling in. I need you to patch them. There are going to be disagreements on points of execution. We need to discuss them.

But in the framework I’ve constructed, there are always decision-guiding tools to make resolving disagreements simpler and to remove ego, including mine, from the end product.

All of the discussion that goes on in the margins will then be folded in to the primary text with some guidance and support of others. What others? My hope is that some people step up from the margins and want to become co-curators.

Addendum: For the coders in the room, think of the main text as the trunk, the commentary as patch submissions/pull requests, and the curators as “core team”. And lets not forget the ever growing user base that ultimately will want to use this tool because it helps them kick ass.

The tool we’ll be using to collaborate is actually built on top of WordPress, it’s called Digress.it. It’s a plugin + a theme, and while it’s not perfect, it’s pretty badass. This sort of interface was largely inspired by the DjangoBook, the official book for the Django Project, a framework for the programming language Python. What’s important to me is that people can comment with accountability and attribution on every post AND every paragraph individually, and this tool gives exactly that.

On Curation

Dave Troy has been talking about a “curatorial economy” on his blog, and its an idea that I like. Curatorial is not inherently exclusionary. It does, however, push for people to step up to plate and act. The ones who are considered are the ones who act. It’s not the same as a “do-ocracy”, where those who do get to make the decisions. This is about guiding but not imposing.

Curation is about making a choice, but with shared and articulated vision.

And that is my hope for the final product of The Coworking Book. That through a number of iterations, and communal curation, the work product that emerges is a clear, high value, extremely accessible utility for people interested in the past, present, and future of work.

Lots of commas in that last sentence. Sorry about that.

About the content

This part is important: forever, each version of the text, and the related comments and discussions in the margin, will remain online for free. Searchable. With 100% attribution.

At some point, we’ll need to “release”. Versions will each have a roadmap, with a set of goals that it needs to accomplish. When we achieve those goals, the book will be released.

When we reach a 1.0 version, we’ll only have a snapshot. It won’t be the bible, because it will continue to evolve. But we’ll have a snapshot, something that’s missing from the history books for our movement and our community.

The important part is this: we don’t stop at version 1.0. We don’t ever stop. We keep telling this story, and evolving the text. The growth and change in the sphere of coworking has changed immensely in only 3 years, and the change is accelerating. Lets snapshot things now so we can continue to measure that growth moving forward.

And without further adieu, I present you with an excerpt from the chapter “Finding your Coworkers”.

FIGHT CLUB

If you’ve seen the movie “Fight Club”, the main character who’s known as “Jack” is a hypochondriac who attends self help groups to feel better about himself. Demented and selfish intentions aside, something interesting happens to Jack: he meets Marla Singer, another self-help group junkie. In order to not appear awkward in front of their group members, they decide to split up the nights.

There’s a good chance you’re going to find a similar situation along your journey of community exploration. Except this time, this works to your advantage instead of being a detractor like in Jack and Marla’s relationship.

When you start recognizing people at multiple events, or on multiple lists…you’ve found another connector.

Connectors are the most important people in any community building effort because they are catalysts for speeding up your process. If a person is already dedicated enough to be participating in multiple events and groups, it’s not a reach to think they might want to team up with you to more efficiently map the topography of events and activities going on. They might even be able to help find more connectors.

These connectors tend to also make great leaders, and are critical to the mobilization efforts you’ll be embarking on very soon.

Over time, you will find yourself building a map of the existing communities and the active pieces of your region. Coworking can augment many of them, and they can all provide channels for potential members for your space.

More mature communities may already have these maps established, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go through this process on your own. You may uncover something that hasn’t received as much exposure as it deserves and it will go on to be one of your greatest assets once you open a space.

Some really good thoughts on Social Capital(ism) and related investment by Roger Ehrenberg came from a panel in NYC sponsored by Philly’s Goodcompany Ventures. Goodcompany CEO Garret Melby, who I enjoyed meeting after my presentation about organic team building at Entrepreneurs Unplugged back in December and spoke at Ignite earlier this week, also commented.

The full post is worth reading, but two quotes stood out to me:

…It’s an issue of how you define capital and return.

My hypothesis is that we need a whole new regime for quantifying the value of businesses that have goals other than strictly financial profit. We need hard numbers – real metrics – to demonstrate the value of initiatives that create value for society beyond the payment of staff and the generation of profits for shareholders.

But the “R” [in ROI] – the return – isn’t simply financial profit: it’s economic utility, real benefits being enjoyed by society.

This leads me to something else that I always find hard to articulate: the ROI of IndyHall, or even coworking in general.

We’ve been running IndyHall for nearly 3 years as a business for a reason, and a profitable one at that. But the metrics for ROI aren’t salient, since most of the investment has been in human, knowledge, and time capital, and the return doesn’t show up on our balance sheet. As such, Geoff and I don’t take a draw, at least not in terms of cash…because that’s not what’s we’ve invested. If there was a balance sheet for the social capital we’ve invested and seen in return, though, and we had metrics for it, we’d be able to far better express and share what we’ve accomplished.

Reposted from the IndyHall Blog:

As you may have heard by now, we’re considering moving IndyHall into a new, larger office on the other side of Market Street, 20-22 N. 3rd St and will be discovering some alternative uses for the community better suited for the space we will continue to occupy at 32 Strawberry Street.

Geoff and I called a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, and had lots of positive response.

If you haven’t seen yet, some of those responses are posted online:
http://www.indyhall.org/2009/03/04/the-state-of-indyhall-march-3rd-2009/
http://technicallyphilly.com/news/indy-hall-to-expand-add-educational-element/
http://www.imouttaherethebook.com/2009/03/big-changes-coming-indyhall-raises-the-bar-again/

Now What?

What we need now is commitment from the community that we embrace, encourage, empower, and completely love.

Much like the membership drive we held in August of 2007 to open 32 Strawberry Street, we’re looking for member commitment to help us verify the sustainability of a move into this new office.

We’re turning to three core audiences:

• Our Current Membership
• Our Waiting List
• The Extended IndyHall Community

We’ve already contacted our current membership, and are working with our waiting list to manage upgrades and new members that have been waiting patiently for news about our expansion.

We’re looking to the phenomenal community of businesses, entrepreneurs, creatives, freelancers, startups, telecommuters and remote workers in Philadelphia, the people we consider the extended IndyHall Community, for their interest as well.

Open Membership

In fact, membership is re-opening at all levels immediately, and will become active on May 1st.

Now, what we need from you.

We’re looking for folks who haven’t had a chance to come meet the IndyHall community and experience our work environment now. If you’ve never worked at IndyHall, we’re certain that working here for a day will help you determine if this alternative office is the right thing for you. Normally, its $25/day for non-members to work here. For a limited time, we’ll be offering free dropin days for visitors who sign up for multiple months at any level of membership.

Space is limited, so you must reserve a desk in order to take advantage of this offer. You can contact us for information on how to make a reservation.

Not familiar with how IndyHall works? This website is admittedly outdated and needs a refresh. Our bad. More on that coming.

In the mean time, Full Time IndyHall member Jonny Goldstein put together this excellent video to explain who we are, what we do, and how it works.

Please don’t hurt yourselves

What we’re NOT looking for is for you to overextend yourself. Our decision is based on how sustainable this move is, so if your upgraded membership is not sustainable, it’s misrepresentative of the entire goal.

At the same time, if you have the ability to pre-pay for any number of months beyond the usual month-to-month commitment we offer to IndyHall, that will also help us plan for this move and have some cash in the bank to work with. While we haven’t decided to raise our membership rates, if you have the ability to pay ahead, we’ll honor that rate for the duration of your pre-payment.

Whatever upgrades we’re taking will go into effect on May 1st, which is our proposed move-in day for the new office.

Deadlines. Comin’ up fast.

This is going to happen very, very quickly:
Geoff and I are going to be making our decisions based on how many commitments are made between now and End of Day on Monday, March 9th.

Yes. That’s this upcoming Monday.

Finally, and maybe most importantly: you are our front lines recruiters. Nearly everyone who works at IndyHall was referred by somebody other than myself, which is what makes this community so strong. If you have friends, colleagues, business partners, etc that you think would benefit from working at IndyHall, let them know that we’re looking for new members to join our community. Encourage them to come work at IndyHall soon for a day and see if they like it. If you’ve got questions about how to go about this, please drop us a line. Share Jonny’s video above. Let them know about the free drop in days (and that they have to reserve!).

Thanks for enduring this lengthy post, and for your ongoing support of IndyHall. If you have questions, or simply want to let us know what you’d like to do, our door is open and so is our inbox.

Thank you so, so much. This is so much excitement, we don’t know what to do with ourselves.

I’ve had a fair amount of travel in the last 2 months, but really only one public speaking event of note. Starting now, things get crazy.

First up,

IndyHall Town Hall.

From the IndyHall website:

We’ve come a really long way in just a year and a half. We’ve connected with so many new people in so many new ways, and welcomed lots of new friends to our community. The physical space, the clubhouse, for IndyHall has been at 32 Strawberry Street for 18 months and recently we’ve found ourselves running out of desks. Unlike a gym or an airline, who can oversell and bump users, we care about our members more than anything, and are going back to our roots to figure out how to deal with this issue. Next Tuesday, March 3rd, we’ll be meeting at 32 Strawberry St at 6pm to discuss what the future of the IndyHall workspace is. Geoff and I have been working really hard to distill this issue into some key points, and talking to a lot of people about it. But we didn’t get here without everyone else’s hard work and we certainly can’t see how it makes sense to continue to grow without you. This town hall meeting is open to all IndyHall members, but also the community at large. Are you on our waiting list? Don’t miss this meeting, we want you to come be a part of our next steps. Are you someone who’s been watching us all along and wants to see what our next move could be? You’ll want to be there. Please RSVP on Facebook or by leaving a comment. We hope to see you at IndyHall. Bring your A-game. This is going to be a fun night.

This event is really important to me, and to the community, and I hope to see a lot of our supporters there.

Philadelphia Facebook Garage

The Stuzo Group is hosting the second Philadelphia Facebook Developer Garage which will focus on methods to drive sales and brand interaction for companies within Facebook.  The Philadelphia Facebook Developers Garage will be held on March 9, 2009 from 6:00 to 10:00 PM at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, 1426 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia.   This event is open to the public and attendees are asked to RSVP at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=62898818432

Talking to Olivia and Gunter from Stuzo, I found out that the event is meant to be useful to agencies, developers and businesses alike. They’re going to be featuring case studies and presentations around Facebook Platform projects and businesses. There will be some news surrounding Facebook Platform (and I have to imagine Facebook Connect) from some folks from Facebook. The event is free.

Where do I fit in? Olivia and Gunter asked me to come in and be the closing keynote. The entire day will be very Facebook-focused, discussing techniques and tools, and they’ve asked me to come in and help zoom out after the day and talk about the large scope of social technology in business. I’m pretty stoked for this.

P.S. The venue at Del Frisco’s is a Bank Vault converted into a Wine Cellar. I hear it’s sick. The event will be worth coming to if only to see that, and let my awesome closing keynote be a bonus.

Watch out, Austin

It is nearly March, and that means SXSW is coming. This will be my 2nd year as a speaker at SXSW. I’m currently leading one core conversation and on one Panel.

Core Conversations: Working Alone Sucks: Join the Coworking Revolution – Saturday March 14th – 11:30am-12:30pm We’ll be holding a round table conversation with some leaders and members of the coworking community. If you’re a veteran, or a newb, this is going to be a great session to meet some folks and learn from them. Also, don’t miss the coworking meetup at the Hotel San Jose being organized by Julie Gommell of Launchpad Coworking in Austin.

Panels: You may also be interested in… – Monday March 16th – 5:30-6:30pm Drew Olanoff from Strands asked me to join Mike Hudack from Blip.tv and Trevor Legwinski from Strands on stage to talk about how recommendations online are changing how we make decisions offline. I didn’t know how I’d fit into this panel, but now that I’ve seen some of the talking points, I’m pretty excited about it. Plus, I finally get to meet Mike.

Also worth checking out is my partner-in-crime Geoff DiMasi’s panel, “Building Regional Whuffie” on Sunday, March 15th from 3:30-4:30pm. The panel ALSO features some of my other partners in various other crimes, including Tony Bacigalupo (karaoke crimes), Matthew Wettergreen (Sriracha crimes), as well as Susan Evans (from Office Nomads) and Julie Duryea (from Souk).

And that’s all in the first 2 weeks of March. Holy shit. Here goes nothing.

Just under 2 months ago, I launched a micro-consulting effort that I dubbed “Unstick.me”. It’s premise was simple. Small problems, action steps, 1 hour or less.

As I said when I started, it is a work in progress. An experiment, like most everything else I do. That meant there would be changes.

First, the successes:

• With $0 spent on marketing, I have had booked and executed successful unsticking sessions.
• I launched a weekly ustream show, attended regularly by 25-30+ people. This has been a HUGE success, besides being a lot of fun. As long as I can, I will continue to grow this show.
• I went on LuckyStartups.com, a show that highlights startups. I had a great interview with their host, and the chat room for the show was really engaging as well

Now, the problems.

In short, as the reality of our economy sinks in, the tighter people’s funds are getting. They’re not stopping innovating, but they still need help.

How Unstick.me got Stuck

Herein is the problem with this sort of work. The people who can afford it often take advice, and toss it out the window. The people who can really succeed with consultations like Unstick.me provides simply cannot afford $240. Or maybe even $200. I think there are people who I can really reach, but the…uhm…sticking point has been my pricing.

So there you have it. The United States has a new president, and you have a new pricing point for Unstick.me sessions.

Effective today, I’m reducing the price of the 1 hour Unstick.me consultation to $140.

Unstick.me <3′s Coworking

It’s no secret that my passion is coworking. I’ve been an active member and contributor of the Coworking community since late 2006, when i started getting noisy about IndyHall. As IndyHall has grown, I’ve shared countless hours worth of insight, knowledge, and experiences, and in return, have had the pleasure of seeing the community flourish and a number of other very successful coworking spaces grow out of the lessons that we were able to share.

Picking my brain about coworking seems to be of interest to a lot of people, which is why I’m now offering a Coworking Special. Same 1 hour one-on-one in a format of your choice, but so long as we stick to coworking-related topics, the price drops to a $100. If you ask any of the people I’ve spent an hour or less with talking about coworking, I firmly believe that they will tell you that this is the bargain of 2009. That’s not me being arrogant. I know what other consultants charge for their time and provide less value.

Paypal baked right in

I’m also taking a new reservation system for a spin. This one requires payment in order to confirm an appointment, and is hooked right into paypal. It’s easy as pie to reserve your hour, for a coworking session or the straight up Unstick.me consultation.

So if you’ve been holding out on the Unstick.me session that you think you need, maybe now’s your shot. Have a friend or loved one who’s stuck? Sign them up. I’ll toss in something special for gifted Unstick.me sessions, just make sure to make a note in the “special comments” field of the reservation.

But what about that early adopter tax?

Steve Jobs can get away with it. I don’t think it’s fair for me to assume that I can. If you scheduled an Unstick.me session prior to Monday, January 26th 2009 and paid the full amount, please contact me for a refund of the difference. Seriously. All you need to do is ask.

Congratulations to Dave Troy, Newt Fowler, and the whole Baltimore community for what might be one of the fastest paced “call to action” to “space openings” I know about.

Dave just announced on the Coworking google group that they are opening with an astonishing 25 members at various levels of commitment. This is brilliant.

How did they do it?

They fostered community instead of rushing into the space. When the time was right, they had a space that the community needed, instead of a space that needed the community.

I’m sick of saying it over and over. Somebody finally listened. And they are succeeding.

If you need help figuring out where to get started with your coworking initiative, I’ve got this little thing I do…go sign up for a session.

Some would say, “Tomato, Tomato, Potato, Potato, Let’s call the whole thing off”. But the coworking “brand” is undeniably powerful at this point in time. International press, global community growth, and an extremely devoted collection of leaders helping continue to drive things forward.

UPDATE: Stef Lewandowski found a Wordie entry from coworking’s coiner, Brad Neuberg. So there you have it.

So from that “brand recognition” perspective, I don’t think I’m out of line for desiring consistency. The problem? “Coworking” is not in the dictionary, nor is it in most spell check. So when reporters – who tend to be the guiltiest of adding the hyphen – go through their editorial process I’m not surprised when “coworking” gets corrected to “co-working”.

That still doesn’t excuse it. Think of it as a proper name – just because my name isn’t in the dictionary doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be upset if you misspelled it!

I’ve ranted and raved about this on twitter, the coworking google group, and mostly in person (those rants are the most animated, I assure you). This weekend I decided to do something.

Step one: launch a website addressing the issue. Enter http://doescoworkinghaveahyphen.com/

Sure, it’s a tounge in cheek and shameless ripoff of the now infamous IsTwitterDown.com made by Ryan King. Thanks for the inspiration (and XHTML/CSS), Ryan.

Step two: make it easy to add coworking to dictionaries

I’m admittedly a technologist, and see the hurdle of “contact Merriam Webster” as a pain in the ass. Instead, I’m proposing (based on a suggestion from Jesse) that we make available a “dictionary patch” to popular dictionary files: Microsoft Word, OSX’s native dictionary, and Firefox seem like good places to start. Major blogging platforms that have spellcheck (ahemWORDPRESSahem) I’d like to make these as close to “one click” patches, if possible.

Better yet, I’d love for someone to write a non-malicious virus that adds the word “coworking” to any native system dictionaries. Just kidding. Maybe.

Step three: spread the word

If you spot “coworking” with that dreadful hyphen anywhere, drop a link to the website [http://doescoworkinghaveahyphen.com/] in the comments. Maybe a badge campaign? Who knows.

Ultimately, I hope that this activity catches the eye of Merriam Webster and they take it as a cue to make the change on their own…I consider that the ultimate metric of success.

Care to join in on the fun? Help contribute to any of the goals I’ve set above.

I’ve been talking to a lot of people about the weird spot I’m in, career wise. For the last couple of years, I’ve been giving the larger percentage of my work away. Karmically, it’s done some pretty amazing things. Whuffie points are wayyyy up. But if 80% of your work is done for karma points, no matter how good the other 20% is, it’s still only 20%.

Many of the people I speak to are surprised that I’m not making money from IndyHall. IndyHall was never designed to pay me, it was designed to sustain itself and the community it helps provide a home to. It’s doing a great job of that, in my opinion, and not many people would argue that point.

I’m actually kinda glad that IndyHall, as it exists today, doesn’t pay me. My interests would be conflicted. The fact that, like everyone else that works here, I’m responsible for finding my own work. Everyone here looks out for one another, that’s just part of the dynamic.

Why. The answer to the question of “why?” isn’t as complicated as it might seem. If my interests in creating IndyHall weren’t purely fiscal, what were they?

Because as Tara points out, my long tail self interest is key to this operation. By the entire community succeeding, together or individually, we’re each able to succeed. IndyHall breathes due to organic collaboration.

In each project we that collaboration takes place around, everybody needs to be able to win. One of my core goals for IndyHall Labs is trying to make that process even clearer.

Back in the spring, I wrote about Dave Troy organizing Social Dev Camp East, and an address of a 37 signals blog post about building web companies outside of San Francisco.

Social Dev Camp East II

I unfortunately missed the first Social Dev Camp East, though I DID finally get to meet Dave when I was in Vienna for Amy and Thomas Fuchs’ wedding back in September. Dave’s a great east coast entrepreneur and social technology developer, and I’m excited that he’s got Social Dev Camp East II coming up in just a couple of weeks.

On November 1st, a few hundred of the east coast’s finest social technologists will gather at the University of Baltimore to for a day of exchange and creation, relationship and application building alike.

There’s WAY more info on the Facebook event, and even more on the wiki. The event is fast approaching capacity, so sign up soon. If you’re in Philly and planning on going, reach out and we’ll try to carpool.

New Work City Kickoff Party

One of these days, I’m going to figure out how to be in two places at once. In the mean time, I’m planning on driving really, really fast between Baltimore and Manhattan because later in the evening on November 1st, Tony Bacigalupo and the team behind New Work City will be having a launch party to celebrate their opening of their Manhattan community-powered coworking space. I’m so excited for this because it’s such a long time coming. Just a few weeks ago Tony remained uncertain as to whether or not it could happen. Now they’ve secured desks at an office at 200 Varick St, sharing space with consulting firm element^n.

The party goes down at 8pm until “2am”, but I know what it’s like to party with Tony and doubt we’ll call it at 2. The Facebook is the place to RSVP, and you can be certain that it’s not to be missed. If you heard about the insanity that went down at the IndyHall anniversary party, a good number of the same people will be making the trip from afar. I’m quite excited. You should be too.

Recently on the coworking list, the “what is coworking” debate has flared up again, this time comparing it to an incubator. For context, the original question was posed:

I’m wondering if you all can provide some wisdom on the difference between a coworking space and an “incubator”.  Is it just semantics? If there are more substantive distinctions, how would you boil them down? -Adam Huttler

Some excerpts from responses include:

…one thing that incubators do most reliably is fail.  Largely because there’s insufficient collaborative critical mass, and because they don’t typically include the services that early stage startups need to get momentum, such as software developers, graphic designers, and tech writers, just to name a few.  Finally, most incubators get their start as real estate plays for unmarketable space. -Axon

and

As a result, you have a more diverse work environment of people who are self-sufficient, as opposed to an incubator, where that isn’t necessarily the case. Incubators and coworking spaces are not equivalent, but they share a lot of the same DNA. Like apes and humans. -Tony Bacigalupo

and

…many of our businesses have gotten stronger by being in proximity to other like-minded business people. But that’s mostly a product of the community that’s naturally created by the way the space is designed. People that like each other talk. It works. -Derek Young

and

Best option for a company is to look around at what exists and find a home where they feel welcome and can do the best work. -Nate Westheimer

All good stuff from people whose opinions I’ve come to respect. The whole discussion got my gears turning. So, after a few days of chewing, I decided to respond.

Note: I’ve been in an admittedly high-stress mode for the last week, so the rant probably comes across more intense than it needs to, but the contents are still valuable and I wanted to share here what I wrote on the google group.

So here it goes:

The simplest way to approach this is the same way we determine what operations fall under the coworking umbrella: their core values. While incubator and coworking businesses services tend to overlap, their individual purposes are very clearly defined. Incubators can encourage coworking. Coworking can incubate independents, businesses, and even products and services.

Just remember, in all cases, the core values remain in place and, more importantly, in prominence. Community, Collaboration, Openness, Sustainability, Accessability.

In the last year, I’ve seen all of the above take place.

Example: Incubation encouraging coworking - DreamIT Ventures is a Philly version of the now popular Y-Combinator model, sort of a “startup summer camp”. Startups apply, recieve a small amount of seed funding, and are placed in physical proximity with a number of other startups that share, at the very least, one thing: a reasonably common place in their startup cycle. The business services and cash aside, I was lucky enough to consult with one of the DreamIT startups and quickly realized (and I wasn’t the only one to verbalize this) that the REAL value in the program was the comradery of growing your startup together alongside other startups. Sharing in successes and failures. Giving and recieving advice. Becoming stronger as a collective of teams.

“Funding Day”, their “summer camp graduation” event, was last week, and seeing the result of 4 months of growing businesses together is something that’s amazing.

Coworking incubating independents, ideas, products, teams, and even regions – Many of you already know about the activities and results that we’ve had organically form within our community at IndyHall. Some of the larger succsses are iSepta and RipIt.app, but there are other, less visible ones: we’ve been there for more than a handful of people who left their jobs that they hated to go independent, and they credit the community of Indyhall for allowing them to be able to be comfortable taking the leap. We’ve had our fingers in dozens and dozens of events that have quite literally changed the landscape of the city.

I’m not saying this to brag, as it has nothing to do with ego. My point is, coworking has such immense gravity and influence on more than just where people are working. Even the members we’ve had that joined simply for desk space quickly realized what they were involved in, and without anyone asking or telling them to, changed their tune and became more community oriented.

In all of these instances, the core values have been at the forefront of an initiative and the results have been hugely positive. I know I have a habit of getting preachy, but it really comes down to the recipe model (or the pizza analogy, as Tony has taken it). If I order a steak and it’s got a side of greens on the plate, that’s fine. But if I order a steak and I get a salad with a couple of strips of sirloin across the top, I’m going to be pissed.

Incubation is extremely valuable, with and without coworking as part of it’s model. Coworking is extremely valuable, with and without the incubation.

Call a spade a spade. Get over your identity crisis.

Be a part of a community, and be a community leader. If you’re not doing one of those two things, you’re probably not coworking.

Encourage collaboration at every opportunity. Being open and transparent helps that.

Sustainability is just as much about eco-friendly practices as it is making sure that the things you’re doing within your community work towards it’s ability to sustain itself.

Accessibility, to me, means not being exclusive. If you asked me a year ago if I expected the diversity of IndyHall to include government-focused business strategy consultants, green home developers, video game programmers, and educators, I’d have laughed. But today, we have all of that and more. Accessibility of the resources to anyone who benefits from them is important. I’m not here to evaluate your business model. My only concern is that you’re making enough money to pay our membership dues.

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