What we can do about students leaving Philadelphia after graduation

Retention is a big problem everywhere, and here in Philadelphia it’s no exception.

A Coworking Parable: The Game of Chess

One day, shortly after we moved into our “new and improved” Indy Hall office in 2009, a bunch of chess pieces showed up on one of our kitchen tables. Interestingly, there was no board – just a bunch of chess pieces, arranged as if there was a board.

What matters the most

Ask someone what they’ll remember about their job when they leave. What do you think the most common answer is?

How to Automate your Coworking Space, and Why

I’ve noticed an increase in interest in systems like “swipe card entry” for coworking spaces, both from the perspective of security and automated billing. In a recent thread on the coworking google group, I mused:

What does a week at Indy Hall look like?

In the course of one week I spoke at length with Kelani about new media performance art happening in North Philly, had a discussion in Swahili about coworking spaces in East Africa, and met the girlfriend of my friend Elijah Dornstreich. It’s ridiculously clear tha...

Designing Coworking for Collaboration

Deskmag just published a piece about a Dutch incubator’s research project about physical proximity and collaboration. Among the things that stood out to me, these two sentences had the most tips for what was happening in space design as related to collaboration:

A Feeling of Security

An interesting and fairly often recurring thread in the coworking google group is security. A recent version of this thread prompted a response from a Toronto-based coworking space, CG6. A couple of important quotes:

Should a coworking space run itself?

This is a liberal lift from the Coworking Google Group, in a discussion about if a coworking space should run itself.

On Monocultural Coworking

Single-demographic coworking misses the point – the thickest value of coworking I’ve seen is in creating a work construct where people who wouldn’t likely sit next to each other to work, find that possibility for themselves, and the possibilities derived from that opportunity ...

…first we get to know each other, and then we might do business together.

Coworking & Zones of Proximal Development

Quick repost from the coworking google group. This was too good not to share here.

Random Acts of DiMasi

Indy Hall has brought literally thousands of amazing people into my life, but the most important of them to me turns 40 today.

The Lost Value of Coworking: Wellness

When we scored the coworking.com domain early last year, my personal goal was to have a digital placeholder for the word “coworking” and tie it to the shared core values of the community: collaboration, openness, community, accessibility, and sustainability.

The Importance of Lines

Indy Hall is growing, every day and in more interesting ways. We think a lot about how to grow something like Indy Hall. “More members” seems like the obvious answer, but we think it’s not quite that straightforward. We’re focused on growing deep, not growing tall.

Not Your Typical Coworking Facility

Nerd Fort isn’t your typical coworking facility. We don’t rent out desks daily or hourly to whoever wanders in. We lease space on amonthly basis to good people, and focus on building a vibrant, active, helpful community. Of nerds.The fact that this group in  self-identifies ...

Philadelphia: Making it Cool to Care

Indy Hall and Young Involved Philadelphia are partnering to help capture the reasons that people love Philly as our own Valentine’s Day celebration, including a party this Thursday. I’d encourage you to share reasons you love Philly on Twitter and include the hashtag “#whyilov...

How Thomas Fuchs Develops Webapps in 2011

My friend Thomas Fuchs, who also happens to be the author of Scriptaculous, also just authored a list of his “power tools” that he uses while creating badass webapps with his wife & co-conspirator Amy Hoy. He surprised me at the end – not because he’s wrong, but because I ...

Spaces Die. Coworking lives on.

Though I’ve known for a couple of weeks, Tara just announced publicly that Citizen Space is closing at the end of this month.

Preserve this. Reinforce this. Remember this.

Spotted this on the new IgnitePhilly website in the about section. It was from a 2008, Philly’s first Ignite. It resonated deeply then and still does now.

What Turned Us On – A 2007 Retrospective

In the summer of 2007, before Indy Hall was a place but was undeniably on the path of becoming a thing, we had a group of people who met on a semi-regular basis for a Junto, an event modeled on Ben Franklin’s “gatherings of mutual self-improvement”. P’unk Ave still holds them ...