Back on Tour… Jelly in Roswell

August 20, 2008 – 1:27 pm

During our visit to Roam, we learned that the Roswell Jelly was meeting a short distance down the road.  We caught up with Randall again (we’re not sure if that’s his real name and we don’t know for certain what he does) and met Kevin Bachman and the entire crew (and Scott, who was previously at Roam) who meet on alternate weeks at Tony’s American Grille.  Things got noisy for a few minutes during the greetings, and then everyone went back to work–that’s Jelly.

Randall had modded his hair in preparation for Burning Man.  I’d hoped to get a picture of that.  Instead you get a picture of the bottom half of the television image, the rack of gumball machines, and the crew from behind.

Jelly rocks!  We’re just glad to be part of it!

Jelly Roswell

- Bandit

Posted in Live, Coworking | Comments (0)

On Site at Roam Atlanta

August 20, 2008 – 10:46 am

We’re on site at Roam Atlanta today.  Roam is an “innovative meeting, dining, and gathering place for a new progressive workforce.”  Roam isn’t coworking–it’s a space and a set of great services that support business men/women, independents, etc.–but it’s clearly trying to be supportive of the movement–the local Jelly meets here, free of charge, a few times a month.  It’s an attractive model–drop-ins are free and a basic membership starts at $49/mo.  And the look and feel are great.

Roam Atlanta

More to come!

- Bandit

Posted in Live, Coworking | Comments (4)

The Business of Coworking, Part II

August 15, 2008 – 1:54 pm

A few months ago I wrote a piece on the Business of Coworking.  It received a decent amount of attention, both positive and negative.  Frankly, more negative than anything, but that was the point.

Can coworking be a business?  Should it?

Clearly there are different answers that can be provided here.  What I am interested in writing about today, though, are existing models that more or less acknowledge/embrace basic business constraints as part of their model.

Le Bureau

Earlier this summer I visited Le Bureau, in London’s Battersea Park area.  Peter Spencer, Le Bureau’s fearless leader, has put together a space that can only be described as beautiful.  99 desks, most of them full- and profitable.  Yet the word that most accurately describes Le Bureau is Designed.  The desks, chairs, lamps- just about everything- was designed specfically for the space.  As are the Buddha statues and meditation rooms that adorn the space.  Aromatheraphy oils are vented into the AC system at set intervals through the day, according to an overarching New Ageish view of work (and life).  One relaxes upon entering the scent bubble…

On the one hand, Le Bureau is hippy dippy, but it is also profitable.  That is, it is a business.

The Hive

Another space worth noting in any conversation about ‘the business of coworking’ is The Hive, in Denver.  Also a beautifully designed space, The Hive falls very much within the frame of many other coworking spaces in North America.  Collaborative, shared work space, in an cafe-like environment, with all the other social aspects that many of us crave…

But there is a difference at The Hive.  The Hive is the brainchild of Andrew Luter, a venture capitalist (at BaseCamp Capital) who invests largely in offbeat real estate plays…That’s right real estate.

Why is this important?

The Importance of Real Estate

In our research for our book on coworking, we’ve seen time and again the central constraint that often prevents a community (a proven community with lots of loving peeps ready to commit) from getting into a space and getting started.  This is a real drag.  But it’s a business.  Because, as it turns out, business is usually a drag.

It is an unavoidable reality of any business that hinges (to a greater or lesser extent) on real estate, that one needs:

  • Capital
  • Leverage
  • Whuffie

Capital and leverage are easy enough to understand, but sometimes it takes whuffie to develop the relationships to get started into leverage, and this should not be underestimated.

But dive into coworking, and one way or another you are in business.  It is somewhat brutal (and typically American) to talk about it in this way, but one way or another if you are involved in coworking you are involved in the real estate business.

I’m not jumping up and down with happiness here, I’m just writing it down.

Real estate IS brutal.  Just ask Native Americans …They were on the losing end of the largest real estate transaction in the history of the species.  This is why Wall Street cynics refer to Thanksgiving as national real estate day.

Coworking- as a cultural movement and way of working- can’t get around this.

Time to saddle up the horses, get out the bows and arrows, and take some scalps-

On the War Trail

The Butcher

Posted in Business, Coworking, Article | Comments (0)

Transient Business Space in NYC

August 1, 2008 – 11:56 am

House 2.0, Oscar, and the CouchI’m in town from out of town. I need the Internet–I have a presentation/demonstration at 3pm. I’m going to be talking, perhaps loudly. I don’t want the sound of a barista banging away in the background. What do I do? More to the point, where do I go?

This is just an observation, but I’ve noticed that it’s easier to find a quiet corner in points far off the beaten track than it is in the business centers of New York City, San Francisco, etc. Perhaps that’s not surprising.

Oh, to have convenient, quality, transient workspace–wifi, coffee, and space–in the cities, preferably not far from the local action, local music, whatever…

In the meantime, props to @tonybgoode for a corner of his living room.

Photo, courtesy of Isuru.

- Bandit

Posted in Coworking, Article | Comments (0)

Markets

July 19, 2008 – 7:01 am

Relative to the number of anthropologists who study things like art, religion, family, music, medicine, politics, etc., the number who study economics and markets is tiny.  This is a shame.  Markets, wherever you are, are social exchanges where culture(s) intersect and collide, where the commerical realms of cultural systems come forth to trade.

Sure, there is a crassness about markets that can be a turn off, now doubt about it.  But a brief example to make my point…

Market Day in Aix en Provence

Today we took the bus down to Aix for Saturday market day.  In addition to the abundance of local Provencal foods- olives, eggplant, squash, peppers, melons, lavendar, apricots, nuts, breads, nuts, grapes and wine- you can find fabrics from all over the world.  Vendors from Ivory Coast and Ghana selling beautiful batik and tie dye fabrics, from which local families here will cut and sew into clothing here in the hot summer months. 

Down the way, at another stall, are groups of vendors from North Africa, where they sell spices from a different world.  But it is this world, really.  This is accomplished through markets.  Culture comes out for show and trade!

Financial Markets

In many ways this is a far cry from the totally fetishized love of money and myriad financial instruments that are traded daily on places like Wall Street and the City in London.  But are they really different? 

I would suggest that what is on display in places like Wall Street is a certain version of a Western, Protestant cultural system, one that just happens to be absolutely and totally obsessed with things financial.  Similar and different at the same time, I understand. 

The problem with such a one-sided (even lopsided) cultural tunnel vision, is what happens when all the magic and vodoo on which our cultural system rests falls apart?  Like right now?  We have, unfortunately, little to fall back on.  Maybe a new sale at Wal Mart, or a presidential election to distract us for a few months.  But it is ever-fleeting, isn’t it.

Meanwhile, here in Provence, even amidst the techno-clatter of an Internet Cafe in Aix (where I am writing this note), the market down the street carries on in the same way that it has since the Romans lived here some 2,000 years ago.  Same location, same products, same haggling…These things are priceless, and timeless.  No derivatives, no spot futures here…

When financial markets in France fall down, they have these (very simple) things to fall back on…

I’m envious.

The Butcher

Posted in Business, Article | Comments (0)

Emotional Intelligence (2)

July 18, 2008 – 10:40 am

A level of intelligence arrived at when you finally realize that employees’ emotions don’t matter.  Mind over matters and all that stuff…

Posted in Humor, Definition | Comments (0)

Asset Management

July 18, 2008 – 10:35 am

Assets? We have assets? Holy shit, someone go find a manager!

Posted in Humor, Definition | Comments (0)

Who’s Gonna Talk to the Milk Man?

July 18, 2008 – 3:01 am

Say you have a big party.  I mean a BIG party.  The night finishes just as planned.  No one went to the emergency room.  Just heavy, heavy sleepers spread out around the house.  Except for those who are still on the space ship enterprise and are carrying on well into the morning.

Amid the incessant giggling, there is a light knock on the door.  The laughing stops.  Dead silence.  Then one of the astronauts says, it’s the milk man.  The laughing starts up again, but no one has the courage to answer the door and talk to the milk man.

No Leadership, No Milk

Easy enough to imagine the scenario, but where does it leave you?  With no milk, and that ain’t good.

Which leads to the thorny and troublesome conversation about organizational leadership in world 2.0.  Particularly in the wonderful world of independent designers and developers that are gathering in and around the various coworking tribes, leadership is more or less a 4 letter word. 

Theoretically (and I fully agree), starfish organizations don’t need leadership.  This is the very point.  What they need, in the purest sense, is a group of people capable and willing to pull their weight in different situations as different problems/scenarios arise.

What does this say, though, to the two generations of Leadership Studies that rabbit on about charisma, emotional intelligence, vision, communication, etc?  Are all of those various leadership characteristics just a load of crap? 

I don’t know, because I don’t possess any of those characteristics.

Alex Hillman: Leader

Yesterday I was reading the blog at Indy Hall regarding recent changes in the structures of Round3Media and the space itself.  While I don’t know all (or much) of the back story to the changes, I do know that I can spot leadership when I see it, and in this instance, Alex is dealing with some complex stuff in an exceptionally upfront, straight on manner.  Surface it, deal with it, maintain clarity, move on to greater challenges.

Not sure exactly what to call this type of leadership, but I think this is what it is.

I’m sure he was at the party too, but when that knock on the door came, Alex got up and talked to the Milk Man.

The Butcher 

Posted in Leadership, Article | Comments (0)

Design Thinking and Work

July 17, 2008 – 3:24 am

Over the past several months Bandit and I have written extensively about coworking and what it reflects in the larger economy.  Theoretically we are writing a book about it, but that is proving to be rather slow going.  Our interest in the topic/movement, though, is not waning. 

I wake up this morning, once again, with design on the brain.  It is hard not to here in southern France, where nearly every feature of the built environment is beautifully thought out and made both pretty and functional.  My sense of the importance of design and the built environment is also being sustained by the current issue of the what is now my FAVORITE magazine- Dwell. 

Between reading Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy and Dwell, a certain clarity about the future of work- in terms of space, location, time, etc- is becoming clearer and clearer.  Out of necessity, and as a function of sanity, we will work closer to home and family than we do, as a rule, now.  The physical environments in which we work will also be more thoughtfully created- to initiate collaboration that taps into greater creativity and problem solving capabilities.

Suburban Coworking

Thus far, many of the coworking spaces we have encountered at NotanMBA are located in densely populated urban spaces (see Indy Hall as one of our very favorites), and are filled in by young creative designers and developers.  This demographic is defining the cultural framework for coworking and has put coworking on the map. 

Over time, it is likely that there will also be a different breed of coworking space- suburban coworking.  Here, independent entrepreneurs and corporates (and their employers) will realize that that 2 hour-each way commute is not only wasteful (in terms of time and energy), it just doesn’t make much sense in any respect.  Coworking spaces will eventually dot the perimeter of cities like Atlanta, where commuting from faceless, souless suburbs to downtown offices epitomizes the ingredients of the end of civilization. 

Hopefully, soon, there will be more options for workers -independent and corporate- to work closer (to home and family) and smarter.  Coworking itself will be somewhat redefined in the process, but in cases such as this, that might be a good thing.

All for now-

The Butcher 

Posted in Work, Design, Article | Comments (3)

Deep Work

July 8, 2008 – 6:34 am

Face it, some books are better than others.  I know, because I recently published a book that is making no spash whatsoever.  This is a case of, I now suspect, an average book.

For reference to a great! book, look no further than Bill McKibben’s latest, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future.   In brilliant detail supported by solid research, McKibben is describing a world that we will all occupy someday (soon).  Petro prices through the roof.  Less long distance travel.  More local food.  More work at home or close to home.  Less commuting (because we simply won’t be able to afford it).  etc.

The Post-Organizational Company

While McKibben’s interests are more ecological than work-related per se, I can safely glean some things (about work) as I read his book.  His basic thesis is that we (Western societies initially but now the entire world) are so wedded to an ideology of growth growth growth that there is simply no material way for that growth to continue in the way it currently is.  At some point in the past (particularly after WWII), this push for growth was more or less understandable.  Now that we (in places like the US,UK, and France) are flush with more material comforts that we really need, it is time to start thinking about the long haul.

It is difficult indeed to talk about ’slowing down’ with our friends in developing countries, as they are still taking up many things that we have taken for granted for generations.  Yet, we (in the developed world) do have choices.

Which choices will we make?  How much waste will we continue to build in to our corporate growth models?

LEED or Perish

Massive, sprawling office buildings are one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gases and global warming.  Many of these buildings were built up in an era of High Modernism, when Americans believed (with almost religious joy), that there were no limits to anything in the world.  Not only were they terribly wrong, the legacy of that building spree is literally choking us off as it makes the air harder and harder to breath.

That is one element of the situation.  Additionally, those vast spaces- now arranged more or less as cubicle farms for faceless task work done in total isolation- are increasingly emptied out as people (i.e. humans) crave different spaces to do their work: coffee shops, at home, coworking spaces, etc. 

Only 10 years ago the idea of ‘environmentally conscious’ building was seen as the new form of socialism: An infringement upon the God given right for me to do whatever the hell I want to do, and try to stop me anyway because I’ve got a 38 under the seat…  Today, buildings that qualify for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification are rapidly becoming mainstream not only because it now seems like the right way to build, but they are also more efficient and less costly to manage.  Go figure!

This is the point of Deep Work.  When we decide, evetually, to pull our heads out of the sand, there are (sensible) solutions out there for the many ‘wicked problems’ we have created for ourselves.  Those solutions are often closer at hand than we’d like to think.

The Butcher

Posted in Community, Work, Article | Comments (1)