Comments on: Creative Bridges, Coworking & Communities http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/ Refresh Austin ringleader, speaker, fire starter, UX manager, community catalyst, Web technologist, barbecue acolyte & information junkie Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:35:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Alex http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-30895 Alex Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:04:06 +0000 http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/#comment-30895 Sorry to have missed you John Erik, though your tweets about the funding symposium were interesting and reminded me that I need to learn more about our local angel/VC/funding players. We'll definitely meet up soon! Sorry to have missed you John Erik, though your tweets about the funding symposium were interesting and reminded me that I need to learn more about our local angel/VC/funding players.

We’ll definitely meet up soon!

]]> By: john erik http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-30888 john erik Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:35:45 +0000 http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/#comment-30888 shoot! i missed the SMC meeting today for the dumb funding symposium. looking forward to meeting you SOMETIME soon. love love love all the thoughts here. ! shoot! i missed the SMC meeting today for the dumb funding symposium.

looking forward to meeting you SOMETIME soon.

love love love all the thoughts here. !

]]> By: Alex http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-30862 Alex Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:26:29 +0000 http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/#comment-30862 Thanks Cesar! It's exciting o see all of the energy behind these ideas. It appears that many of us have been working on solutions to these problems, but are only know meeting each other and getting to a point where we can team up and accomplish more. I plan to attend the Social Media Club meeting at Cafe Caffeine tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll get a chance to meet those of you I haven't met in person yet, and catch up with those of you I have. Thanks Cesar! It’s exciting o see all of the energy behind these ideas. It appears that many of us have been working on solutions to these problems, but are only know meeting each other and getting to a point where we can team up and accomplish more.

I plan to attend the Social Media Club meeting at Cafe Caffeine tomorrow, so I’m sure I’ll get a chance to meet those of you I haven’t met in person yet, and catch up with those of you I have.

]]> By: Cesar Torres http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-30858 Cesar Torres Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:19:21 +0000 http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/#comment-30858 Alex, it's great to hear that people want exactly what we want for Austin. I'm one of the cofounders of Conjunctured and like Dusty and everyone else here, I can't stress the importance of community. Too bad you couldn't make it out, but hopefully the Conjunctured site gave you enough info to get you started. I love your idea of bridges; within a siloed, fragmented community, the thing that will bring them together are these connections. Beyond internetal (haha) interactions, what better than getting out into the community—physically—and getting to know these like-minded people? I think once this happens, you sustain these relationships online (via Twitter or a strong Austin blogger network) and then physically have a coworking space to congregate. I invite you (and anyone else interested) to check out *three* events we're having this weekend (each coincidentally headed by a cofounder of Conjunctured): <a href="http://moourl.com/kaphh" rel="nofollow">http://moourl.com/kaphh</a>. We're usually out, so if you see on Twitter that we're somewhere, send an @reply. Hope to meet you in person soon! Alex, it’s great to hear that people want exactly what we want for Austin. I’m one of the cofounders of Conjunctured and like Dusty and everyone else here, I can’t stress the importance of community. Too bad you couldn’t make it out, but hopefully the Conjunctured site gave you enough info to get you started.

I love your idea of bridges; within a siloed, fragmented community, the thing that will bring them together are these connections. Beyond internetal (haha) interactions, what better than getting out into the community—physically—and getting to know these like-minded people? I think once this happens, you sustain these relationships online (via Twitter or a strong Austin blogger network) and then physically have a coworking space to congregate.

I invite you (and anyone else interested) to check out *three* events we’re having this weekend (each coincidentally headed by a cofounder of Conjunctured): http://moourl.com/kaphh. We’re usually out, so if you see on Twitter that we’re somewhere, send an @reply.

Hope to meet you in person soon!

]]> By: Alex http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-30847 Alex Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:58:32 +0000 http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/#comment-30847 Dusty, Conjunctured looks a lot like what I have bumping around in my head, and I hadn't dug into it deeply enough to the ground work y'all have already made. Amazing work! It's a shame that I wasn't able to make your presentation at the Bootstrap meeting last night, but I joined the Google Group and hope to help build the platform. Great job all around. Michelle, I agree 100% Having read through the manifesto, and talked a bit with some of the people driving the coworking movement, I think it's all about communication and transparency. As Alex Hillman noted in his original post and as the Conjunctured manifesto shows - communication, teaching and sharing are at the heart of the effort, which is one of the reasons why I love the direction they are heading and want to jump in. Dusty, Conjunctured looks a lot like what I have bumping around in my head, and I hadn’t dug into it deeply enough to the ground work y’all have already made. Amazing work! It’s a shame that I wasn’t able to make your presentation at the Bootstrap meeting last night, but I joined the Google Group and hope to help build the platform.

Great job all around.

Michelle, I agree 100% Having read through the manifesto, and talked a bit with some of the people driving the coworking movement, I think it’s all about communication and transparency. As Alex Hillman noted in his original post and as the Conjunctured manifesto shows – communication, teaching and sharing are at the heart of the effort, which is one of the reasons why I love the direction they are heading and want to jump in.

]]> By: Dusty Reagan http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-30841 Dusty Reagan Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:50:25 +0000 http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/#comment-30841 Great post Alex! So I believe what you're describing is what we're trying to create with Conjunctured. The "platform" we dubbed a "co-company," our particular implementation is "Conjunctured." For us the Coworking space is basically HQ. But the problem we're trying to solve is, how do we leverage the power of the community to help the individual. We're an agency/coworking space/incubator. One big thing we're big on is community building. To help with that we followed the lessons from open source software to create our manifesto. http://conjunctured.com/manifesto/ Also, check out this post for further explanation of what we're trying to do: http://tinyurl.com/6ngve6 Interested to hear what you think! Let's build a platform! :) Great post Alex! So I believe what you’re describing is what we’re trying to create with Conjunctured. The “platform” we dubbed a “co-company,” our particular implementation is “Conjunctured.”

For us the Coworking space is basically HQ. But the problem we’re trying to solve is, how do we leverage the power of the community to help the individual. We’re an agency/coworking space/incubator.

One big thing we’re big on is community building. To help with that we followed the lessons from open source software to create our manifesto. http://conjunctured.com/manifesto/

Also, check out this post for further explanation of what we’re trying to do: http://tinyurl.com/6ngve6

Interested to hear what you think! Let’s build a platform! :)

]]> By: Michelle Greer http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-30840 Michelle Greer Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:07:26 +0000 http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/#comment-30840 Don't forget to connect with the community at large. After all, the majority of what you build, design, market etc is actually for them. You can have more skills than anyone. If you don't know what your audience wants and are bad at communicating with them, you are wasting your time and theirs. Don’t forget to connect with the community at large. After all, the majority of what you build, design, market etc is actually for them. You can have more skills than anyone. If you don’t know what your audience wants and are bad at communicating with them, you are wasting your time and theirs.

]]> By: Bridging those creative communities; sparking a Big Bang http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-30839 Bridging those creative communities; sparking a Big Bang Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:48:48 +0000 http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/#comment-30839 [...] is asking for input on how to bridge the high-tech creative communities here in Austin. We’ve got several growing, active tech circles, Refresh Austin, Austin on Rails, Geek [...] [...] is asking for input on how to bridge the high-tech creative communities here in Austin. We’ve got several growing, active tech circles, Refresh Austin, Austin on Rails, Geek [...]

]]> By: Alex http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-30838 Alex Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:54:02 +0000 http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/#comment-30838 I agree - we have an established community, well I guess we have a few that overlap pretty heavily - Refresh Austin, <a href="http://geekaustin.org" rel="nofollow">Geek Austin</a>, <a href="http://wiki.workatjelly.com/JellyInAustin" rel="nofollow">Jelly</a>, <a href="http://austinonrails.org/" rel="nofollow">Austin on Rails</a> and some others and we are on track to get the physical spaces in the not-too-distant future. The last year has seen major growth within Refresh Austin based on membership and participation, and from what I've seen and heard anecdotally, the same has held true for the other groups. We have begun to improve the mixing and mingling, both formal via planned happy hours, meetings and the work put in by the folks behind Jelly and informal by encouraging the random lunches and happy hours. We can, and definitely will do more to promote that. I do my best to not only encourage the discussion, but to actively make the connections and blur the lines between the communities and there are many others within Austin working even harder, but it feels like there is more that we can do. Questions for everyone: What can we do to make it easy for folks who connect once to connect again? Which tools can we provide our communities to make it easier for them to grow and help improve the community? How do we pull in the business folks who are interested, but may not have the ability or schedule to attend gatherings like Jelly or Refresh? I agree – we have an established community, well I guess we have a few that overlap pretty heavily – Refresh Austin, Geek Austin, Jelly, Austin on Rails and some others and we are on track to get the physical spaces in the not-too-distant future.

The last year has seen major growth within Refresh Austin based on membership and participation, and from what I’ve seen and heard anecdotally, the same has held true for the other groups.

We have begun to improve the mixing and mingling, both formal via planned happy hours, meetings and the work put in by the folks behind Jelly and informal by encouraging the random lunches and happy hours. We can, and definitely will do more to promote that.

I do my best to not only encourage the discussion, but to actively make the connections and blur the lines between the communities and there are many others within Austin working even harder, but it feels like there is more that we can do.

Questions for everyone:

What can we do to make it easy for folks who connect once to connect again?

Which tools can we provide our communities to make it easier for them to grow and help improve the community?

How do we pull in the business folks who are interested, but may not have the ability or schedule to attend gatherings like Jelly or Refresh?

]]> By: Alex Hillman http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-30837 Alex Hillman Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:32:43 +0000 http://www.silverspider.com/2008/creative-bridges-coworking-communities/#comment-30837 I'm going to stick by my guns and say that the established community first is key. The physical space is secondary (convenient, but secondary). I firmly believe that going through an active regiment of community building, combining social, educational, technical, and coworking, will lead you to the end that you desire the quickest. Someone needs to step up and be prepared to play cruise director, though. The best thing in the world is to give the different slightly overlapping circles of interest that we're talking about chances to mix and mingle. A lot of the other stuff you're talking about will happen on its own, given the chance. So make YOUR job, giving it a chance to happen. I’m going to stick by my guns and say that the established community first is key. The physical space is secondary (convenient, but secondary).

I firmly believe that going through an active regiment of community building, combining social, educational, technical, and coworking, will lead you to the end that you desire the quickest. Someone needs to step up and be prepared to play cruise director, though.

The best thing in the world is to give the different slightly overlapping circles of interest that we’re talking about chances to mix and mingle. A lot of the other stuff you’re talking about will happen on its own, given the chance.

So make YOUR job, giving it a chance to happen.

]]>