Coworking
A group for folks looking for a place to work (with others). Meets every Tuesday at Stardust.
Hackathon: Building Apps for Charity
commandN is one of the premier video podcasts in the world, not to mention one of the longest-running. In a recent episode, they featured a short documentary about a Hackfest in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Held at a Coworking space in Halifax called The Hub, a group of designers, programmers and marketers gathered to create small applications for entertainment, social connections, and creativity. The apps are then sold on the iTunes store, with all benefits going to charity.
The segment, from commandN episode 214 is called "Spotlight", and it starts about 5 minutes in to the video:
Urban Think! To re-open as a Creative Center, Please Take the Survey
Into Coworking? Make stuff? Are you a writer? Looking for a space to hold events? Hoping to have a decent place to work, collaborate, and meet downtown? You should fill out this survey.
In March of 2010, after eight years as a community bookstore in downtown Orlando and Thornton Park, the Urban Think! Bookstore closed its doors, leaving as its legacy the Urban Think! Foundation.
The Foundation believes that when creativity flourishes, the community benefits, and through its mission to enrich Orlando's cultural landscape the Foundation is working to re-think the bookstore space as a creative center serving the Orlando community.
Please join us in helping shape the future of the former bookstore by filling out this short survey to assess how this new space might serve you.
What's the most important feature of a Coworking space?
From an old survey conducted by Tara Hunt (missrogue) on the global Coworking mailing list:
| Features | Importance (out of 5) |
|---|---|
| Atmosphere | 4.5 |
| Community Feeling | 4.3 |
| Collaborative Environment | 4.1 |
| Location | 4.0 |
| Networking Opportunities | 3.9 |
| Excellent Coworkers | 3.7 |
| Meeting Spaces | 3.7 |
| Quiet Spaces | 3.4 |
| Security | 3.2 |
| 24 hr Access | 3.1 |
| Event spaces | 2.9 |
| Privacy | 2.8 |
| Personalized Space (own desk) | 2.6 |
The Space is not the Community
A coworking space in New York, NY recently found out their lease is up on May 1st - not a lot of time to find a new home in the big city. In the mean time, they're looking for temporary space for 12-25 people.
http://www.nwcny.com/blog/2010/04/new-project-nwc-2-0/
This reminds me a lot of what Orlando does right now on Tuesdays, but they have to do it every day, until further notice, and their community is used to paying for a chair in a space, traveling to the office, holding meetings, going to community events, etc.
This is a real test of community strength. Could we do this for a month, while waiting for Urban Think to open? 3 months? Six?
They also mention the BREAKOUT festival: http://www.breakoutfestival.org/
Creative Resources Across the Globe
Outside of Florida, a whole tumultuous world of content exists. What are some that may be useful to folks on this site?
Video
- TED: Ideas worth spreading Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world
- South by SouthWest on YouTube Every year in March, SXSW entertains thousands of attendees at its Interactive, Film and Music conferences & festivals in Austin TX.
Location
