Getting self-referential for a minute, I’ve talked here before about the tyranny of expensive space here in Singapore for startup creatives and also about the co-working space The Change You Want To See, in Williamsburg, NYC.

I know I go on about it a bit, but it’s a pet subject of mine. I was reading something in the paper today that included the term “building a renaissance city” and I’m sure people a block away heard me screaming from my balcony “they don’t come from blueprints, dipsticks!”.

I digress. Here’s some “I wish we had this here” eye-candy.

The Shelter is a government supported co-working space, which opened this year in Dubai.

For around $80 per month you get:

• ergonomic, flexible workspaces (with provided secretarial services)
• a cinema/auditorium for lectures and screenings
• a library housing over a thousand books on cultural and creative topics (including up to date reference texts)
• a small shop offering tools of the trade as well as design objects
• a brasserie offering affordable and healthful fare
• a garden, for much needed breaks from work

Imagine how valuable this is to small businesses trying to get started in creative industries, not to mention the kind of networking opportunities it must offer them.

pics (and facts) from Core 77

Da più parti giungono segnali su cosa potrà rappresentare nel futuro il fenomeno della solidarietà sociale. Illustri economisti ritengono che i problemi dell’occupazione e dello sviluppo sostenibile potranno essere affrontati dando valore economico alla solidarietà sociale.
Il fiorire di vere e proprie attività economiche che hanno come missione la solidarietà sociale testimoniano che la strada è già stata intrapresa. 
 
Coworking Udine vuole favorire lo sviluppo di imprese e di manager in questo settore.
Per confrontarci su questi temi e discutere sulle possibili opportunità di imprenditoria e managerialità, ti invitiamo a partecipare all’incontro del 30 novembre 2009 alle ore 17.30 negli spazi di Coworking Udine. 

Per iscriversi e per ottenere maggiori informazioni sulle modalità di partecipazione tel 0432 544660 o coworkingudine@gmail.com

Avete notato il nuovo logo in alto a destra?  Da oggi Coworking Udine è affiliato a Coworking Project, progetto nato da Cowo Milano nell’aprile 2008 per creare una rete di coworking uniti da un approccio coerente e razionalizzato e che ora conta 25 affiliati dislocati in varie città italiane (per la lista completa visita http://coworkingproject.com) . La rete di coworking Cowo offre anche una convenzione Hotel in 7 città italiane, grazie alla collaborazione con il gruppo Camplus Foresterie: tutti i coworker registrati negli spazi Cowo possono quindi usufruire di condizioni di favore per pernottare a Milano, Torino, Venezia, Parma, Ferrara, Bologna (due sedi), Catania.

Eccol la nostra scheda di presentazione all’interno del sito coworkingproject.com:
http://coworkingproject.com/udine-ufficity
e il post di benvenuto:
http://coworkingproject.com/2009/11/24/coworking-a-udine-citta-fiera/

Corriere della Sera, Carriere & Lavoro, pag. 42

Anche Coworking Udine, citato nell’articolo, fra pochi giorni diventerà membro di Coworking Project.

“La scelta di aprire un ufficio al Città Fiera di Martignacco è in linea con la nostra filosofia di essere presenti, il più possibile, dove ci può essere richiesta di servizi alle imprese, dove per servizi intendiamo l’integrazione di tutti quelli offerti dalle società del gruppo e dai suoi partner consolidati”. Giovanni Da Pozzo, presidente provinciale di Confcommercio, spiega così la decisione di allargare la presenza di Servizi Imprese Udine Srl, società del gruppo Confcommercio .

UN’OCCASIONE PER CITTA’ FIERA
“É la nascita di una preziosa collaborazione per consolidare la sinergia sia con Confcommercio che con il territorio friulano, grazie all’implementazione dei servizi offerti ai clienti – afferma Antonio Maria Bardelli, presidente di un gruppo che conta circa 6,5 milioni di frequenze all’anno e oltre 200 insegne –. Ma si tratta anche di un’occasione per il Città Fiera di sviluppare in maniera importante la zona direzionale. Del resto, rafforzare il legame con i servizi alle imprese e il “popolo” della partita Iva è un obiettivo testimoniato dagli ampi spazi già dedicati in questa direzione dal nostro centro commerciale”.
I PROGETTI IN CORSO
Il riferimento è a Office Gallery, negozi specializzati nelle forniture per uffici e titolari di partita Iva, e uffiCity, area destinata a sede sia temporanea che stabile di uffici. La scorsa settimana, aggiunge Bardelli, “è stato inoltre presentato il progetto Coworking, il quinto in Italia dopo Milano, Roma, Torino e Prato, che si avvale di spazi condivisi destinati a lavoratori nomadi, giovani che stanno costruendo il loro futuro, ma anche ad aziende e professionisti intenzionati a far nascere opportunità e collaborazioni lavorative”.
I NUMERI
Servizi Imprese, è stato spiegato quindi in conferenza stampa, proprio nella nuova sede, fornisce servizi nel settore contabilità e gestione del personale da 30 anni, conta circa 1400 aziende clienti ma si rivolge anche a professionisti, consorzi d’imprese, privati, associazioni, enti pubblici e privati. I consulenti fiscali e i consulenti del lavoro che collaborano con Servizi Imprese Udine, garantiscono una assistenza personalizzata a ogni cliente, utile alla soluzione delle problematiche relative alla loro attività. 

Fonte: www.ascom.ud.it

Coworking Udine lancia la prima sfida ai suoi tesserati: il progetto riguarda la realizzazione di uno strumento multimediale per la progettazione automatizzata all’interno del centro di arredamento.

Ti ricordiamo che per partecipare è necessario acquistare la Coworking Card.

Per informazioni:

mail: coworkingudine@gmail.com

tel: 0432 544660 – 544600

Vista la nostra volontà di favorire la nascita di reti professionali tra singoli, aziende ed altre realtà attive sul territorio, Coworking Udine ha già stipulato una convenzione con l’associazione FriulIn.

Ecco il link per consultare le condizioni della convenzione.

FriulIN

Ricordiamo inoltre che Sabato 21 novembre dalle 10:30 alle 12:30  presso la Sala Assemblee Fondazione CRUP – Via Manin, 15 Udine  FriulIn presenta ESPERIENZE DI CAMBIAMENTO: Come sta evolvendo il Friuli Venezia Giulia? Università, banche, aziende ed istituzioni si confrontano in una tavola rotonda aperta al pubblico.

 Scarica la locandina dell’evento: FriulIn presenta Esperienze di cambiamento

Scarica il PDF della presentazione.

Presentazione Missio

It was a great turnout yesterday for the co-working meeting at Crema Café in Minneapolis! Co-owner Carrie Gustafson is a gracious and welcoming host who provided us with coffee, tea and a warm environment in which to get to know each other.

Co-working at Crema Café

Amy

To kick things off, I briefly shared with everyone the (short) story of how this all came to be. It’s hard to believe that it was less than two months ago that I posted this entry about my co-working dream for the Twin Cities. This is proof positive that you just need to Play BIG and put your dreams out there. You never know who will step up to help.

Zack

Two weeks ago, Zack Steven and I met (at a coffee shop – how’s that for irony?) to chat about how we could make co-working happen right away. Zack came up with the idea to approach Crema Café to see if they’d be interested in having a group of wah-hoo’s taking up space in a little co-working experiment. We met with Carrie at Crema Café a few days later and a good idea became reality. I’ve been blogging about co-working and led a discussion about it at the UnSummit three weeks ago, so there was already a groundswell of interest when I sent out the invitation for the event here on the blog and on Twitter.

Please visit our Ning social networking site Crema Café Co-working community to check out the pictures of everyone who was there and join in the fun. There’s still room for YOU to be a part of the community. Sign up, add a photo, introduce yourself and join us for co-working at Crema next Tuesday, November 3rd.

At the Ning site, in keeping with our spirit of collaboration you can click on a photo of someone and read about what they do, what they’re passionate about and what they’re interested in collaborating with others on. This way, you’ll be able to come to work every Tuesday in November and know how you can help and who can help you! Plus, this isn’t just all business. We have folks interested in collaborating on travel to South America, music, and even someone who would like to band together and start a revolution!

If I had to name the most important thing that brought all of these talented, passionate and successful people together to make this happen, it’s social media. It has the power to connect people in real life to help us do more than we’d be able to do on our own.

If you’d like to know more about co-working, social media and creating connections that create positive impact visit the Social Media and Conferences/Meetings tabs above and then contact Amy at 612-710-7279 and Zack at 612-869-9794. You can also check out Zack’s cool work at Monkey Island Inc.

Con grande emozione apriamo la porta dell’ufficio coworking… Rosso, arancione e fuxia…questi sono i colori dominanti…un ambiente accogliente e vivace che stimola la creatività e favorisce la concentrazione.

8 ampie postazioni lavoro dotate di sedie e PC con connessione alla rete wireless, stampante, fotocopiatrice e fax.

In fondo alla sala uno spazio riunioni dove domina il muro-lavagna: basta un pennarello per dare libero sfogo alla propria creatività …chissà quante idee, quante elucubrazioni, quanti progetti nasceranno da questo spazio ora bianco…

Tra pochi giorni si terrà la conferenza stampa che darà il via ufficiale a COWORKING UDINE.

Vi terremo aggiornati sugli sviluppi.

Calling all Twin Cities friends who are interested in co-working and engaging with diverse people in meaningful and innovative ways! We aim to create and support imaginative and entrepreneurial initiatives for a radically better community.

There’s a lot brewing in the co-working space and within months there will be some definitive options available to all of us. In the meantime, we’d like to stop thinking about it and JUST DO IT.

Therefore, we’ve secured a comfy interim space for the month of November. For just ten bucks a day we’ll have wifi-fi, coffee and meaningful connections! There’s only room right now for 15 passionate people to collaborate with us, and a few spots are already taken. We’ll start with one day a week and see what emerges.

You’re invited to an informational meeting to meet other talented and passionate people and check out the space:

When:  Tuesday, October 27^th

Time:    Noon

Where: Crèma Café

3403 Lyndale Avenue South

Minneapolis MN 55408

Please sign up for the mailing list on the right side of the page to RSVP. I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday. Let’s get down to good business!

~Amy

Clicca sul link per scoprire tutti i servizi e i vantaggi che ti può offrire UffiCity Business Center: uffici in locazione, uffici temporanei arredati, uffici virtuali ed ora anche….coworking!

Tutto questo lo puoi trovare al centro commerciale Città Fiera (Torreano di Martignacco – UD) al secondo piano della piramide.

pagina pubblic. uffiCity

I’m going to be leading a session this Saturday Oct. 10th 11:20am-12pm at the UnSummit about co-working and social entrepreneurism and by leading a session, I mean starting a conversation. We have a short forty minutes to cover some complicated topics but what I hope to accomplish is to help attendees get a better understanding of what a social entrepreneur is and why co-working can be so much more than just sharing office space. I hope to leave you inspired and with the understanding that by working together we can do so much more for our community than we realize. Come prepared to Play BIG and talk next steps. Please join me and share your insights!

WOW! So a new breed of entrepreneurs are pooling together to co-exist in office spaces. Not only does it allow for more productive surroundings, but it also pushes for meeting like-minded individuals!

Imagine an office where everyone is the boss. Everyone there has a different profession, yet may still be useful to one another. This is the future start-up entrepreneur! WOW

www.Entrepreneur.com: Solo, But Not Alone - A new generation of entrepreneurs is congregating in “co-working” spaces across the country.

Grazie a Contributi FVG per gli apprezzamenti.

contributifvg.com

Co-working is one of my BIG dreams for the Twin Cities area. But it’s not just about shared workspace, people! Maybe that’s why the concept has failed to attract a lot of interest so far. The ideas and plans I’ve seen for co-working in the Twin Cities are dry, soulless business plans. “We provide desks, computers, (and even a kitchen area!) for a mere $400/month.” I don’t know about you, but with a pitch like that, I’d rather stay plugged in at the local coffee shop. At its heart, co-working should really be about deep collaboration with like-minded people. I want to share space with passionate, social innovators with BIG ideas and the optimism and ethical drive to believe they can create positive change. The Twin Cities needs a gathering place for cultural creatives to break free from isolation and cliques in order to connect with people who can help us be more, do more, and serve more. See if this gets you as excited as it gets me about co-working:

So that gives a great idea of what the space would look and function like during the day. But wait, there’s more. I envision the space transforming at night into a place for lectures, debates, speakers, facilitators, dinners, cultural events and salons – all geared towards the desire to PlayBIG and make the Twin Cities and our world a better place. Therefore, this space is meaningful to more than just the tenants who rent work space there- it’s truly a gathering place available to anyone who wants to connect with others to get inspired and create radical change.

Oh, and I forgot to mention one of the most important features of this wonderful place: it will have affordable on-site daycare.

Are you interested in a space like this? How can we make it happen?  Are there grants available for this type of project? I’m thinking of hosting a co-working conversation in the near future to garner support, harvest ideas and connect to resources. Perhaps I’ll call the conversation when I begin blogging for Upsize Magazine and have access to a larger audience of Twin Cities biz owners. It’s important to have as many stakeholders as possible be part of the conversation. We would be responsible together for making it the kind of place where people want to be in community. Please, comment and let me know your thoughts on co-working.

If you are outside of the Twin Cities community, would you like to have co-working in your city? What will you do about it?

Over the summer Spirit have been trying out a new experience of co-working and hot desking space. Recognising the distractions and isolation that home-working sometimes brings, Rachel decided to have a look at FunkBunk, a collaborative studio in Wing, Buckinghamshire. FunkBunk is designed for creative freelancers like ourselves who need that extra breathing space to focus or bounce ideas off other creatives, and can work there for a half day, day or even full time for the whole week.

We have found the experience to be a very positive one, the guys are very friendly, helpful and creative. We get to keep up to date with industry trends and work in a calming, inspiring space, at the same time networking with other creatives. The hot-desking facility is a great way to dip your toe in the water without the commitment of a full-time office and Rachel now tends to see it as a treat to get out of the home office and feel inspired again. We are hoping to work from FunkBunk much more regularly in the future, so watch this space!

Some exciting news that has come out of the whole experience too is that Rachel got to appear in the promo video! You can see the whole video here.

Escritório do Studio Ideias, localizado na Vila Madalena

O Studio Idéias, empresa especializada em estudos de comportamento e consumo, aposta na plataforma evento como mídia para conteúdo estratégico. A intenção é casar o seu cor-business, o estudo de conexões humanas e a investigação multidisciplinar, com o incentivo de outras produções criativas, com um novo produto: a curadoria de eventos.

Atualmente, convivem em seu espaço, profissionais das ciências humanas e da comunicação estratégica. A inteção é abrigar, a partir de agosto, profissionais liberais das artes, design, midias digitais e produtores independentes para um debate em torno do tema: Cultura Urbana.

O espaço localizado na Rua Madalena (Vila Madalena) será batizado como Coletivo Idéias. Lá, funcionarão o Studio Idéias, o escritório de planejamento estratégico e um espaço para eventos,  e produção de trabalhos independentes.

O primeiro evento está batizado como Território Urbano e prevê uma arena de debates sobre a produção independente de moda, arte e design.

…è trascorso un po’ di tempo dall’ultima volta che abbiamo indossato un cappello colorato…oggi vi proponiamo di indossare il cappello VERDE . Il pensatore con il cappello verde utilizza le tecniche del pensiero “laterale” per cercare alternative, superare ciò che è noto generando così nuovi concetti.

Con il cappello verde si possono esternare idee strane, proposte alternative, eliminando quindi ogni filtro razionale…lasciatevi trasportare dalla vostra creatività!

Un modo diverso per vedere il coworking è…. (a voi la parola)

July has been and incredibly full month! We kicked off the summer with our “social experiment on community exhibition,” which is still up and can be visited during our public hours: Mondays from 6-8PM @ 1160 Broadway, 5th floor.

On July 10, we had the second of an ongoing series called, “Social Supper @ SALT,” as an extension of the conversation from June’s GoodMeet@SALT on finding sanctuary.

We gathered food from the various stations set up around the room, to encourage us to move around and mingle. Good food; lovely fresh fruit platters and peach mint soup, home made pizza and thai peanut noodles. After filling our plates with all the yummy food we circled up for an introduction and all answered the question, “Where do you find sanctuary.” Some knew exactly where they found it: in long walks in good books in friendship. Others thought a while before answering: in meditation and prayer, with tea, in the living room.

We heard from Glenda Reed on “The Living Room” project as she showed us video and photographs of people improvising their bodies as moving and breathing living spaces.

Michele Brody shared a very special tea ceremony with us. She had an array of wonderful organic teas set up to choose from. After finishing the tea, she dried out the tea bags for us with an iron and invited us to write our reflections on the bags. We took some time to write about what tea and sanctuary and this social supper meant to us and afterwards hung up the bags on the same lines that we used for the “social experiment on community exhibit.”  Michele will be back to collect these bags and use them as art material for a window installation at the Tenement Museum in the Lower East Side.

Joe Garrad puts up his tea bag reflection

Claude invited us to journal about  Sanctuary: How do I get there and why is it so hard to get there? in one of the several interesting notebooks he provided for us. Those journals may appear in our next Social Supper.

Joe Garrad showed us a video that he created in order to translate a child’s (Jonah Ramey 8 ) recollection of his dreams through video footage and images. It evoked both smiles and mystery.

We listened to the debut album project of Devin Martin and David Wesson, The Emergence:  an album created by mailing beats and tracks back and forth from Brooklyn to Boston to chronicle stories of homelessness and waking to realization that our purpose might be greater than the immediate selfishness found in the lives around us.  The project’s aim is to give away 1000 CDs in exchange for your contact info which Devin has plans to use to create a shared network of people’s passion projects.

The entire night was filled with great conversation and new friends and we are looking forward to hosting the next Social Supper@SALT and will post more details soon!

For 4 Mondays in the summer, SALT opened its doors from 10AM-5PM for Open Office Hours, a beta co-working group hosted by Erik Fabian of Double Happiness.  Come in and use the space all day for a donation of $5-$10, coffee and WIFI provided. These co-working days will continue until August 10th. Come and tell a friend! You can RSVP for Aug 3 or Aug 10.

SALT was full of people sharing creative ideas and collaborating!

Lucid NYC used the SALT artspace for an event coordinated by David Friedlander on July 16th. It was part-symposium, part-party, and all but banal where three speakers, experts in their fields, spoke for twenty minutes. Daniel Pinchbeck, Dickson Despommier, and Amanda Parks all shared intriguing ideas on future innovations and thought processes, including 2012, vertical farming, and robotics.

Chloe Bass and TJ Hospodar of The Work Office performed SOUP KITCHEN: a Dinner Party for Un- and Underemployed Professionals at SALT on July 20th from 6 – 9pm.  Thinking of people close to them affected by the recent cutbacks and layoffs, the two artists sought to fill this need by offering warm, home-cooked meals to anyone hungry.  Some responded to the invitations sent out by Chloe and TJ, as well as The Work Office, but most were passersby pulled off the street with the promise of “FREE FOOD!”  The artists wondered, “Can we beat the odds by eating communally? Considering our neighbors? Sharing our resources?  And how much sharing is too much?”

Excerpt from the project statement: SOUP KITCHEN adopts the structure of a true soup kitchen: meals cooked in bulk, food served cafeteria style with very little individual control over portion size or item choice, and tables where one may be forced to sit with (and interact with the eating habits of) strangers. Who is willing to attend a soup kitchen? Who only feels comfortable at a dinner party?  SOUP KITCHEN walks the line between economic reality, perceived status, and dining preference.

It was a pretty diverse audience group and many Soup Kitchen attendees participated in the SALT’s “social experiment on community” by contributing and arranging drawings.  Those being fed were able to give back to the space in an unorthodox but beautiful way, hopefully giving them a sense of pride and purpose in a situation where they would normally only be takers.

SALT is being blogged about! Check out:

The Neighborbee Blog and Asphalt Eden for more SALTy goodness!

Disonancias en al red

Por J.A. galaso Cerezo

Aprovechemos al que es diferente

Voy a intentar hacer un triple mortal con tirabuzón (debe ser que ayer estuve viendo los mundiales de natación por la tele) e hilar unos cuantos conceptos que hasta ahora han estado apareciendo como reflexiones independientes y creo que se merecen estar unidos en algunos aspectos.

Por un lado, cada vez entendemos que las redes sociales y la tecnología que da lugar a estos elementos sobre internet (recordemos el post de ayer en el que comentaba que hay que diferenciar ambas cosas) se están falcando como auténtico modelo de puesta en marcha de una revolución 2.0 dentro de las organizaciones. Por otro lado, he comentado varias veces que las disosnacias son un buen ejemplo de como cambiar valores (worth) y modelos dentro de una organización. Es decir, dos líneas de cambio que pueden ser unidas para conseguir mayor eficacia.

El primero de los artefactos consigue que la gente se organice y genere lazos de cohesión importantes para poner en marcha un proyecto o una actividad, además, lo consigue por algo esencial que es el liderazgo (si lo queremos entender así, o el mando por la competencia y no por la jerarquía), por lo que es posible que en una red social se organice de una manera diferente a la jerarquía de la empresa y eso ya es un gran primer paso.

Pero existe una contrapartida, las redes sociales suelen ser discriminantes, es decir, tienden a excluir de una manera natural a todo elemento que no guarda una cierta armonía con el grupo. Todos lo hemos vivido, y cuanto más tiempo lleva unida la red social más excluyente se vuelve, es como si volviera a copiar lo modelos de los que huyó en sus orígenes. Desde ese punto de vista la introducción de las disonancias parece una misión complicada.

Como ya he dicho en otros post, parece que las redes sociales se están convirtiendo en una especie de rebaños donde lo importante es mantener a las ovejitas juntas y que el rebaño sea grande, así lo pastoreamos mejor, por lo tanto si el objetivo es pastorear de disonancias nada. Acabamos de matar la innovación.

Es necesario enseñar a la red a disonar, a admitir en su seno a elementos diferentes que les hagan cambiar perspectivas y pensamientos, que les obliguen a repensar en los valores y a retomar su origen. Esto es factible, complicado, pero factible, porque la otra alternativa es más dura, consistiría en montar y desmontar la red constantemente en función de las necesidades a cumplir, lo que implica que la red no podrá generar necesidades propias y tenderá a desmotivarse.

Además, para utilizar el segundo método es imprescindible que todas las personas entiendan la red social como un entorno de trabajo y la plataforma tecnológica como el espacio del entorno, cosa que es complicada.

Para alguien sin oficina, es fácil deshaces lo hecho, no suelo tener mucho arraigo a las cosas, pero no es el caso habitual. Admitir a los disonantes dentro de la red es el reto para que las redes sociales se transformen en redes innovadoras y no acaben siendo estrellas fugaces.