More on Co-Working

Andy and I viewed a great location today for Co-Working. We’ll likely post photos over the next day or so but right now we’re wanting to know who will be interested in taking a space. It really is time to put your chips on the table. I’ve also posted a little update on the Digital … Continue reading “More on Co-Working”

Andy and I viewed a great location today for Co-Working. We’ll likely post photos over the next day or so but right now we’re wanting to know who will be interested in taking a space. It really is time to put your chips on the table. I’ve also posted a little update on the Digital Circle blog and sent this message onto the OpenCoffee mailing list.

I reckon we can fit 20 people in there which brings the rent down considerably per person – down to £100 per month which is incredibly good. The venue isn’t perfect but nothing other than a custom venue will be and I think it’s important that we put our foot down, stand up and be counted.

At the Digital Island Meetup last Thursday it was argued that the reason broadband in the Republic of Ireland is so poor is that it has yet to be proved by broadband faster than 512 Kbps is needed. The point was made by the panel that unless people get faster connections, that’s impossible to prove – like deciding to build roads after everyone decides they need a car. This is why it’s important to show that it’s time for Belfast to have some sort of Digital Hub – that the people needing it are here waiting.

I have, with the help of BCC, applied for some funding under the Creative Industries Innovation Fund for computer equipment and desking but we don’t have to wait for that in order to get started.

[UPDATE: Andy posted his own blog entry which includes an excellent photo]

Who is interested? Seriously.

Coming soon: Black Box Horror Film Club

Also this week at the Black Box, is the Pre-Symposium Event for ISEA2009. Related posts: Jonathan Gems on the abolition of the UKFC London, City of the Future The Saturday Night Really Tedious Film Club This Life Is Ours….video coming soon…

Also this week at the Black Box, is the Pre-Symposium Event for ISEA2009.

Moving ideas to implementation and beyond…

I’ve just penned a long post over at the DigitalCircle blog about taking ideas to the next stage. I’ve covered this before here and here. The post is focussing on some of the initiatives which are out there in the province for doing just that. Again, I’d mentioned this before here and here. I find … Continue reading “Moving ideas to implementation and beyond…”

I’ve just penned a long post over at the DigitalCircle blog about taking ideas to the next stage. I’ve covered this before here and here.

The post is focussing on some of the initiatives which are out there in the province for doing just that. Again, I’d mentioned this before here and here.

I find it both amusing and exciting that there is increased opportunity for people to get their ideas realised. It’s like an XFactor for ideas rather than singers which, on the face of it, might be a better model than a Dragon’s Den (which let’s face it, both are getting very tired). It also smacks of Cambrian House which espoused crowd-sourcing as it’s primary model of innovation and market research. (The problem being that crowds tend to be stupid rather than smart). So while it failed, it wasn’t necessarily all bad.

This all shows that there is a market for helping people with vision get stuff done. And isn’t that what venture capital is meant to be all about. We have a poor VC network in Northern Ireland in terms of both quality and quantity. The very best tend to be entrenched in businesses they understand very well and that, for all the frustration it might cause post-Web 2.0 entrepreneurs is perfectly reasonable as it would be folly to expect an investor to put money into a venture they didn’t understand. That said – unless we start to see VCs with a little experience in the tech world, we’re not going to be able to change things.

On top of the schemes I mention on the DC blog, there’s something else planned for next summer which, at the moment, is still in stealth mode (insofar as not very much has been done for it but there’s energy, ideas and time).

Co-Working….somewhere near Tipperary?

While I was off cruising around Northern Europe and Scandinavia, Evert wrote about setting up a co-working centre: Spurred on by posts on co-working.ie and a recent post on Techcrunch UK I’ve decided to get serious with my plans for a Co-working/techhub/start-up center. While I have certain ideas on how I would like to setup … Continue reading “Co-Working….somewhere near Tipperary?”

While I was off cruising around Northern Europe and Scandinavia, Evert wrote about setting up a co-working centre:

Spurred on by posts on co-working.ie and a recent post on Techcrunch UK I’ve decided to get serious with my plans for a Co-working/techhub/start-up center. While I have certain ideas on how I would like to setup & run such a center I need the input of potential users. I do not intend to run it for my own benefit so rather than just come up with a list of requirements myself I am looking for input from outside sources.

Paul Campbell’s comment holds a lot of water in my books:

From your list, I’d say only the following are necessary:
– post boxes
– fast broadband (most necessary)
– out-off hours access (definitely, keys ftw)
– security, storage facilities (generally a place that is free from potential theft is good)

Evert has kept it close to his chest where he intends to open this centre but it seems to be off the N7 somewhere near Nenagh.

The most basic co-working facility really just needs desks, power and internet. Everything else is really gravy (yeah, even toilets). You can get by on cheap plywood desks (or a door sitting flat across some boxes), wooden chairs and a slow 512 Kbps line. And if the co-working space is important to you, then this is how you’ll set it up much like how it’s possible to write and publish a book while subsisting on 9p Ramen from Tesco or how it might be necessary to sleep a couple of hours under your desk at work rather than bothering with the commute because time is of the essence.

So if it matters, then just do it.

For comfort, however, you’re going to want more. This could be a £350 coffee pod machine, Aeron chairs, multi-megabyte UPLOADS as well as downloads, air-conditioning, natural light, all-hours access, more than one power outlet per person, telephones, secure storage, meeting rooms, scrum areas, whiteboards, projectors and a flesh-and-blood PA – it’s all going to cost money which means you have to pay for these things up-front.

Before all of this, you have to find a place. Unless you know someone who owns property or own it yourself, it’s likely going to involve a commercial lease – and they’re seldom less than 5 years. You might be lucky and get it for less but there are usually onerous problems with that.

Venture Altruists

I first read the term in Charles Stross’ Accelerando ( which is quite good though horribly dated now ) and it reminded me of one of the first group activities we had on board the ship; the emergency drill. In theory you move without fuss or panic to the muster stations and don your life-jacket. … Continue reading “Venture Altruists”

I first read the term in Charles Stross’ Accelerando ( which is quite good though horribly dated now ) and it reminded me of one of the first group activities we had on board the ship; the emergency drill.

In theory you move without fuss or panic to the muster stations and don your life-jacket. The person behind you is meant to check you’ve put the damn thing on correctly (because if not you’ll vanish beneath the waves when you hit the water leaving an otherwise perfectly functional life-jacket bobbing about up top. You then do it for them. The network of trust this created means you get a benefit from helping others.

In my TA days, this was called the Buddy-Buddy system. Keeping your squad alive meant they’d be around to save your neck later (and presumably not just by drawing fire as an additional target).

There’s a lot to be said for the concept of the venture altruist ( or the altrupreneur ) especially when you consider the enthusiasm shown at the local Open Coffee Club meetings in Belfast. BOCC is still in the state of talking about stuff and not yet really at the state of doing stuff. I’d like to change that by encouraging everyone to consider being a venture altruist fir a while.

Altrupreneurs share. It’s not about being there first, it’s not about NDAs, it’s not even about waiting until you are ready. It’s about throwing something interesting into the melting pot.

Ideas are almost worthless without implementation – I don’t recall where I got this from but a ideas and implementations can be ranked from $1 to $1000. Take the values and multiply them. A $1000 idea if given a $1 implementation doesn’t make anyone happy. A $1 idea can also disappoint even if given a $1000 implementation. You really need to give a $1000 idea a $1000 implementation to see real results ( though this leaves plenty if room for $100 ideas and $100 implementations).

Altrupreneurs, the people you might find at any Open Coffee meeting, will be willing to do more than just listen and give opinions. Their contacts and expertise is worth a lot more than a cheque from a venture capitalist They’re the people to ask about hosting space for your startup, the people who’ll loan you a desk while you bootstrap your company, who aren’t afraid to pick up the tab or who will work to find sponsorship for a crazy pitch they just heard.

Treat the crazy pitch like your buddy and help him check his lifejacket so he can keep his head above water.

CoWorking: profit or non-profit

LaunchPad CoWorking An interview with Jerome Chang, founder of Blankspaces: Spike: You’re also using a for-profit business model (as is LaunchPad Coworking). How did you decide on this model? Did you take any heat for it? Jerome: I’m all for pushing collaboration and communities — if profit is what it takes to generate more participants … Continue reading “CoWorking: profit or non-profit”

LaunchPad CoWorking
An interview with Jerome Chang, founder of Blankspaces:

Spike: You’re also using a for-profit business model (as is LaunchPad Coworking). How did you decide on this model? Did you take any heat for it?
Jerome: I’m all for pushing collaboration and communities — if profit is what it takes to generate more participants and advance the cultural movement, then profit it is. Between the time and effort, money, and liability, we should be rewarded for that contribution and exposure. Besides, I didn’t know about coworking at all until I’d already started construction, so I was not “influenced” by the altruism.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that a Co-Working site needs to be a ‘company’ as opposed to a ‘charity’.

I’ve seen lots of non-profits fall by the wayside due to the founders needing to move on and it’s hard to find people with the right mentality to take over. I’ve seen non-profits founder because without the extra edge of needing to make a profit (and reaping benefits thereof) the good will can vanish.

I’m well aware that people working at a non-profit can draw salaries and that the non-profit moniker has been used in order to attract attention while the ‘workers’ draw insanely large salaries. I guess I’m not comfortable hiding behind the tax benefits of a non-profit while engaged in something that is creating things ‘for profit’.

But let’s run with the current school of thought. That CoWorkingBelfast will be a non-profit organisation.

That said – if I have anything to do with it, CoWorkingBelfast will have to be a shining light and not just a damp squib. I want it to be excellent, a model place to work and not just a set of desks in a dreary room above a bank. It has to make enough money to survive and prosper and not just be a half-empty space which has to resort to arcane marketing schemes disguised as trade shows in order to generate a bit of coin.

Part of the Co-Working Belfast ethos should, in my opinion, to create ‘industry culture’ in Northern Ireland. That’s got to be more than just creating a web portal (and how many of those have sprung up in the last year or so) but the creation of a lasting legacy, a tradition of fostering creativity in the technology sector. CoWorking is not about technology itself – it’s about connecting people where they were not previously connected.

Part of the culture of CoWorking Belfast should not only be the opportunities and connections which are brought about by proximity but also the potential for fostering tomorrow’s industry (you know, the people who will be paying taxes when you and I are in a home for the elderly). I have a plan which consists of nothing more than a couple of pledges, a holding page on a web site and a monthly bill which I’ll work to find sponsorship for – which will be wholly dedicated to finding people with energy, be they young in body or just young in mind, and giving them a place to work and express their creativity as well as providing mentoring (by using and abusing the people housed in the CoWorking building) – more on this later.

Through this meandering post I’m convincing myself that CoWorkingBelfast can be a no-profit. What do you think?

“Cargotecture”

WebUrbanist: From self-transforming shipping container rooms to towering retail spaces and emergency housing here are ten additional examples of amazing recycled designs… Is the fact that I love the idea of cargo-container buildings just a fad? I think it would be even better as a co-working facility especially if it was completely recycled outfitted by … Continue reading ““Cargotecture””

WebUrbanist:

From self-transforming shipping container rooms to towering retail spaces and emergency housing here are ten additional examples of amazing recycled designs…

Is the fact that I love the idea of cargo-container buildings just a fad? I think it would be even better as a co-working facility especially if it was

  1. completely recycled
  2. outfitted by the co-workers
  3. .

More from the WebUrbanist.

Coworking Microsupport

Microfinance see Microcredit. –noun the lending of very small amounts of money at low interest, esp. to a start-up company or self-employed person. The problem with Microfinance and Microcredit is that, at the end of the day, someone ends up owing someone else money. And that’s a shaky way to get started in anything. The … Continue reading “Coworking Microsupport”

Microfinance

see Microcredit. –noun
the lending of very small amounts of money at low interest, esp. to a start-up company or self-employed person.

The problem with Microfinance and Microcredit is that, at the end of the day, someone ends up owing someone else money. And that’s a shaky way to get started in anything.

The concept of Microfinance for small businesses in return for equity in the business has already been successfully applied via Paul Graham’s Ycombinator.

Y Combinator does seed funding for startups. Seed funding is the earliest stage of venture funding. It pays your expenses while you’re getting started.
We make small investments (rarely more than $20,000) in return for small stakes in the companies we fund (usually 2-10%).
What happens at Y Combinator? The most important thing we do is work with startups on their ideas. We’re hackers ourselves, and we’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how to make things people want. So we can usually see fairly quickly the direction in which a small idea should be expanded, or the point at which to begin attacking a large but vague one.

This seems to me to be a different slant on the pre-Bubble concept of ‘code for pizza’. I knew a couple of smart guys back pre-2000 who worked full time for companies in return for pizza and promises while in receipt of unemployment benefit – they were doing the right thing after all – making a real concerted effort to get off the unemployment line by trying to be employable. None of them are gazillionaires right now (which shows the benefits of contracts over promises).

While Northern Ireland has had the concept of the incubator for years (the first one I visited was the Fujitsu/University of Ulster funded incubator where I met the guys who were ‘Osarius’ who have now all moved on to bigger and better things), it was definitely in a larger scale. There were desks, offices, stationery. That’s not the sector I’m interested in.

With the work being done for the co-working space in Northern Ireland, it is my intent to fund a desk or two and provide some desktop computers (intel iMacs) in order to foster some idea of Microsupport for potential startup companies. It’s not about funding their pizza or foozball lifestyles because people who want to get things done will find a way – this is operational expenditure. The hard part for this sector is the capital expenditure. By providing up to date hardware and taking advantage of the bountiful free time that ‘young people’ have, I think there could be an excellent environment created in the co-working space to foster new and cool innovations coming out of Belfast. David Rice wrote that the co-working initiative is designed to espouse this single concept:

Bringing silicon valley thinking to Belfast by creating a cutting edge work space for digital and creative workers.

It’s my aim that one of the rooms in the upstairs be allocated to ‘incubation’ for a few potential movers and shakers out there who need that extra bit of support to get started. I don’t care whether they want to become movie makers, software engineers, web developers or digital artists – as long as they don’t just sit around surfing the web, it’s got to be better than nothing. I’ve not really talked about this with David, Andy or anyone else central to CoworkingBelfast so they may throw their hands up and tell me to piss off – but this is the concept. Most of the individuals involved in CoWorking Belfast are young men who probably would have loved to have a co-working space available to them especially with some up to date hardware starting up.

What would Co-Working Belfast get out of it? Another raison d’etre. Karma. Kudos. Reputation. And the feeling of doing the right thing. Maybe if they’re a success they’ll help fund the next iteration of CoWorking Belfast or whatever the new fad of the day is.

There are other similar methods of support out there which have a similar model but are not the same and therefore I think this brings a certain uniqueness. For example, Google’s Summer of Code provides a $5000 stipend for student developers for summer (around 3 months) of work on open source projects. Google funds around 400 students each summer this way (putting the bill at around $2 million) but then they are Google and have infinite money. There are also business incubation services in Northern Ireland available through InvestNI but the pitch is for the slightly later stage when the individuals know what they’re doing and need the incubation from hatchling to maturity.

To extend the metaphor, I’m talking about supporting the egg itself – until the egg cracks. It’s never been easier to start up a business and become the next Twitter, Youtube, Big Word Project or 37Signals and it is these kinds of business that we should be fostering. I think that the people involved in starting the co-working space in Belfast are best qualified to determine who uses the ‘hatchery’.

The co-working space itself won’t make Belfast like Silicon Valley by it’s presence, but by it’s vision.

Belfast OpenCoffeeClub

The Belfast Open Coffee Club met tonight and managed to pull in more people than ever – twenty or so – and I was both pleased and disappointed that there are just too many smart, interesting people in the room and not enough time to talk to them all. If I didn’t say hello to … Continue reading “Belfast OpenCoffeeClub”

The Belfast Open Coffee Club met tonight and managed to pull in more people than ever – twenty or so – and I was both pleased and disappointed that there are just too many smart, interesting people in the room and not enough time to talk to them all. If I didn’t say hello to you directly, then I apologise. There were some people I wanted to grill mercilessly but I didn’t even get a chance to say Hello. You know who you are.

16:30 – Co-Working Belfast
A 20 minute walkaround the site puts some reality on the bones of what we’ve been thinking about. I’m liking what I saw in our review of the site (and I’ll post the recording video of our walkaround if people want to see it to get a feel for the site – it’s a 5 minute 58 MB .mp4 file and I’ve added a Youtube embed below which will give you a BlairWitch-esque view of the building). I’m pleased that we’ve got enough people to actually make this a going concern but the serious questions about what kind of support we will get from Belfast City Council and InvestNI are still unanswered.


5 minute YouTube video

The site itself needs a lot of work but it’s big enough for the purposes. There’s work that needs done ‘structurally’ in terms of the removal of a stud wall and the creation of some partition and there’s going to need to be significant investment in terms of equipment – desks, chairs, locks – never mind computing infrastructure. But, in the end, I like it.

That said – it’s not a site like some of the others we’ve seen – which have artistic ceilings and look more like art studios than workplaces. It’s going to be grassroots, it’s basic but it’s sustainable and provides what I’d consider to be a basis for future movement.

19:00 – OpenCoffee Club
There were too may clusters of people talking to allow me to cover them all here but the ones which I witnessed were:

  • Will King, Darryl Collins and David Braziel – talking about the integration of location-significant data. I saw some demos showing heatmaps of Flickr pics over Northern Ireland, crime statistics, wifi points and some neat ‘cluster’ widgets which allowed information to be collected in easily understood ways.
  • I spoke perhaps at length (and with a bit of spittle) about the purpose of the Belfast OpenCoffeeClub in the formation of Northern Ireland’s future progress in technology. I was, of course, preaching to the converted so I have to apologise to Russell and Lee who had to listen to me rant about what the future might hold and how it was vitally important for the grassroots organisations to present themselves sensibly and with direction to government in order to achieve change. The people in that room were , in effect, the Digital Circle. We had application designers for desktop, mobile and web, GIS specialists, creatives, movie makers, animators, musicians, wireless enthusiasts and, last and least, me.
  • Andy and I spoke for a few minutes about Co-Working Belfast and I do feel a little guilty about stealing the spotlight at times and speaking too much. It’s an area I’m incredibly passionate about and sometimes that enthusiasm is a little hard to contain. We received some encouraging remarks but I think there’s some more marketing and work required before we can say that CoWorking Belfast will be filled to capacity.
  • The subject of the OpenCoffeeClub BBQ was also discussed. Philip will be driving a 7 seater people carrier down and we have half a dozen people to go in it. Some people need to be back earlier than others but we shall work through that – the plan at the moment is to drive down on the Tuesday afternoon, stay over, attend the BBQ, then stay over again and leave first thing in the morning in order to get back for a decent hour (lunchtime). I’ll be organising accommodation tomorrow. Confirmed names for the car are: Philip, Matt, Andy, Damien, Stuart and Mairin. Will is also going down separately.
  • There were other discussions of potential TechLudd, CreativeCamp and other copies of events happening around the world. I think it’s great but it would also be nice to do something original. More on those as we get more information.

As 21:00 came, I had to leave due to family commitments but it was extremely encouraging to see so many people there and I’m sure that if circumstances has been different, we’d have seen half a dozen more.

Roll on next time!

Co-Working Office Design considerations.

Following on from my post aimed at making you think about what your co-working site would look like, here’s more on the design. What assumptions are you making with your co-working design? Are you making it open plan or cubicles? Are there going to be areas for privacy? LaunchPad, a co-working site due to open … Continue reading “Co-Working Office Design considerations.”

Following on from my post aimed at making you think about what your co-working site would look like, here’s more on the design. What assumptions are you making with your co-working design? Are you making it open plan or cubicles? Are there going to be areas for privacy?

LaunchPad, a co-working site due to open in Austin, TX this September are happily showing off their floorplans interestingly enough with some evolution of the design. You have to wonder at the ‘ceiling’ they have planned (in the 3D renders) and ask – if this enterprise was cost-dependent then why would they bother with something so artistic? The answer is to shield their eyes from the drab cubicles upstairs and yet still let natural light in from the skylights. It has a function! I think too often we ignore the ‘possible’ in favour of the ‘assumption’ because the ‘possible’ seems beyond our grasp. I think I might have favoured a white translucent canvas ‘dome’ if only for the home-made IMAX opportunities it may offer.

Via James’ blog, I was led to the Altrupreneur Centre Project where they debate the virtues of cubicle versus open office design based on the results of a study performed a few years back. The study concluded that open office design negatively impacted workers satisfaction and they find it ironic that Co-Working espouses the open office design.

The study itself sampled 21 employees who were in a large private organisation and were surveyed before the shift, 4 weeks after the move and again 6 months after. Employee satisfaction went down and, frankly I’m not surprised. The survey doesn’t prove anything about co-working, positively or negatively, it proves something about making changes in large entrenched organisations.

  • Moving desks is something that not a lot of people like doing. Moving your comfortable work environment and yet having to keep the detritus of your previous desk is difficult especially when you’ve just lost your cubicle walls.
  • Personal preference in seating matters to some people. I don’t care where I sit but I prefer having my back to a wall as opposed to a doorway. That’s a personal thing.
  • The view can matter. There’s always a debate here with desk moves because where we were sitting previously, there was a nice view over the Dock on one side and the long stretch of road towards Belfast on the other. Now, I can see warehouse roofs on one side and on the other, an office.
  • Breaking the status quo with a team can be damaging to morale. If everyone knows that Dave sits by the window because, frankly, he was first there then that’s fine. If there’s a move and someone new gets the window seat it’s unlikely to please anyone. Least of all Dave.
  • Privacy is important to some people especially depending on their work ethic and their ability to get into ‘the zone’ for being productive. If you’re easily distracted or like checking out web sites during your breaks, you might not like this new potential for people to interrupt you.
  • We have no data about whether this move was done voluntarily, whether the individuals were consulted beforehand, whether they volunteered or whether there were accommodations made to attempt to make their experience more palatable.

Co-Working does not equal Open Office Design but the sort of person likely to be attracted to co-working is not going to be someone who would naturally need privacy and peace to work. It’s going to attract more social people, people who have flexible management who trust them to get the work done, people who work for themselves and can discipline themselves.

In The Business Plan for the Co-Working space I planned to open, we considered the different needs of different individuals which is why there was seating planned for the ground floor which was a public coffee shop, the next floor would be an open plan co-work space (The Commons) and the floor above that would include offices for people to work together in relative privacy (The Cloisters). There should be a mix!

I mention this because Andy mentioned that it would be possible to come along and view the potential co-working space in Belfast at 4:30 pm today. Co-Working is certainly the buzzword for the moment.