Digital Strategy with Firecat Studio

The Coworking Movement as seen from InnotechAustin

Our panel on Workplace Trends: Telecommuting and Coworking at InnotechAustin on Thursday went very well. Thanks to those of you who attended and participated; there was a lot of interest and energy around the subject. My takeaways:

Telecommuting has caught on in a big way

More than half the crowd or more reported they are already telecommuting full time. That was a surprise to me. I hadn't realized the telecommuting trend had spread so rapidly, thoroughly, though of course this conference and our topic selected for them.

The Demand for Coworking is There

The four of us represented the gamut of coworking models, and there is demand for all these levels.

1. Occasional free coworking sessions,set up and hosted by someone with time to give. No commitment, good for corporate and telecommuting workers needing a refresh/break.
2. Shared office space, where folks act as working roommates to share expenses. Good for very small businesses and freelancers. The resulting community can function like family, throwing one another work, helping out.
3. Dedicated coworking spaces that allow people who are committed to the coworking model and need to count on having their space open and ready.
4. On-demand coworking space available through a no-commitment, pay-as-you-go model good for travelers, freelancers, corporate workers or anyone who benefits from a well-equipped workspace that isn't home or the regular office.

Our Different Types of Coworking Spaces

Here's how the four presenters shook out along this continuum.

• Susan Price at Firecat Studio hosts one open coworking session per month, with a brownbag lunch to build community. We get on average 15-20 folks over the course of the day, a mix of corporate employees, small business owners and freelancers, drawing heavily but not exclusively from the internet/tech sectors.
• Cody Marx Bailey opened up his small business space as The Creative Space to save money on expenses, as well as build community. They offer a membership/tenant model, and are currently full at 13 tenants, with a waiting list. As they grew from 3 tenants to 13, their per-tenant fee to cover expenses dropped from $400 per month to less than $85.
• Dusty Reagan organized ad hoc Jelly Austin coworking sessions and enjoyed rapid growth and a flow of projects, ideas and referrals for his freelance web development business. He and some colleagues launched a dedicated coworking space earlier this year in east Austin -- Conjunctured. Another tenant/membership model, they're still accepting new members at $250/month.
• Julie Gomoll is banking on a higher-end clientele for coworking, and judging from the crowd at Innotech, she's right to do so. LaunchPad Coworking is being built out now, slated to open by the end of the year in the heart of downtown Austin. The adjacent free wifi coffeeshop allows folks to cowork for free, but they'll be lured into the open coworking side with amenities like ethernet fiber lines, flatscreen monitors and mice, ergonomically correct desks and chairs, and a lovely ambience. When a project team needs privacy, there are 6 meeting rooms for rent, and even a "cloud room" designed to inspire creativity.

Benefits of Coworking

Although I had a good sense of why folks come to Firecat's once-monthly sessions, it was good to hear from a broader mix of tech professionals their most compelling reasons they want and need coworking.

• Home can be isolating. The telecommuters in the audience reported stir-craziness and cabin-fever, as well as a lack of perspective, that results from being alone too much.
• Home can be distracting. Though participants reported an increase in their ability to achieve work/life balance, sometimes it's hard to maintain a solid "work boundary" when the office continually beckons. Kids benefit from having parents at home more, but one or the other still suffers from inattention. Then there are the standard distractions of household chores, tv, fridge and home maintenance.
• We're social creatures who need human contact. Remote teaming and collaboration tools were frequently cited as almost - but not quite - being the same as face-to-face contact with other humans.
• Several corporate folks report that their employers are embracing telecommuting to reduce costs, be "greener" by avoiding carbon emissions of commuting, and offering employees a desirable option and more control.
• Freelancers and small business people need leads, an extended network to accomplish projects and stay competitive in the global workforce.
• Several people expressed their appreciation of "accelerated serendipity -- the unlooked for but valuable benefits of being in a stream of fresh ideas, faces and work styles.

What Else?

If you were there, please expand on what we learned together. And thanks for coming!

Here's the presentation we had going (Download coworking_innotech.pdf); it features photos from each of the spaces showing coworking in action, as well as links to learn more about coworking and how to get it going in your area.

Here's the presentation at Slideshare.

Gmail Goggles: No, Thanks

Google's Gmail service is offering a time-delay Goggles gadget that may help users avoid sending emails they may later regret. I applaud the thought behind it, but this concept needs more work.

Goggles lets you set a time window, during which you must break through a gauntlet of relatively simple math problems before it'll send your eMails. The idea is, a brief cooling-off period during which you're using your brain and not your heart or hormones, will allow you to see reason and let good judgment prevail.

When you attempt to send an eMail during the preset window, you'll be challenged to prove your coolheadedness.

Here are some things to consider.

Emotional volatility happens any time of day. I can see Goggles working for preventing some drunk-sends. And my own defenses and self-control are down at the end of a long, hard day. Would we be up for a breathalyzer to open up the firewall? A heartbeat monitor or other physiological lock that scans me for appropriateness of my emotional state?

Multiple sources of regret. Inaccuracy and incompleteness are more often the reason I wish I could take back a Send. I created an Outlook macro that scans my outgoing messages for the word stem "attach" and produces an interstitial that makes me answer "Did you remember to attach?"

Appropriate communication is a skill we all need, anyway. Extrapolate a world where we solve these problems by building controls into software and devices, and relieve humans from imposing self-control and judgment. That isn't a world I want to live in.

It's not that I don't recognize the need. When I worked in a cube farm, members of our tight design team (the black berets) learned to read one another's faces and/or epithets and intervene when necessary.

I shout over to Tom: "That jerk! Can you believe this eMail?! Read what he said. Now read my response."

And he says: "That sucks! You know you can't send that eMail, though. Let's talk about what you can say, though. You'd better call, but wait until you calm down." Job saved. Disaster averted.

It helps to write stuff out, vent, and think through my position before responding. But when that much is riding on a single eMail, I'm better off going to see the person or calling.

Choose Your Medium

A wise supervisor once taught me these quick guidelines.

• Low emotional content = remote, asynchronous channels are fine. EMail, voicemail.
  
• High emotional content = Needs direct, synchronous communication. Visit, schedule a meeting or pick up the phone. Don't leave voicemail, unless it's "Please call me as soon as you get a chance."

Salvos over the firewall

I've learned to rely too much on the screen, the barrier, of asynchronous communications like voicemail and eMail. They're great for marshaling arguments, scoring points, and talking without being interrupted. But these one-way missiles aren't the best channels for building rapport, or gaining a full understanding that includes emotional components and subtext.

When it's important to be able to communicate very well, be able to correct assumptions, soothe hurt feelings, make yourself completely understood, and truly seek understanding and dialog, nothing beats a good synchronous communication like face time or phone calls.

Firecats Build Site for Neighborhood Association

As part of Firecat Studio's sponsorship of and participation in the Accessibility Internet Rally - San Antonio, we spent all day Saturday building an accessible website for our nonprofit partner, the Terrell Heights Neighborhood Association.

Special thanks to  Danielle Cunningham for a lovely and effective online brand and design, Daniella Matutes for setting up a content management system, Chris McDermott for technical recommendations and setup, Leslie Provence for content and project management, and Debbie Curtis for organizational support.

The event raises awareness about the issue of Web Accessibility, and offers training to designers and developers in building websites that people who are blind, deaf, or mobility-impaired can use. There are some great side benefits, including:

• Improved search engine optimization (SEO). Google and other search indexers are blind and deaf, too.
• Improved browser compatibility, including for devices such as cell phones.
• Tapping into the huge market of people who need accessible websites, who otherwise aren't able to buy a company's products or services. That segment is bigger than the blind and deaf populations; think older folks who need the text enlarged, or people with temporary disabilities like carpal tunnel syndrome or a sprained wrist.

We can't yet share the site itself, but here's what it looks like:

Some of us had participated in AIR events before, but we always learn something new. Thanks to Knowbility for sponsoring the event.

First Friday Coworking Oct. 3, Guerrilla Marketing

It's already the First Friday of October, and we're doing our Coworking session from 9 am - 5 pm at Firecat Studio, 918 Nolan #104.

Here's a map to our studio.

Our lunchtime topic this month was inspired the book Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson, now in its 4th edition. Originally published in 1983, his common-sense, thrifty suggestions appeal to small business owners, independents and those of us in the marketing trade. With the advent of eMail marketing and social media, you can imagine why the book has gone from a slim volume to pretty hefty tome.

Several full-time marketing specialists and lots of people who do marketing as ONE of their many jobs will be on hand to share tactics, techniques and suggestions.

Come on out! If you're not sure what the heck coworking is, check our FAQs on this fascinating subject.

More Coworking in San Antonio!

Our hardworking colleague and coworker Todd O'Neill just announced another new weekly coworking sessions starting up downtown on S. Alamo on 10/16, and running every Thursday. If this is your cup of tea, join the Facebook Group for San Antonio Coworking.