cafeBricolage Revisited
Yesterday marked the two year aniversary of my getting involved in the NY tech community. In fact, I believe February 8th, 2007, was the day I turned my love of community, technology, and innovation, into a career.
Back when I published "The cafeBricolage Manifesto," I knew practically no one in the New York technology industry, or even New York City for that matter. Sure, I had been piping up for a few months the nextNY list, and I had been to two or three events, but aside from that, I wasn't participating.
Boy, things have come a long way.
Reflecting on the cafeBricolage dream is not only a nostalgic exercise, but also a good marker for how far NY tech has come in two years. Back then, I wrote:
cafeBricolage would be the NYC incubator for start-ups, but it would be done in a way that NYC needs. Throw out your old concepts of an incubator, and think about this: a collective space, one part cafe and one part office, which could support up to a dozen small resident companies of various smallness, and work-space, geared toward the laptop carrying professional, embedded in a community cafe operated by the members themselves. Since we’re all tech people here, I say in in a way we can all understand: “It’s ‘co-working‘ meets ‘cooperative cafe‘ meets NYSIA meets ‘Digg’” (just kidding about the “Digg” part, it’s just something you have to say in a sentence like that).
While this dream never came to fruition, in the past two years many other dreams have.
New Work City, which grew out of cooperBricolage (which was, clearly, at least influenced by my cafeBricolage Manifesto) launched late last year, bringing a magnificent work and programming space to the New York tech and independent community.
Of course the Incubator at Rose Tech Ventures -- the space I currently manage -- has also launched in that time. In fact, I met David at the cooperBricolage launch party, where I overheard him talking about the early vision for our incubator. I offered to be the first tenant (as BricaBox back then) and soon thereafter my working relationship with David S. Rose and Rose Tech Ventures began. Now, we have a dozen startups under our roof, weekly programming, and dozens of community events throughout the year.
As these types of community energizing places have emerged, so have new community energizing times.
Last year we saw New York City's first Internet Week, putting our industry on the same level of other great New York industries. We also saw the Web 2.0 Expo come to New York, making it clear to the industry elsewhere that New York City is a leading place to innovate and develop new technology. And this week, Social Media Week has kicked off its inaugural event, bringing the City dozens of free, community-led events about the area where tech and media are converging: a phenomenon New York City experiences like nowhere else.
What's remarkable to me is that what's emerged in the last two years is far richer and sustainable than anything I called for then. While the dream of a one-stop still has its benefits, realistically the decentralized-yet-interconnected nature of today's New York tech industry sets the stage for futher and futher growth from places not yet imagined two years ago, like the newly-institutionalized NY Tech Meetup, its Community Committee, and the dozens of other new groups which have sprung up in such a short period of time, like Fashion 2.0, Ultralight Startups, and the Entrepreneurs Roundtable.
Looking back on these past two years invigorates me. On a purely personal level, they've been two years of tremendous growth. But on a community level, on the two-year anniversary of my involvement in this great thing we call "NY tech," they've been two years of tremendous progress of which I am blessed to have become involved.
Onward and upward, New York!
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Improvisation: Collaboration, Structure, and Social Media
Improvisation doesn't just mean "making sh*t up" it means adding to the structure (conversation) and responding to others (listening).
What is the relationship between structure and improvised collaboration? How do we make music together -- without coordinated notes on paper -- and still make sense?
The quote above came from Forrester researcher and social media consultant Jeremiah Owyang in the midst of a recent conversation on Twitter which began with another comment from him, in which he attributed his love for Social Media to Jazz.
I agreed with him that there's a connection -- and thought my love from improv may be why I'm drawn to the most collaborative forms of social media, such as those my company's platform supports (mash-ups, wikis, social databases, etc).
Back to the quote above, I think Jeremiah strikes a incredibly important point about structure and improvisation -- that structure exists, even when we're improvising, and that listening can help you figure out what that structure is.
I'll try to add to Jeremiah's point by by bringing real music into the conversation.
Back at Brandeis, I participated in a group called the "Brandeis Improv Collective." We were a group of 6, comprised of (in order of expertise): a pianist, a guitarist, another guitarist, an alto sax player (me), and a percussionist. The sixth, and best trained among us, was another saxophone (tenor, mostly) player who was also our instructor.
Yes, I said instructor.
During our weekly sessions, we would always open, without cue, by warming up together. We'd see where each other was that day. If someone had an especially stressful day (which would happen a lot to me while writing my thesis) the tone of everyone else in the group would usually become supportive and soothing. We'd even each other out.
For most of the sessions, however, we'd practice improvising around different structures. Our instructor would suggest different rules for conversation (one person "talks" at time, paired conversations, stepping in each other's shoes, etc).
With each different structure, a different kind of conversation would emerge, but because we were still improvising, no conversation would ever be the same, even if we recycled structures.
Take this track from our Winter Concert.
http://innonate.com/wp-content/files/Brandeis_Improv_5.mp3
We start structureless. A few tweets, clinks, and bumps start the conversations, but soon (mid-way through the track) we get a bit more comfortable, and a melody (albeit awkward) emerges.
Fast forward to the last two minutes of the track and we're hot. At one point, the instructor and I are so locked into conversation that we "say" the same thing for a full 30 seconds -- changing six or seven notes in lockstep.
For me, the track is still exhilarating for me to listen to; and the lesson couldn't have come back any faster this morning when Jeremiah brought up the issue of Jazz, social media, and improv.
The music we made was pure improvisation. However, that did not mean we'd just go out and play our instruments without care for our environment. We were 100% (okay, 90%) informed by structure and the conversation going on around us.
In fact, the sum of the conversation became the structure, the way a melody becomes the structure for how a song will progress.
In the world of social media and collaboration, this is the point: collaboration happens best around structures which allow conversation to scale. If we added another saxophone player to our group, the structure of our sessions would have needed a way to compensate and not allow saxophone players to dominate. It would also need to find a way to capitalize on such a rich resource and not treat them like a burden ("Three sax players? How lucky!").
Social media also needs to allow anyone to join in. During our Spring concert, one of the people in the audience used the chairs in the auditorium to join in as a percussionist. The rules changed. We adjusted. And we were still making music.
And if you're wondering. This has everything to do with Bricolage.
Talk coworking with Tara Hunt
A quick note to you New York readers:
Tomorrow (Saturday), come to Gramstand at 10am to talk coworking with Tara Hunt, one of the lead organizers of the coworking movement.
Gramstand is at 13th and Ave A in the East Village.
I hope to see some of you there.
10am!
Something to sign up for
I really liked this part of Charlie's testimony to the New York City Council:
My final bit of support for what ITAC has recommended has to do with real physical infrastructure. Over the years, those involved in technology innovation in small companies and startups have always made due with whatever physical places we could find to conduct our business. We shared insider information about where wifi could be borrowed and where businesses wouldn't mind if you worked at a table for a whole morning and just ordered a cup of coffee or two. This has been highly inefficient. While there are businesses like Sunshine Suites that have sprung up to service part of the need for startup companies to maintain a home, there exists a severe lack of community space--places where creative minds can collaborate freely and connect to each other. A good place to start would be to incentivize as many cafes and similar gathering places to provide internet access free of charge. Municipal wifi may be too difficult to implement, but a very workable, and less expensive substitute would be to make sure that every conceivable place where you would want to set up shop or meet with others, would provide wifi. In the same vein, there should be incentives for other types of innovation support. For example, my startup, Path 101, is currently living in two empty desks provided by another larger technology company called Return Path. It was a favor done for me by the CEO, Matt Blumberg, who knew we were looking for space, but in all fairness, Return Path should probably receive some kind of tax credit for doing its part to support the local innovation community.
Clearly the physical space issue has been a big one for me. Scott Heiferman, founder of Meetup, said it best at his Personal Democracy Forum presentation: "The Revolution Will Not Be YouTubed."
What he meant, and went on to explain, was that real change, innovation, and wonders happen when people meet in physical proximity and get things done. The Internets are cool. Coffee tables are cooler.
Help Reinvent CooperBricolage!
Folks, this is a re-post from what I wrote and had Tony put up on the CooperBricolage Blog. Check it out.
Dear CooBric-ers,
Gosh, do we have some news for you!
The current home of CooperBricolage, Cafe Fuego, is about to begin a massive renovation of its restaurant on St. Marks Place in early October. New name, new chef, new menu, new management– nearly everything.
Since this is the current home for coworking in Manhattan, we need to start looking for a new home immediately. The end of September marks the end of our usage of the space.
While we’re operating on short notice, we see this as an opportunity– a blank slate– which will allow us to retool the model to best suit your needs as members of the NY Tech Community.
Thanks to the feedback we’ve gotten from many of you over the past two months, we’ve now got a pretty solid idea of your needs. You have all made important contributions to this process, and now you have an opportunity to contribute more– by helping us further define the next space. The possibilities for our next place are endless, because the place hasn’t even been picked yet!
So start to think about the best places you do work in the city. What cafes currently need a strong community of tech/start-up workers? Where do you already spend your days working? Would the management be psyched about a cause like ours?
We’re examining not only cafes, but leased office space as well. If you are a cafe/space owner or know one who you think would be interested, we’d love to hear from you!
Use the comment section below or contact us if you can think of a great location for CooBric. This is a fantastic opportunity to change the face of Silicon Alley.
Thanks for your continued support, and stay tuned for here for updates on our progress!
Regards,
The CooBric Comm
CooperBricolage Grand Opening Party: 9/5 – 4pm
Come to the CooperBricolage Grand Opening Party
Wednesday, Septermber 5th, 4pm
CooperBricolage -- 9 St. Marks Place
Expected and invited guests are:
* Venture Capitalists from NYC
* Angel Investors from NYC and the Tri-State Area
* Entrepreneurs like you
* Designers, developers and interactive people looking to build the community
Here's the full invite from Sanford:
All -
I (and the CooBric team) wanted to invite you to the Grand Opening event for cooperBricolage - the first shared coworking space for entrepreneurial start-ups in the East Village. Building on the model of coworking made fashionable in the West Coast, cooperBricolage is building upon Peter Cooper's vision of education for all New Yorkers and the energy of collaboration and innovation that makes New York City one of the most vibrant communities in the world.
cooperBricolage is a community effort by like-minded entrepreneurs who sought an alternative to their home offices and rent-a-spaces within this bustling metropolis. Working with other local businesses to create the start of an entrepreneurial ecosystem, cooperBricolage is a model of a community members club giving New York the step forward in supporting technology and creative businesses.
What is at CooBric?
CooBric, as others have come to call it, is a combination of a café, private members club and a workspace for designers, developers and entrepreneurs. Instead of being slotted into a small, busy Starbucks(tm), CooBric offers a different third-space but without the noise, expense and constraints found within these standard "third-spaces" Additionally, the ability to find like-minded people trying to build companies, code software or design graphics is sorely lacking in New York City - which CooBric presents itself as a space to be "found in".Spurred on by various concepts like coworking (coined by Citizen Agency) and cafeBricolage (coined by Nate Westheimer), cooperBricolage is a fusion of the history of Cooper Union and its history of creating innovation and entrepreneurship with the entrepreneurial energy found within New York City, but had few options to engage.
We invite you to come to our event - September 5th, 4pm at Cafe Fuego (9 St Marks Place)But this effort will only succeed with support from the community - you included. This is why we would ask for you to come and meet some of our entrepreneurs and other supporters of the concept (including some venture capitalists and angel investors) to create something that is uniquely New York.
We look forward to seeing you - and feel free to read more about us in our blog (www.coobric.com) or other places on the web.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
The CooBric Comm (Tony, Sanford, Jennifer, Alex and Nate)
cooperBricolage opens next week — come support NYC tech culture
Are you a solo entreprenuer, freelancer, or member of a small team? If so, what are you doing next week?
... heading to cooperBricolage, I hope.
Sanford is throwing open the doors to cooperBricolage early next week, and it would be great to see you there.
What's cooperBricolage? Well, you've heard me talk about cafeBricolage a whole lot, but Sanford has actually gone and done.
cooperBricolage is a private cafe space for entrepreneurs, interactive designers, programmers and technologists leveraging the concept of the "Inventors Institute" originated in the late 1870s by inventor Peter Cooper.
cooperBircolage is where you can use "free" wifi and get a coffee and/or sandwich for your entry fee. Only people allowed in the cafe workspace are people working to build businesses or doing software or artisic design - no off-the-street coffee drinkers or students are allowed in the workspace.
The goal is to create a community of entrepreneurs to work together instead of at our homes and alone - sharing (when others are receptive) and respecting (when others ask for their space). While sounding utopian, the goal is to spaun new ideas and create a fertile environment for startups to migrate to more professional spaces for their corporate growth.
Pricing will end up somewhere between $10 - $20 per day with discounts to folks who buy multi-day passes. While that may seem like a lot at first glance, you get so much out of it: a great work environment around fellow netrepreneurs, wifi and cafe amenities, a hip and easy to get to location, and access to the growing phenomenon of coworking.
- For directions to Cafe Fuego, at 9 St. Marks Place (near the 6 train at Astor Place), click here.
- To get on the cooperBricolage email list, click here.
- To contact Sanford for more information, email sdickert at Google's email service.
- And again, the cooperBricolage wiki is found here.
See you there!
Incubator, HotPlate, or Digital District?
"I have an increasing fear that incubators are not sustainable, which is why I really like the “hot-plate” model, of providing the underlying economic efficiencies to groups and companies with various financing statuses.
I wonder both HOW these two models (incubator and hotplate) mesh up with what you’re doing on Broad Street and IF you think it would be more sustainable to get the City involved by creating an official and supported Digital District, like they’ve done in Paris."
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on the new co-Darren-working space…
About to hop on a flight to Cincinnati to meet with the most important clients: my family.
I wanted to point my few loyal readers to a post I put up today on the cafeBricoalge blog where I write about Darren Herman's new coworking space and how it relates to the cafeBricolage project.
Have a great weekend!
cafeBricolage Gets a Blog and a Wiki
As things move forward with the planning of cafeBricolage, we've decided to move the conversation off my blog and on to an independent blog and wiki.
The blog will be used for announcements and opinion pieces, like an ordinary blog, and the wiki will be used for organizing.
Right now, our main focus with the wiki is to begin collecting names of people and companies who are "friends" of cafeBricolage. If you think you may want to hang out at cafeBricolage once it opens, or you think you may work out of the coworking space occasionally -- and if you have a business, and you think your 2 - 5 person team may want to use the cafeBricolage space -- then please come visit the "Freind of cafeBricolage" page and let everyone know.
Thanks for the encouragement everybody. There's been a lot of excitement around cafeBricolage and I'm glad to report that things are moving forward! I had a wonderful time talking to folks about the project last night at the Web 2.0 Entrepreneurs Meetup, and I'll be sure to post it on the new blog.
Who is Nate?
You've found Nate Westheimer's blog. Nate wears many hats. He's the EVP Product & Technology and Co-founder of AnyClip, the Organizer of the NY Tech Meetup, and Advisor to Flybridge Capital Partners.
More about Nate can be read on his Bio page and you can follow his thoughts on Twitter
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