Where Good Ideas Come From

Thanks to Gabe for picking this up and sharing it with the rest of us.

Here Steven Johnson asks, What are the spaces that historically lead to unusual rates of creativity and innovation?

As Gabe said, this is makes a good argument for co-working.

Certainly, in today's well-connected times, technology has kept up working in a virtually alongside people. That can be a good thing -- or it could mean nothing.

We need to make sure our ideas are given the chance to collide.

Gangplank

Coworking and collaboration is an emerging phenomenon worldwide.

It's further along, of course, in certain parts of the world than it is in the Philippines.

In fact, we only know of one other coworking space currently in existence in Metro Manila and it's run by Jay Fajardo of Proudcloud right at their office premises near Eastwood.

They take a lot of their inspiration from the Arizona based group Gangplank.

From their Manifesto:

We are a group of connected individuals and small businesses creating an economy of innovation and creativity in the Valley. We envision a new economic engine comprised of collaboration and community, in contrast to the silos and secrecy left by the dependence on tourism and land development.

We have the talent. We just need to work together. Different environments need to overlap, to connect and to interact in order to transform our culture. In order to create a sustainable community based on trust, we value:

• collaboration over competition
• community over agendas
• participation over observation
• doing over saying
• friendship over formality
• boldness over assurance
• learning over expertise
• people over personalities

This new economy cannot thrive without engaging the larger business, creative, entrepreneurial, governmental, and technical communities together.

Jay thinks that co-working would be the economic model eventually replacing some corporations.

Very interesting stuff.

So here's the deal

Candice, Vin and I are professionals and full time parents who live in the general area of Loyola Heights.

We all have what is properly termed as "portfolio careers."

She is a corporate communications consultant and writer, he is a lawyer and some sort of music demi-god and I am in the performing arts as well as into corporate training and facilitation.

We all used to work from our homes. And anyone who has ever tried that would probably know the problems that come with that setup: no regular working hours, children who need your constant attention, new shows coming in through the torrents. We all knew that there had to be a better way of doing things.

And so we decided to set up Unit 4.

Unit 4, as it it presently set up, is my living room.

The airconditioner runs from 1pm to 6pm from Mondays to Fridays, there is free flowing coffee, we sit around a long table banging out work on our laptops and we engage in copious amounts of gossip.

And we get things done.

Much better and more efficiently than if we were just working from our "home offices."

We have wonderful plans of eventually sharing the services of an accountant and a messenger.

In the meantime, we're just happy being a lot more productive and a lot more sociable than we used to be.

We would like two or three more people to join us at Unit 4.

You can come over and co work with us for a day or two or join us for a more long term arrangement. Since it's a community working arrangement, we just generously share what we have to keep the vibrance and viability of the community intact without getting too much into the nitty gritty of bill splitting and bean counting.

We work together, but not really

Every day, at least as much as we can, we find ourselves at a dining table, laptops open and our work agendas laid out. The coffee has just been brewed, the air conditioner is nice and cool. The cats play nearby. It's time to answer emails, write articles, create business plans, conceptualize events. We're quite flexible, really.

Sometimes, we stop to chat. Share a chuckle. Ask a question. Share ideas. Work out. Say hi to the kids.

We pack up at around 6PM. By then, some work should have been accomplished.

We are coworking. Yeah, it's a bit of a new thing.

We'll tell you more next time.