Coworking

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about what was shakin' in the Orlando tech scene. One of the things I mentioned was the looming appearance of Hilary Mason at Urban ReThink. If you did not get a chance to check out her talk that day, here you go:

Hilary Mason will be giving a talk at Urban ReThink tomorrow.

This is definitely a defining moment in the history of Orlando's creative / tech / entrepreneurial scene. This is something I've been working on personally, along with hundreds of others, for what feels like forever now. That, or 7 years, whichever comes first.

Interlude:

I heard about Google+ about from a million places when I checked in to the world this morning, and as I write this Leo, Jeff and Gina (or is it Leo Jeff and Gina now?) are chatting about it and discovering new things about it on TWIG.

I just got a phone call from my brother Stefan who asked me if I had read the Orlando Weekly - it turns out I was mentioned in a Live Active Cultures column by their passionate arts contributor Seth Kubersky. Random trivia: I actually ended up supplying one of the  bottle s of wine referenced in the article. Just trying to do my part!

I also want to correct one thing: I believe Seth meant to say "opened" at the end of this line:

A few weeks ago, I was visiting Cocoa Village, working out of the Ossorio coffee shop with Mike, when I got a phone call from Orlando Business Journal reporter Anjali Fluker. She asked me several questions about Coworking and what I do working out of home, coffee shops and other spaces. I told her some of the benefits of coworking, and a bit about the Urban ReThink project.

One year ago, I was approached by Julia Young, the President of a local nonprofit organization called the Urban Think! Foundation. She was charged with transforming a soon-to-be out of business local bookstore into a Coworking space, event space, and a program to support local creatives. There were hazy thoughts about having a cafe, putting in a loft, and creating a versatile space. She found me because of my numerous blogs posts about Coworking, and my involvement in the local community.

Referring to my last post about the Orlando Sentinel's first article about Urban ReThink since last March when the bookstore closed: I am really happy about it.

In wanting to post about it, I gave the piece favorable mention in several places. On this blog, however, I tended to focus on certain parts of the article, and it must have seemed pretty ungrateful and irresponsible.

Update: There is more to this post when you're done reading it. I want to make sure and thank Sandra for her article.

Today the Orlando Sentinel wrote a short, one-dimensional piece about our as-of-yet-unopened space at Urban ReThink in downtown Orlando. I really wish we could have a website today - one exists, but with no styling. Ugh.

Since the beginning of the year, I've been involved with a project to create a community center in the Thornton Park neighborhood of downtown Orlando. The space will be run by a non-profit, the Urban Think! Foundation, whose current project, Page15, is a beacon of great service and creative inspiration to the city's youth.

#coworkingday - On the global Coworking mailing list, someone pointed out that today, August 9, 2010 is the 5th anniversary of the start of the Coworking movement. Brad Neuberg repurposed the word from a man who was trying to create a system for telecommuters, at a space called the Spiral Muse. Shortly thereafter, the Hat Factory became known as the Garden of Eden for Coworking.