Drupal-focused Work Space Coop

Posted by fp on October 30, 2009 at 4:42pm

While on our way to the Pacific North West Summit Ben, Steve and I had a discussion re: the possibility of creating a Drupal-focused work space coop in Vancouver. I talked to some people at the conference about it too and no one told me it was a dumb idea (or were they just polite?). So, I am interested in opening a discussion on the topic to a wider audience and see if would be something desirable and feasible.

What would be this workspace?
A shared work environment much like the late Workspace or (still alive) The Network Hub . The main differences being that it would be a coop and the Drupal-focus. The Drupal-focus bit refers to the idea that the members ofthe coop would be primarily using Drupal as their tool of choice.

What might be the advantages?
Besides having access to shared resources (meeting room, decent bandwidth, printer, etc.), one would hope for the following advantages:
* Community: on-going discussions and knowledge exchange (might also be a great host for the meetups!)
* Community: ability to share work and complement skills (eg: a developer and and themer might join forces on a project)
* Community: potentially attract more work for being part of a greater pool of resources (I'm not suggesting a work coop here...)
* Keep costs low
* Accommodate for growth

What might be the disadvantages?
* Project privacy might be harder to keep (have ever signed a NDA?)
* Competitive interests (might get awkward if more than one person within the co-op is bidding on a particular project)
* Work style (you've had roommates once, ya?)

What is required to get going?
I think we need about 7-10 dedicated people. Initially these people would be interested and committed to explore in depth the idea and lay out a potential plan of action. Subsequently, they would become the founding members of the coop and be responsible for their share of a one year lease. Note that we might look into getting a space that can accommodate the core members + X to-be members (who may not be able to commit to a full year) as long as the core group would be able to sustain the operation in the "worst" circumstances.

Next?
I'd be interested in hearing you thoughts on this idea and discover the pros and cons associated with it. I realize that there is much in terms of details that haven't been addressed here. I think there would also be some benefits to talking with people who are/have been involved in similar setup (existing shared work environments, the Koumbit crew, etc.)

Thanks.
Francis

Comments

sounds like a pretty good

Posted by ryan80e on October 30, 2009 at 5:36pm

sounds like a pretty good idea to me :) ill pass it around as well

Risk assessment

Posted by ralemi on November 6, 2009 at 5:36am

Well, surely it is an attractive idea, I specially like the way you approach it as a business plan, I mean, you have drawn a good picture over attractiveness and fitness, and may be a little on coverage and competitiveness would help also. as an example, why did workspace went out of business, and how would we be more competitive with the network hub or other coops? if it comes down to an attractive and fit proposal which is not very competitive, may be then the best solution is merging: i.e. to go and rent from the network hub. less risky but less attractive.

Last I heard, the network hub

Posted by rjdempsey on November 6, 2009 at 6:28am

Last I heard, the network hub was full.

My point, exactly.

Posted by ralemi on November 6, 2009 at 8:18am

Thank you. so why did one go out of business not two months ago and one is full to the brim?

Baseline

Posted by fp on November 6, 2009 at 4:27pm

Given the location, I'd assume that the rent was pretty high and thus the requirement for a high number of baseline renters. This is only speculations though and there might have been other reasons.

What I am suggesting above is that we could prevent this type of scenario from happening by having a core group of people who are responsible for the leases and who can pay up the fees regarding of the fluctuations of the members.

To explain this with an example we can put fictive numbers to it: we can pretend that monthly fees are $3000 and that the space can accommodate up to 10 people. The core group comprises 6 people who have committed to pay $500/month. If on a certain month we can get the 10 desks rented, this means that the each individual of the core group has at least (arguably, people who have committed for longer term should get a better deal then people who do the month-to-month thing ) $200 to dispose of (cut in rent, office improvements, etc). On low months, where there are only 6 people, we can still ensure that the fees are cover and that the operation doesn't go down.

As I mentioned above, once we have people who are seriously interested in investing time into finding whether or not this project is possible then we can approach the folks who ran workspace and the network hub and where-else to share their experiences with us. I think that the coop model and the target demographic that are in play here are of no threat to these organizations and hopefully they'd be open to let us learn from their mistakes and successes.

Drupal-focused Work Space Coop

Posted by rcrow on November 6, 2009 at 10:13pm

Hi Francis,

I'm "seriously interested".

Cheers,
Robert

My only reservation is the

Posted by rjdempsey on November 6, 2009 at 11:36pm

My only reservation is the whole "Drupal centric" thing. I get the idea of helping each other out. But between all the Drupal meetups, camps, IRC, etc. do we really want go to the final extreme and work with ONLY Drupal peeps every day?

When I was at the Workspace I networked and socialized with developers, designers and entrepreneurs of all sorts. I liked that.

Ryan - I totally understand

Posted by fp on November 10, 2009 at 6:37pm

Ryan - I totally understand your point of view and I also value diversity. It brings new perspectives and can sometimes be very quite enriching. There are already outlets for this though, such as the Network Hub and plenty of technology/web/design/social-media related events where this can happen.

The reason I suggested this approach is that I believe there is value for individuals and small organizations to be in direct contact on a frequent basis with professionals who share the same tools.

I understand that this may not be fit for everybody. Perhaps some people get the most out of IRC and do not need to this kind of approach. Perhaps also, many people feel like you and would consider taking part of it if it were less Drupal centric...

Don't get me wrong, I would

Posted by rjdempsey on November 10, 2009 at 7:10pm

Don't get me wrong, I would totally support a Drupal centric co-op too. But all things considered, I would give preference to one that was more open ended and inclusive for the reasons I mentioned. Both are great ideas. Go for it!

Meeting

Posted by fp on November 19, 2009 at 6:46am

To get a better feel of how feasible this idea may get or not, I'd like to suggest a meet-up: Wednesday, Nov 25th, 6PM at VPL Central Branch (350 W. Georgia).

It would be a totally open format and new/different ideas are welcome.

Please write a little something here if you plan on coming.

Cheers!
Francis