[portland] Cubespace to close unless buyer found...

[kirby urner]

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 7:22 PM, Jeff Rush <jeff at taupro.com> wrote:

<< SNIP >>

> Not quite - the value of coworking is not just having a place to sit and surf,
> but benefiting from the synergy of mingling with others with great ideas.  A
> coworking place opened up on Wednesday of this week very close to me.  Several
> of us in the Dallas Python usergroup took a tour, for potentially holding
> meetings there.  While I have a nice office at home, I am tempted to join the
> coworker facility because there are people of different backgrounds whom I
> would enjoy working with.  The place is owned by an AI company in the building
> and they are looking to open up their tech to others and explore spin-off
> opportunities that use it.  There are also several graphic artists and
> marketing advisers joining and I could use some informal time with them around
> the ping-pong table or water cooler.  http://companydallas.com/
>

Yeah, was just reading about that...

"""

I meant to write something to let you guys know, but well, I was just
a tad busy. Yesterday was our first day, and to kick off we did a
coworking open house as well as kicked off SemWebDallas, a monthly
semantic web meetup we plan to host. Response was great I think. Had
14 people through, with our first members signing on. We were also
contacted by Andy Louis-Charles about doing his new "On Coworking"
podcast which should be posted up at www.cosociety.com sometime today.

Matthew Titsworth

"""

Sounds a lot like us (we do SemWeb stuff sometimes).

I'm thinking Cubespace helps Portland walk its talk about being a FOSS
capital (Christian Science Monitor 2005), not that everyone here
relishes that reputation, but some of us do (helps attracts capital
some would argue, creates jobs).

Seemed kinda cool to have a bank building, good marketing for US Bank
(they should factor that in?).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/3535505506/  (example:  FOSS
boss Michelle as US Bank poster child )

Economists used to teach about "good will" and my friend Patrick will
talk for hours about "brand loyalty" as a company's most precious
possession in some cases (works for Synovate, office @ Linus Pauling
House owned by ISEPP -- a possible buyer?).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/3512645949/  (another
Silicon Forest HQS)

It's gonna be embarrassing when OS Bridge roles around and these
out-of-towners, boning up on Portland lore, discovering Free Geek
etc., ask "so, where's this famous CubeSpace we've been hearing about"
and we're like "uh, duh, we closed it".

Oh well... hey, you think Microsoft wants in?  Might help with its
image, and they already sponsor Barcamps...  maybe buy the whole
building?

Anyway, good conversation, lots of food for thought.  Good hearing
from ya Jeff, still mulling over your eduPycon idea with Vern and
such, the usual edu-sig threads (Andre to upgrade our page sometime
soon).

Kirby

> I am seeing what Kirby is seeing though, a growing swell in the existence
> coworking facilities.  Another one opened in Dallas two months ago,
> http://cohabitat.us/ and one in Austin http://www.conjunctured.com/.  I'm not
> yet sure what forces are driving the trend though.
>
> -Jeff
>
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