[Hidden-tech] Have you considered starting a new coworking space?

Tue Oct 22 00:23:04 UTC 2019

Yes, I am, although I am looking for a space that is conducive to 
setting up a small shop and electronics fabrication space, maybe 
eventually a wet lab – would this space be a good fit for this?Do you 
have the exact address and know how much the lease is?Is anyone else 
interested in such a thing?A while ago I made some move to get a 
makerspace set up in the East/Northampton/Holyoke area and I'm 
interested in seeing if anyone else is still interested again.As I put 
forward a week or two ago on this listserv, I am interested in changing 
the way employment is done, or at least creating another way to go about 
it (link to the idea, also below: https://otherrealm.org/Economy ).I 
would like to get a group of people who are equally disenfranchised with 
the competitive nature of employment and business dealings and are 
interested in working together on creating such a worker cooperative 
model.Please let me know if you are interested, I will be setting up 
some meeting events to try to gather support so stay tuned.

Thanks!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

    A discussion that was going on a local tech entrepreneur listserve
    about the need to work for less than a fair wage when doing contract
    work got me thinking of an idea I had a while back.  The idea is a
    kind of 'jobs fair' that would be open to anyone, and anyone who
    attended would be either guaranteed a job or funding for a startup. 
    The amount of time that people spend competing for: first a college
    degree, then a job, then maybe funding for a business idea, is
    enormous.  It can often result in needing to compromise your moral
    principles and spend most of your time doing things in areas you are
    not passionate about.  Constantly needing to be judged and being
    told that you are not as good as someone else who got the job you
    wanted, puts a tremendous toll on your wellbeing and desire to
    interact with others.  On the other side, someone looking to hire
    the right person has to spend a considerable amount of time wading
    through tons of applicants before eventually arriving at someone you
    actually want to hire.  And if you have an ounce of empathy,
    constantly needing to turn people down because they are not the
    right fit feels horrible.

    The way I conceived of the 'job fair' working would be in two stages.

    The first stage would be a sign up and stakeholder gathering phase.
      Job seekers would fill out an online form detailing their skills
    and interests and any ideas for solutions to unsolved problems they
    had. Employers (worker coops and businesses that agree to not throw
    their employees under the proverbial bus if the job does not work
    out) would sign up and agree to employ people to work /with/ them
    and not /for/ them.  Business investors and venture capitalists
    would sign up and work on forming business ideas with people who do
    not see an existing role with any of the existing business that are
    hiring.

    Then the second stage would be the actual conference where everyone
    gets to know each other and job seekers and job fillers seek mutual
    skills and interests.  The people who do not have career goals and
    skills in line with those being sought, and those with business
    ideas they are looking to actualize, would work with the business
    investors and venture capitalists.  Together, they would form new
    worker cooperative businesses around the solutions previously
    identified in the first stage that everyone on the table can get
    behind.  These cooperatives would act as holons
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holon_(philosophy)>, each independent
    entities, but with the ability to utilize each other's resources to
    some extent.  There would also be a buffer fund established that all
    the cooperatives earning a positive income would contribute to and
    those needing more income could draw from.  The way the investors
    would get compensated is that they would be seen as one of the
    cooperatives. If the investors want to withdraw some of their
    investment, their financial balance would be negative and therefore
    a proportion of the buffer fund will go to them.  This siphoning of
    money to an investor will only continue until a previously agreed
    upon return on investment is achieved or the person invests more
    money back into the system.  Because the contribution will only be a
    portion of the /profit/, if some or all cooperatives are not earning
    a profit, they will not need to contribute to the buffer. Obviously
    exact details will need to be worked out when more people get
    involved, but that is the general way I am envisioning the financing
    working.  It may also make sense to involve colleges and others in
    the education sphere.  They could be seen as business investors.
      Although they may not be providing financial support, they can
    still provide significant resources and as a result have a share of
    the profit. However, the exact nature of their compensation would
    need to be figured out because education is rarely easily quantifiable.

    The important point in all this is that people are not competing –
    there would be the explicit edict that no one is left out and no one
    is forced to do things they have no desire to do (of course it may
    be necessary for some people to do undesired tasks, but these tasks
    should be for the purpose of fulfilling desired goals).

    What do people think of this idea and is anyone interested in
    working on it with me?  I would not be surprised if we could get
    some grant funding to get the ball rolling.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aaron E-J
The Other Realm LLC
http://otherrealm.org
http://theotherrealm.org (Blog)

On 2019-10-21 5:13 PM, Val Nelson via Hidden-discuss wrote:
> HI HTers,
> Have you considered forming a coworking space? I know of an amazing 
> space that just opened up that just looks like it's waiting for a 
> coworking space to step in. It's in Northampton, in a beautiful 
> setting. With off-street parking. Close to town but tucked away.
>
> I'm not looking to do this but it occurs to me that maybe one of you 
> might be.
>
> Let me know if you want more info.
>
> Val
>
> *_____________________________________
> Val Nelson*
>
> THE BLACK SWAN COACH
> / for Introverted Women with Big Hearts/
> Life ~ Livelihood ~ Impact
>
> ValNelson.com <http://www.valnelson.com/>
>
>
>
>
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