Harold Jarche

From Cafés to Commons

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This story in USA Today called Working out of a “third place“, shows the growing use of cafés as workplaces:

An estimated 30 million Americans, or roughly one-fifth of the nation’s workforce, are part of the so-called Kinko’s generation, employees who spend significant hours each month working outside of a traditional office.

If economics and demographics are similar in Canada, we could assume that there are about 3 million workers out of the office here. I believe that cafés are filling a void that corporate workspaces cannot offer. They attract workers on the road, those wanting to get away from the office, and growing numbers without an office.

A Commons is a notch up from a café. With a Commons, you pay a monthly membership that is the equivalent of meals & snacks for a couple of days at a café. As the Commons become networked, you’ll have more options on the road as well. The Commons movement is growing. I’ve heard that the Innovation Commons, in Toronto, is already full to capacity.

Town Commons Update

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This is the latest overview of the town commons for Tantramar, part of our business plan that is progressing:

In 2005 the Atlantic Wildlife Institute (AWI), based in Cookville, began looking at building office space for its Wildlife Emergency Response Network, to be located in Sackville. Discussions over the past year have indicated a need and a desire for individuals and organisations to share space to further several initiatives aimed at sustaining this community economically, culturally and environmentally.

These discussions have led to the idea of a physical space with a key difference: a place for the community to build, a gathering place for emerging businesses to form partnerships and friendships, and an appealing setting to think and interact with other creative people.

Objectives

The objectives for our Commons are:

  • Foster cooperation between entrepreneurs and non-profit organisations.
  • Provide space for the increasing number of environmental and cultural organisations in our area who need a more permanent address.
  • Reduce the barriers to self-employment .
  • Bolster the establishment of a diverse cultural space to attract and retain a large number of creative people in the Tantramar region.
  • Provide home-based businesses with a place for local networking.

Research, innovation & culture – a cooperative endeavour

Three vital sectors of the community are excited about sharing a flexible space and will form the key elements to its culture. These are the environmental, cultural and entrepreneurial sectors; key parts of our local community and economy.

The Atlantic Wildlife Institute forms the core of the environmental pillar, promoting learning and awareness of the direct links between environmental health and human wellness through its work in wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and research. It is joined by other environmental organisations who are looking for shared space.

A lively community of artists and artisans will form the cultural pillar of the commons and reinforce local galleries and artists by providing a space for education and artistic expression.

The entrepreneurship pillar will see innovative ideas taken into action by providing a space for independent working professionals to meet and develop new business models, consult with clients, and enjoy a social space that reflects the energy and innovation of the new world of work.

A New Town Square or Third Space

If a community is to thrive in the Internet Age, it must be attractive to knowledge workers. Recent data [PDF] show that environmental and cultural factors are critical in attracting and retaining knowledge workers.

These workers need to be connected to other knowledge workers so that they can stay creative. They need to have constant access to fresh ideas. One way to attract knowledge workers is to offer the right physical space and connections.

Because many knowledge workers are not employees, they don’t need conventional office space. Many are starting to create their own alternative spaces in cities such as London, Toronto, Vancouver and Charlottetown.

Beyond the Caf̩ РDesigning the Space

The design of the Commons building will create flexible, multi-purpose spaces to accommodate the needs of its members. Its design will encourage the flow of ideas between diverse disciplines. The aim of the Commons is to provide a space so that individuals and organisations have an opportunity to try out new ways of working, creating and learning together.

We foresee these spaces as fundamental to the complex:

  • Shared office space for use by all members, including meeting rooms, common areas, workspace and Internet access
  • Learning space for members to teach and share with others.

We expect that space use will change with the needs of the members but initial discussions within the community and with other commons show many options:

  • A local consultant booking a weekly meeting room.
  • A farmer from outside town using office space on bi-weekly trips to Sackville.
  • A solar energy consultant exhibiting the use of solar heat for the building’s hot water.
  • A dance instructor giving lessons in the loft learning space.
  • An artisan mentoring novices.
  • A group of independent professionals gathering to discuss business issues and ways of sharing resources.
  • A retired teacher tutoring students.
  • University researchers working with a local environmental group on a joint study.
  • Students and graduates using a sponsored membership to explore how to start a new business.
  • Use of the learning space for a “reciprocal learning network” (a parallel initiative in Sackville).

Individual Membership – Common Space

Members of the Commons will manage themselves as a cooperative and be afforded space within the Commons. No member will have dedicated space, as this is not an “office space for rent” model. Only individuals will be members of the Commons. Non-profit organisations will be provided with a number of individual memberships as well as some space that they may have to share with other organisations.

Learning Quote of the Year

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Kathy Sierra sums up the problems with mass schooling that I’ve discussed over the year, with Knocking the Exuberance Out of Employees:

“If you knock out exuberance, you knock out curiosity, and curiosity is the single most important attribute in a world that requires continuous learning and unlearning just to keep up.”
– Kathy Sierra

Our work systems reflect our education systems and vice versa. As with kids, so with adults. Too many public school and university graduates already have the exuberance knocked out of them; the managerial corporation just finishes them off.

Let’s celebrate exuberance & curiosity in learning and work.

Schooling Up, Literacy Down

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At the time of the American Revolution (1775-83), literacy levels in the thirteen colonies were about 90%. This was in an era before mass schooling. It has now been almost 100 years since mass schooling was introduced in North America, but our literacy levels seem to have decreased significantly, according to this CBC news article:

Literacy groups estimate that up to nine million Canadians face some difficulties with reading and writing.

I am sure that there are many factors influencing these statistics, but it seems obvious that our school systems have not done a great job. Less obvious is how literacy is defined, as the same news article states that only 1% of Canadians are actually illiterate. Literacy groups have their own self-preservation agenda as does the industrial school system, so statistics can be thrown about by various parties for their own purposes.

Anyone who wants to think about literacy and schooling today should ask if our enormous public education system is really meeting the needs of our children and our society. As Churchill said, “First we shape our structures, then our structures shape us” [thanks Jon]

The Big Question

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Tony Karrer asks on the Learning Circuits Blog if all learning professionals should be blogging. Given my stand against “one size fits all” education, I’d have answer no. However, I would strongly recommend blogging to anyone in the learning profession, much as I would recommend keeping a journal or publishing an article. Blogging is just easier than the latter two. I also agree with dave lee that there are applications other than blogs that learning professionals can use to share and learn.

Stephen Downes has a well-thought response to this question:

What can you know about a profcessional who doesn’t blog his or her work? How do you know they are competent, that they have the respect of their peers, that they understand the issues, that they practice sound methodology, that they show consideration for their clients? You cannot know any of this without the openness blogging (or equivalent) provides. Which means, once a substantial number begin to share, there will be increasing pressure on all to share.

Stephen says that blogging is good for our field but perhaps the easiest sales pitch is that it has direct benefits to the individual. It is actually a time-saver in the long run. I’ve referred to blogging as a way of making implicit knowledge more explicit and as a way of personal knowledge management. Over the past few years I’ve tried to explain my own practice of PKM on this blog several times.

Finally, I would say that learning is conversation and that blogging lets you have more and better conversations.

Spam Reduxit

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New Brunswick’s motto is Spem Reduxit (hope restored). In my case it may be spam reduxit, as I’m now getting about 200 comment spam per day. The Akismet spam module for WordPress is doing a good job, but I still check the comments marked as spam before deleting them permanently.

Usually, the spam concerns pills and porn, but lately it’s also been about mortgage rates and other more mundane things. Tonight, I noticed my first comment spam for Christian Ring Tones. We are scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one. Comment spam (a.k.a. search engine optimisation) is not the way to win friends and influence people.

If your comment has not been published after 48 hours, it has probably been lost in the comment spam bin. I try to check all of them, but I may miss some false positives. Just send me an e-mail.

“32 new companies within 36 months”

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I just came across this project in Saint John, New Brunswick called PropelSJ, with a stated aim of creating 32 new information and communications technology (ICT) companies in the next 36 months. This is similar to what I recommended as a prescription for the NB learning industry in Rx for NB Learning, minus the aggressive timeline.
The PropelSJ strategy is to:

  1. formalize and operate a growth focused ecosystem for entrepreneurs
  2. invest in a targeted plan
  3. strengthen the knowledge environment by expanding the educational focus

This is all good stuff, but lacks details for me to get too excited yet.

Since PropelSJ is focused on ICT (a.k.a. IT), let’s compare it with the IT mecca of the world – Silicon Valley. Here’s some advice on what to do from Guy Kawasaki, in How to Kick Silicon Valley’s Butt:

  • Focus on educating engineers
  • Encourage immigration
  • Send the best and brightest to Silicon Valley
  • Celebrate your heroes
  • Forgive your failures
  • Be logical
  • Don’t pat yourself on the back too soon
  • Be patient

Guy also advises what you SHOULD NOT do:

  • Don’t focus on “creating jobs”
  • Don’t pass a special tax exemption
  • Don’t create a venture capital fund
  • Don’t provide cheap office space and infrastructure

There is much more to read in this article, as well as many comments for and against Guy’s advice.

I look forward to watching PropelSJ over the next 36 months. It’s a big challenge.

Learning how to learn, from the beginning

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We may talk about being continuous learners, but the reality is that those who question the existing systems put themselves on the fringe. Christian Long cites the recent case of Pluto no longer being a planet and how this shows how brittle our formal education system is after some 100 years.

And let me get this straight: you want me to be a lifelong learner, but just not right-this-second ’cause that’s not in the rubric you mapped out this summer with the help of the study-to-the-test-consultants that did that workshop you sat through for credits to keep your job while you’d rather be teaching and inspring me and the rest of my buddies here in 5th period, because the textbook guys already struck a deal with teachers who don’t use the Internet and the worksheets were already printed and the tests were already evaluated for veracity and comparible student populations and big money was spent on all of it so we just sit here and read the textbook and take the quiz and all will be okay? Seriously?

But what about Pluto? They told that planet that all was okay and painted its picture in countless solar system maps and made little kids learn songs that rhymed the names of all 9 of them. And look what happened to that guy?

And is there someone I can call about this? Someone who has the answer? And isn’t worried about what the textbook says?

The same goes for informal learning in the workplace. After decades of being told how to jump through the right hoops and get all of the right stickers degrees, you now want all workers to think for themselves, but only enough to support the existing structure and not to question the status quo? Good luck, because all of this freedom to rip, mix & learn is very subversive.

Stay focused on the small stuff

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A couple of recent articles reminded me about the importance of doing the small things well and possibly reaping large rewards. We often look for magic bullets or big systems to address big problems but it’s usually the little stuff that makes a difference.

Christian Long tells a story about teachable moments and how this statement from a student, “I have to go to the bathroom bad“, can be used for all kinds of learning about grammar. As Christian says, this is a “real glimpses of innovation inside the ‘learning’ space.”

Another case in point is an article from Green Chameleon about knowledge management that does not include expensive IT systems. This is a story about housekeeping and concierge staff at a hotel:

Each day, one staff member got to share in about 5-10 minutes a topic of interest just before roll-call which happens at the start of a new shift. The staff get to pick the topic and the day they would like to do the sharing. The topic could be on anything of interest or an incident they considered useful for others to learn from such as how to check-in baggage, how to deal with “weird” guests, where to buy foreign magazines, what Deepavali which is a Hindu festival coming up in October is all about, and so on – in short, topics that would help them deal with their guests better.

In either case, taking advantage of a teachable moment or adding a 5 minute sharing session, the cost of implementation is negligible. The key is in understanding the business, the issues and the organisational culture so that these kinds of informal learning activities can take place. The only way that I can see this happening is when those in charge remain connected to the day-to-day operations and when there is a climate of trust to try out new ways of working.

Banned Books

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It’s Banned Books Week in the US, an event sponsored by the American Library Association;

BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

The next Freedom to Read Week in Canada will be from 25 February to 3 March 2007. Here are some books from the Canadian list of challenged books (PDF):

  • Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale
  • Lynn Reid Banks – The Indian in the Cupboard
  • Margaret Laurence – The Diviners
  • Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Alice Munro – Lives of Girls and Women
  • J.D. Salinger – Catcher in the Rye
  • John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men

I am sure that all of the individuals, politicians and members of school boards strongly believe that they know what is best for our children and that banning books would be good for our society. I think that they are wrong.