Communities

The Guardian has an article on a zero-carbon emission development in Penryn, Cornwall, England. The fact that this happened in a small town makes it worth investigating for our Commons initiative (gaining momentum).

… the brand new Jubilee Wharf, a creek-side development comprising flats for local people to rent, 12 craft workshops, a public hall, a nursery and shops, might well be the greenest British building to date. Its carbon emissions seem to be a happy zero. It has been built as far as possible from local materials, including red cedar and larch, using local labour.

The pictures are of an appealing building, but one appropriate for its setting.

The two blocks of the development – one four storeys high, comprising studio workshops with maisonettes above; the other over two storeys, housing a nursery, public hall and cafe – enclose a courtyard, protected from the occasionally fierce coastal wind.

The author, Jonathon Glancey, sums up the greatest advantage of such a building initiative:

Too many councils give in to the bullying demands of supermarket chains, as if these unsustainable land monsters were the only means of boosting employment and local income. How about a few, or more than a few, variations on the theme of Jubilee Wharf, reflecting the topography, style, local production, sentiments and ambitions of people in different parts of the country?

I presented an overview of the Commons at the Renaissance Sackville AGM last night to a very attentive and interested crowd. It was a great experience to see the reaction of such a diverse audience and understand what aspects of the Commons resonate with different people.

For the record, here is my presentation, complete with links:

Our Commons

The Commons is an idea that has been evolving over the past two years. During that time, we’ve had discussions throughout our community involving many groups and interested people.

The idea started in 2005, when the Atlantic Wildlife Institute began looking at building office space for its Wildlife Emergency Response Network. It was decided that this should be to be located in Sackville, as AWI had just completed a $400,000 infrastructure project in building its learning centre in Cookville.

The office for the network needed to be in a more visible location, and we thought that an “Environmental Services Center” would be the right concept for outreach and even economic development.

Discussions over the past year with several community groups and individuals changed our understanding of what was really needed in our community. Several non-profit organisations, especially in the environmental and cultural sectors, told us about their need for space. Individuals with home-based businesses or independent artists and artisans also needed space, outside of their homes, as full-time office or studio rental was too expensive an option.

From these conversations emerged the idea of a place to nurture and grow groups that will sustain our community – economically, culturally and environmentally. This is our Commons.

So why is this necessary at this time?

Let’s go back a bit in time. About one hundred years ago, Western society shifted from an agrarian to an industrial economy. This changed the way that most people lived and worked; from following the cycles of the land and the seasons, to punching a time-card.

One invention that contributed to this massive shift was the mechanical tractor, requiring fewer people to farm a piece of land. Prior to the tractor, farms were limited to about 40 acres.

The other innovation was the creation of the road system – allowing workers to commute to the new factories that needed people to operate their machinery and build the new engines of production. This also spurred the development of larger, industrial-size schools.

Sackville was affected by this revolution; with the decline in wooden ship-building and family farming. We also had the creation of the local foundries to hire the local men and attract more people “from away”. The presence of a university helped to buffer some of these changes, providing jobs and contracts.

Today, in 2007, we are witnessing a similar change. The Industrial Age is giving way to the Internet Age, or what some call the Conceptual or Creative Age.

The Internet is changing most aspects of our lives. We are living through the biggest economic transformation in history – from a physical capital economy to one of human creativity.

US and Canadian data show a continuing decrease in manufacturing sector jobs and an increase in creative jobs – these jobs include entertainment, art, science, technology, design, and many others.

Creative work currently accounts for one-third of the US economy, and it is increasing. It’s expected that knowledge or creative workers will outnumber manufacturing workers in North America by 2015 – that’s in eight years.

Today, knowledge is the new currency.

How work is done and how wealth are created are already changing – witnessed by the phenomenal growth of companies like Google, Amazon and eBay. These companies are built on knowledge, not physical capital. For example, the Standard & Poor financial index comprises over 85% intangible, or non-physical, assets.

There are three other factors that are changing how we will be able to create wealth in the Internet Age. These are what Dan Pink calls the 3 A’s:

1. Asia – whatever can be done in a cheaper labour market will be outsourced.
2. Abundance – in the developed world, we have almost all of our basic needs met and we can buy almost any product; just look at electronics.
3. Automation – any work that can be standardized will be automated by computers.

Let’s face it, business as usual, based on industrial age assumptions and management theories, or basically everything we learned in school and at work, won’t work any more.

Let me note emphasize that knowledge work is not information processing.

First of all, knowledge work requires creativity.

Creativity itself is a conversation – a tension – between individuals working on individual problems and the professional communities they belong to. This applies to all knowledge workers, whether they be artists or software engineers.

Strange as it may seem, conversation is the real work of knowledge workers. Because knowledge work is pretty well any work that cannot be standardized, knowledge workers continuously work at the cutting edge of their expertise, growing with their field of practice. But these knowledge workers need to converse with other knowledge workers. For them, it is essential to be members of what are known as communities of practice.

Today, with ubiquitous access to the Internet and knowledge tools, knowledge workers can live anywhere. Research by CEO’s for Cities also shows that environment and culture are the two key factors in attracting and retaining knowledge workers. Knowledge workers first decide where they will live, then what they will do.

That means that for Sackville to be successful in the Internet Age, which will have fully arrived by 2020, we will need to become an attractive community for knowledge workers. If not, who will generate the wealth that we will need to sustain our community?

We should remember that those regions that experienced growth during the early Industrial Age were not the same centres that were thriving during the Agrarian Age. During any period of major economic and technological change, there will be winners and losers.

There is no standard formula for future success in the Internet Age. However, we must start experimenting with ideas that can help us build resilience into our community. We already have strengths in the environmental and cultural sectors, but these various organisations are dispersed and fragmented. There is no way for anyone to quickly understand and connect with all of the environmental and cultural work being done in this community.

We are also missing strong linkages between these two sectors and the business sector. Furthermore, we need to create an Internet Age business sector that works with fundamentally different business rules than any Industrial Age business ever did.

Here are some of the new rules of business:

• As I mentioned, intangible assets have greater value than tangible or real assets.
• For knowledge-intensive businesses, the cost of physical capital is minimal.
• The knowledge that Internet Age workers need is constantly expanding and changing.
• Many successful businesses today are based on fostering communities on the Internet.
• On the Internet, you can make money by giving almost everything away for free.
• Finally and most importantly – Trusted relationships are now our most valuable assets – this harkens back to the days when a person’s word was their bond.

So how can a Commons help us prepare for the Internet Age?

As I said, for a community is to thrive in the Internet Age, it must be attractive to knowledge workers. These workers need to be connected to other knowledge workers so that they can remain 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.

Secondly, most knowledge workers are not traditional salaried employees, they don’t need conventional office space. Many are starting to create their own alternative work and community spaces in cities such as London, Toronto, Kingston, Vancouver and more locally – Charlottetown. Several variants of Commons are being established at this time.

Our Commons will be our place that will help to build trusted relationships. It is a Third Space, being neither a dedicated office nor your home. Individuals will be paying members, but the cost of membership will be much less than renting a dedicated office.

For example, there will be shared space to Work; to Meet & Converse; to Create; and to Learn & Teach.

The Commons will focus on our local area but it will be a node in a network of connected commons. When traveling, members of the Commons will be able to use other commons to build trusted relationships. This reciprocity is already being discussed between various Commons.

At this initial stage, we see the following objectives for our Commons.

1. To foster cooperation between entrepreneurs and non-profit organisations.
2. To provide space for the increasing number of environmental and cultural organisations in our area who need a more permanent address.
3. To reduce the barriers to self-employment.
4. To bolster the establishment of a diverse cultural space to attract and retain creative people in the Tantramar region.
5. To provide home-based businesses with a place for local networking.

We have developed a business plan that will ensure the operation and financial viability of the the physical premises. We have also spoken with many people in the community who are interested in becoming members. A preferred site has been chosen and we are currently examining our financing options. If all goes well, we may begin construction by the end of the year.

Finally, I’d like to emphasize that real change happens at the local level. We need to take courage and get excited about our future. Perhaps we can think of our Commons as a local garage to tinker with all of these ideas.

So what are we going to do next?

• buy some land
• talk to lots of people about the idea
• build a Commons and sign up members
• pay off bills & pay our taxes & nurture our community

My first post on this blog was on February 19th, 2004. The themes of learning, work & technology have remained the same, and over time I’ve added communities, the commons and informal learning.

I can’t imagine stopping this blog, as it’s been a wonderful way to take my half-baked ideas and get some great input from a worldwide community. I must say that I have been the primary beneficiary so I’ll continue to selfishly plug away.

Thanks to everyone who has joined in the conversation, as I really appreciate all of the feedback; positive and negative.

I listened to the podcast of Richard Florida‘s presentation in Savannah, Georgia from December 2006 and I made a number of notes that seem to bear directly on how our Commons can help to prepare the town for the societal changes that we are beginning to experience in how we work, where we work, and when we work.

First of all, I felt reassured that the Commons is on the right track when Florida stated that his data show that knowledgeable, innovative and creative people attract more of the same. This means that jobs move to the people, not the reverse. An essential idea of our Commons is to attract and retain creative people in our community.

According to Florida, we are living through the biggest economic transformation in history – from a physical capital economy to one of human creativity. He specifically refers to the decrease in manufacturing sector jobs and the increase in creative jobs (entertainment, art, science, technology, design, etc). Creative work currently accounts for one-third of the US economy, and it is increasing. However, to be truly successful we will need to integrate creativity into all of our sectors, including the lower-paid service sectors, where every person is valued for their creativity. Florida says that this is possible in the same way that business and government cooperated to make manufacturing a high-wage sector.

In order to be part of the creative economy, cities (hopefully towns as well) have to understand the creative community needs pyramid. These needs have to be addressed to attract creative people, who will be the engines of future economic growth.

Basic Needs must be addressed first but addressing the higher needs of Lifestyle and Values are what will attract the creative class. This class is not differentiated by age, sex, education or income; as other classes have been in the past. The creative class in many cases are the marginalized or those living at the edges of the community. For instance, being open-minded and tolerant is not only attractive for recent university graduates but for the poor as well. Creativity can and does come from all socio-economic classes.

I envision our Commons to be a creative garage where innovative ideas can be tinkered with and anyone can drop by and get involved in the process. One idea that is forming is to have a completely public & open space as well as a members-only area within the Commons. In conjunction with other aspects of our town, such as the university and our natural spaces, the Commons can be one component in building a resilient and dynamic community for the creative economy.

Last night, Sackville Town Council approved a budget that included financial support for our Commons. The details have yet to be discussed and coordinated, but the Town is going to help us secure a site on which to build. We are far away from breaking sod, but it’s amazing to see an idea that started just over a year ago take on a life of its own (my first post was in October 2005).

For anyone who has not been following this story, here is what our Commons is about, in as few words as I can possibly use at this time.

Our Commons (no official name yet) is a physical space in which we can build our community. It will be outside the official places, such as municipal buildings, schools and churches. Our Commons is neutral ground where all are welcome. Our Commons is based on paid, individual memberships and focused on three areas – culture, environment and entrepreneurship. Members will have shared access to workspace, teaching space, meeting rooms and common areas. This will be an attractive, trusted space in which to have meaningful conversations about what is important for us. The Commons will also offer space to non-profit organisations, giving a focal point for much in our community that is unseen, especially in the environmental and cultural areas.

The lead agency in this project is the Atlantic Wildlife Institute, but the interest of dozens of other organisations and individuals shows that this is an idea whose time has come. Here are some previous posts:

• Some guiding themes for our Commons
• The Queen Street Commons in the national press
• Retrieving from the past

There is also a lens on the commons theme with links to other initiatives, and I’d like to invite everyone to join in the conversation here or elsewhere.

Your Team Online is a free social networking service for minor hockey coaches, parents and players. The secure site offers each team private and public space. Sign up is simple and the tools are easy to use. This Saint John company allows anyone to sign up, and:

Share game plans, schedules, statistics, photos, videos and information with your hockey team within a private Team Zone. YourTeam is an ideal tool for minor hockey leagues, youth ice hockey teams and all of amateur sport.

I’m convinced that building community is a good business model for the Web, even though making a profit is never that simple, just like in any business. If the community grows and the service offers a trusted space, then there is a good chance of success. Currently, there are a couple of hundred teams online and even one signed up from Italy. It’s great to see this kind of Web business bootstrapping out of New Brunswick.

There is also a Your Team Blog if you want to follow what’s going on.

[Disclosure: I’m currently advising Your Team Online, via a third-party]

Update: Check out their new site, The Hockey Zen

Our local public library and the advanced methods class from Mount Allison University are circulating a paper requesting input on how to make our town library better.

What would you like your new Sackville Public Library to like inside and out?

On a piece of white paper ranging in size from 4″ x 6″ to 11″ x 17″ draw your ideal library. You can use any medium (crayon, marker, paint, etc.) Remember to be creative and original. If possible, please provide a brief explanation of your drawing.

I’m not crazy about the format or the limitations given, but I know that there are a lot of good ideas about libraries, library 2.0, etc. floating on the Net. I also know that some great designers and innovative librarians visit this site from time to time, including; Joyce Valenza; Christian Long; Ryan Deschamps; and maybe even Jenny, The Shifted Librarian (I read her blog).

I have some ideas, but it’s not really my field of knowledge or experience, so are there any great ideas that you’re willing to share?

Update: I’ve created a Library 2.0 tag to bookmark web sites related to new perspectives on libraries in the 21st Century.