jelly- the casual co-working get together

Influx Insights — 2008-05-18T23:22:27Z

In the Brand You economy, everyone seems to be working for themselves which has huge upsides and one big downside, you lack the social connections of the typical office environment.

Amit Gupta (the founder of Photojojo) missed the interaction of other employees, so he decided to open his home, his place of work, up to anyone.

This doesn't happen every day, but every few weeks Amit benefits from interesting conversations with a host of different freelance workers and gain new contacts, ideas and general stimulus.

Amit called the concept Jelly and now this thing is taking off from its humble birth in NYC around a year ago, there are now Jellies all over the US and the seem to be spreading across the planet.

Here's a 10 month old video that shows the diversity of talent at an early NYC Jelly.

What is Jelly? from Amit Gupta on Vimeo.

It's interesting to see how people have an amazing capacity for ingenuity, understanding the "social gap" that's lacking in the freelance world and coming up for a solution.

Given that Starbucks achieved much of its success by creating a Third Place, it's done precious little to evolve the concept and missed out on a host of opportunities as a result.

The company may have introduced good coffee to the masses, but it hasn't introduced true cafe culture.

Look next time you are in Starbucks, there is very little social interaction, just a lot of individuals who are happy to be part of a crowd.

What about Kinkos- shouldn't it be doing something?

Seems like there's a huge opportunity here.

Posted by Ed Cotton

work hard.live neutral.

Influx Insights — 2008-05-17T07:34:08Z

Everyone knows the co-working is the new cool way to work for those freelance Brand You-driven types. It would also be safe to assume that these forward thinkers might be partial to a little bit of green lifestyle. If you happen to be one of these folks and live in NYC, you are in luck because Green Desk is where you should be working.

Its list of green features seems impressive.

energy efficient lighting	solar panels on the roof
recyclable furniture	carbon offsets from nativeenergy.com
low/no VOC finishes	power from renewable energy sources
recycled paper products	shared bicycles
paper, plastic & glass recycling	rooftop garden
online paperless billing	filtered water on every floor

While it might seem a stretch to the environmental purist, Green Desk appears to be a lot better than most rental office spaces.

Perhaps of greatest significance is the fact its very presence shows just how far this movement has gone and how far it has to go. It's clear every single area of our lives has an environmental impact; from our homes to our finances, every player in this space will offer or have to offer products and services that cater to these needs for a couple of reasons.

1. It will demonstrate progressive thinking

2. There will be a profitable niche market for such offerings

However, the biggest challenge will be getting this right and trying to set the highest possible standards and example. At the moment, just being Green is good enough for Green Desk to carve out its own space in the new and emerging co-working market, but in 5 years, this will be the norm. The winners will be those who start with the highest standards and continue to push those standards even higher.

While Green Desk an appeal on the surface level to those who want to buy the green association and we know there are tons of them. However, it would be smart if they thought for a second how they might convince a skeptic of the benefits to renter and the planet of using their facility.

I, for one, would be interested in hearing about the difference and the improvements in environmental performance Green Desk provides over conventional office space.

In the environmental space, it's very clear that proof is going to become increasingly important.

Via Amit Gupta

Posted by Ed Cotton

Influx Insights Tag Feed: coworking

jelly- the casual co-working get together

work hard.live neutral.