At The Bourse, Coworking Means Getting Work Done
by Josh Allen, Contributor @ The Bourse Coworking Loft – Coworking New Haven

A recent article from a blogger in Brussels, Belgium detailed the fascinating rise, success, but somewhat shocking, sudden recent closure in November of 2012 of a coworking space called The HUB Brussels. It’s part cautionary tale, part investigation into what exactly went wrong in a place where things seemed to be going right. The blogger, who goes by the name Anis, clearly details how management at The HUB Brussels focused its energy on creating a passionate community, but did not facilitate the necessary parameters to keep that community coming back and engaged with each other and the space. The space was noisy, distracting, and inhibitive of real work getting done, rather than centered around cultivating a highly focused and energetic … Read More »

Coworking = Less Bills = Happy You
Rapid Growth For Your Business is at The Bourse, New Haven’s Coworking Loft

By Robert Orr, Master of Coworking New Haven @ The Bourse

These days, where can you find office space where you never have to worry about all those hidden charges on top of “rent” that crash any business plan. You know, all the bills for electric, heat, janitorial services, coffee (and all the related refrigerators, sinks, grinders, espresso machines, stocking coffee/tea varieties, microwaves, etc.), common area management (CAM) fees, building insurance, faxing/data plan, wireless services, printing, toilet paper, staples, rubber bands, etc., etc., etc. They never seem to stop. All month. Every month. All year. And how about the responsibility of finishing a term lease if business heads south, not to mention the hefty deposit up front?

Going it alone can be risky AND expensive!

Wouldn’t … Read More »

What’s all the Fuss over New Urbanism?
Posted by Robert Orr, Master of Coworking New Haven @ The Bourse Coworking Loft

Frequent posts on The Bourse Coworking Loft blog address issues of urbanism since urbanism is considered a key component of Coworking. Coworking is based on the fact that enterprise and imagination find far greater productivity in the company of like-minded people, just like the success of enterprise and imagination of people living in the thickly settled environment of cities.

New Urbanism, as a movement, has been a 30-year unearthing of those qualities which contribute to successful urbanism. Successful urbanism is simply those places that make it really worth it to be human.

Although architects initiated the New Urbanist movement thirty years ago, and architects succeeded in attracting a host of other professions to the … Read More »

Computing Just Might Write the Closing Act on the Self-Esteem Era, AKA Diversity
by Robert Orr, Master of Coworking New Haven @ The Bourse Coworking Loft

Coworking feeds off diversity. By bringing together people with diverse interests, backgrounds and perspectives Coworking offers the opportunity to grow enterprise and imagination in ways that individuals working alone can not. Diversity breeds prosperity. But what is diversity all about?

There’s an IBM ad that pops up on TV from time to time entitled, “Smarter Marketing: Seeing customers as individuals” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SbVnMMozY4&list=PL5DC1B85E4FEA6504). The video is brief but poignant in driving home the shortcomings of demographics. Demographics are the indicators that steer marketers. Demographics tend to paint people in standard groups, such as income level, marital status, race, religion, education, etc.

The IBM video reveals the leap in useful indicators gleaned from switching from “geographics to analytics,” painting people as … Read More »

Not Far Far Away PV Panels, Low Energy Lightbulbs, Wind Turbines, Electric Cars, LEED Platinum Gizmos Will Wear Out. Then Where Will We Be? We must plan for urban climate change through adaptation, not merely mitigation.

by Robert Orr

To the continuing debate on sustainability of which the shared workspace of coworking is an important part, The Bourse Coworking Loft adds this discussion regarding the best approach to address Climate Change (CC): whether to mitigate (take preventative measures) or to adapt (change habitat/expectations to accommodate the inevitable).

Earlier this year I attended a conference on Climate Change at Yale’s business school, the School of Organization and Management (SOM). Everyone in the room was wearing a dark suit. One after another, like at an AA meeting, presenters approached the lectern and began their talks, “Hi, My name is ______. I’m a Republican and I believe in … Read More »

Homework or Cowork? Here’s more evidence on the increased stress of working at home over working with others. The Bourse, New Haven’s Coworking Loft offers the cheer-up alternative. In the company of other people, you get more done in less time and with a lot less stress. Drop downtown and try-out our shared workspace (Free for 3 days). Instantly, you’ll find how much more accomplished you’ll feel than you do when working at home. At least, here you can share the pain! Read more, reposted from FORBESWOMAN, written by Meghan Casserly.

Taking It Easy Through The Holidays? Working From Home Won’t Help

Working from home = just more work. Homework!

U.S. employees have something to celebrate this year as more employers are giving time off around the holidays than ever before. 58% of employers are offering at least three paid days off at the end … Read More »

Choosing Workspace. Coworking Space Vs. Office Space
Here at The Bourse, New Haven’s Coworking Loft, we have both private cubicles and shared workspace to offer. But how does one choose? Here are some thoughts pulled together by Robert Orr from writings by Joli shared by ShareDesk.

Whether your business is a start-up or you’ve been around a while, deciding on a new office space can be challenging. While location is definitely important, you first have to decide what sort of space you’re looking for. No matter the size of your company, you’ve got two basic choices for spaces. You can choose between either a large coworking space where your employees can work in a collaborative environment, or you can choose a space with many small offices and cubicles.

The Argument for Offices

The main argument in favor of having many small offices and cubicles … Read More »

The Next Workplace Revolution – Coworking

Reposted from The Atlantic Cities, by Anthony Flint

Telecommuting was supposed to change everything.

Powerful computers, video-conferencing and services like Skype would allow employees to work from home, and home could be anywhere. Traffic congestion would be reduced, and the traditional workplace model – and thus the office real estate market, in both urban and suburban locations — would be transformed. A wired world was poised to change the way we think about cities.

The trend has indeed played out in an incremental way. The US Census Bureau reported that the number of Americans working from home soared 41 percent in the last decade, to 13.4 million. That’s 9.5 percent of all workers working from home at least one day per week as of 2010, up from 7 percent in 1999.

Workers have for many years arranged to do business at “third … Read More »

How Kids (NextGen) Are Remaking Our Consumer Behavior
reposted from Co.Design, by Susan Fabry

INNOVATION ENGINE

PERHAPS MORE THAN AT ANY OTHER TIME, THE ADULTS OF TOMORROW ARE DETERMINING OUR TODAY, WRITES CONTINUUM’S SUSAN FABRY.

Understanding consumer behavior has become a vital component in design today. But there’s one important factor that designers don’t often consider when it comes to behavior change: our children (#nextgen). We tend to believe that it’s us adults who lead by example to pass “good behavior” down to the next generation, but increasingly it’s kids leading the way to promote positive change. Call it “trickle-up” behavior change.

AS TECHNOLOGY SPEEDS UP OUR WORLD, IT’S YOUNGER AND YOUNGER CHILDREN WHO ARE SETTING TRENDS.

As flu season approaches, one particularly visible example of this is the “vampire sneeze.” Only a few years ago, it was common for all of us to cover our … Read More »

Barry Levinson Explores iPhone Fimmaking, Environmental Disaster in “The Bay”
REPOSTED FROM CO.CREATE BY: KRISTIN HOHENADEL

The famed director of “Rain Man” decentralized the gear and process for his environmental horror, “The Bay,” gathering found footage from iPhones, webcams and actors.

Oscar winner Barry Levinson has made hit films spanning many decades, from Diner to Rain Man. But his latest, The Bay, a faux documentary cum eco-horror movie about flesh-eating isopods in the Chesapeake Bay, is a stylistic departure in which the 70-year-old director used more than 20 consumer-grade cameras to create “found” footage from iPhones, Androids, 911 calls, web cams and more to piece together the fictional story of a nightmarish 24 hours in the otherwise quaint seaside town of Claridge, Maryland.

“You’re working with a different set of tools than you normally work with,” Levinson said recently in an interview at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. “It’s … Read More »