A Modernized Incubator for DC by Rebecca Horton

The Trestles facilitating creative collaboration

Rebecca Horton MA Final Project, Fall 2012 1

table of CONTENTS I.

INTRODUCTION

p. 4

II.

RESEARCH Literature review Market research Ethnography

p. 6

III.

PROTOTYPING Poster session Ashoka facilitation Salon concept Cultural mapping

p. 23

IV.

SYNTHESIS User personas Heuristics Opportunity spaces

p. 45

SERVICE CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT The platform The business model

p. 98

VI.

APPENDIX Bibliography Coworking research notes

p. 108

INTRODUCTION WHAT ARE THE FACTORS THAT MAKE FOR A SUCCESSFUL CREATIVE CITY? How might we, as citizens, local leaders, business owners contribute to the future of our communities in a positive, sustainable manner? How might we make our cities more than what they are today and a closer image of what they could be tomorrow? This project represents the culmination of my masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s studies at Savannah College of Art and Design. It is an exploration into Washington, DCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emerging creative economy and more broadly into emerging creative economies scattered throughout history. Located herein is a compendium of my work surrounding this topic conducted sporadically over the past year and a half and more intentionally during fall 2012. The catalyst for my topic of study emerged long before I ever considered design to be a viable career option. As a young twentysomething located in Washington, DC after attempting a career in public policy and getting burnt out after only a few months, I found myself working with emerging creatives scattered all around the country

Is there a model for helping emerging creatives to flourish that does not make them feel like charity cases but simultaneously does not force them into the constructs of a financial relationship whereby they must give up shares in their business and take their work commercial? through an angel investment network. In the relationships that I formed with artists and investors, I began asking the question: is there a better way to support the creative economy that is not patronage? Is there a model for helping emerging creatives to flourish that does not make them feel like charity cases but simultaneously does not force them into the constructs of a financial relationship whereby they must give up shares in their business and take their work commercial?

The goal of this project, as it was undertaken during the fall final project period was to envision and outline an organization that could foster and manage the building of interdisciplinary creative networks in Washington, DC. In using DC as the petri dish, I always imagined the concept going broader, but saw DC as the most viable place to launch given my connections in the city and the unique character of DC as a local, national and global city. Roughly speaking, the project involved four distinct phases, some of which repeated themselves throughout the project’s lifecycle: research, synthesis, concept development, and prototyping. In conducting the meat of this project, I employed methods of agile and emergent design, running a variety of experience prototypes to test the constructs for a successful movement or space to serve creatives in DC. Throughout the project, I took a multi-prong, multi-partner approach to research, prototyping and idea development. In no stage of the project besides the literature review and the documentation process was I working in isolation. In planning the research itself, I met with a

friend from Ireland who has spent her career working in interdisciplinary research and provided invaluable advice in scoping the project goals. For my prototyping efforts, I worked closely with three local friends: Hayley Darden (Search team lead at Ashoka), Catherine Woodiwiss (policy analyst at the Center for American Progress by day, and budding house show musician by night), and Natasha Kolar (researcher in international education and event hosting enthusiast). As my concept emerged and evolved and throughout the business model development process, I worked with too many local names to count but a few are worth noting due to their unique contributions: Cary Umhau, Laura Grazier, and Austin Clemens. Market research partners included the leaders of local organizations in DC and intriguing projects in other cities, like Philippe Chetrit of DC’s Affinity Lab, Jimm Meloy (selfemployed) of New York City’s coworking and start-up scene, and Liz Elam of Link Coworking in Austin Texas. This project is still ongoing and at present is close to the stage of a launch as a formal business entity to be built in early 2013 and scaled over the coming years. This document provides an overview of my efforts over the past year and a half. It does not run in a linear fashion, but is grouped for ease-ofreading and broader access to the project. It’s been a pleasure. Happy reading!

CONDUCTING RESEARCH

THE CORNERSTONES TO THIS PROJECT were an extensive review of the literature regarding creative movements and an exploration of the existing providers of creative incubation space and services.

Handwritten notes taken at a crafters event hosted at Fab Lab DC

Beginning in fall 2011, I began a review of sources documenting creative movements and the factors contributing to their diffusion. From this research, I was able to discern some of the key movements throughout time and better identify the ‘locational and institutional’ factors contributing to a movement’s success (see Lavanga et. al 2008). I continued my research by examining not only prior movements but also those ongoing, exploring web resources on spaces such as The Ace Hotel, NYC, venture capitalist projects such as Y Combinator and incubators such as The Unreasonable Institute. This market research focused upon spaces, organizations, and movements with a blend of skillsets: read not only creative but also business or finance-oriented. Throughout this research, I became familiar with and began more deeply exploring an emerging work concept known as coworking. Spaces for coworking are currently emerging around the country and represent places where freelancers and small businesses can rent a single workspace or a few workspaces

rather than a whole office and work amongst a community of other businesses. My discovery of coworking led me into a mini ethnography project whereby I visited several coworking spaces along the East Coast and in Austin, TX.

Beginning in summer 2012, I started to focus my research more exclusively upon the market for creative incubation services in Washington, DC. By fall 2012, I had developed a rough ‘master list’ of organizations that do some type of incubation work in Washington, DC. In early fall, I began attending events and gatherings of some of these groups and emerging movements. At these events, I either took the position of a ‘fly on the wall,’ documenting my findings in a covert manner or of ‘participant observer,’ whereby I would take copious notes or photos while fully participating in the activities. Over time and as the project matured, I became more open about disclosing my intentions at these gatherings, by late fall openly explaining to to others that I was in the process of designing and prototyping a platform for connecting creatives in Washington, DC. As the project matured, so did the nature of the connections. What began as casual market research eventually became an exploration of potential partners and project collaborators.

The remainder of this section will document each of my research activities in greater detail. It begins by covering the literature review that I conducted and then continues by detailing my market research work and ‘guerilla ethnography’ at coworking sites in Austin, New York, DC, and Savannah. The imagery provided in this section offers a glimpse of the richness of my research work; however, for a more comprehensive picture of my research work please see the enclosed bibliography located in the appendix. This bibliography lists many of the sources that I referenced or reviewed over the course of the project and should serve as a viable primer for others exploring similar topics.

A stack of my research papers from the literature review.

LITERATURE Pictured to the left is some of my work on an era analysis of creative movements over the last 500 years throughout Western cultures. In conducting this research, it quickly became evident that standout creative movements almost always involve partnerships between different individuals coming from varied backgrounds.

review

As a lead up to this project, I conducted an exhaustive literature review tracking the historical context for this project. I compiled this research into a single document through a process known as ‘era analysis,’ which segments research into different eras. My research dated back to the Roman Empire and included the following eras: Roman Empire, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Pre-modern, Modern, and Postmodern. For this research, I explored everything from the 1800s coffee shop movement to Bruneschelli’s partnership with the Medici. In addition to this initial literature review, I conducted a more extensive review of the literature during summer 2012, resulting in additional findings around creative economies and the factors necessary for their success. This second pass of research looked not at creative movements themselves but rather at literature reflecting on these movements. I explored Teresa Amabile’s work regarding creativity in organizations, Robert Kloosterman’s writing about proximity and knowledge spillover in the Dutch architectural community, Lavanga and Mariangela’s writing about locational and institutional factors for successful creative incubation, Ann Markusen’s work on creative placemaking as published by the National Endowment for the Arts, Charles Landry’s reflections in The Creative City, and Doorley and Witthoft’s suggestions for designing creative spaces in their book Make Space. My review of the literature formed the theoretical backbone for later concept exploration, enabling me to make educated decisions about what could and would work in an emerging creative community.

exploring the market

Figment DC Exhibit, “Christy Turlington Paint by Number”

HROUGHOUT THE DURATION of this project, I immersed myself in contexts by which I could learn about the market dynamics for opening an incubator in Washington DC. This research took several different forms throughout the project but primarily involved conversations with local stakeholders and potential customers of the Trestles model and attendance at local arts- or entrepreneurshiprelated gatherings.

tra for gathering as much research as possible without getting bogged down in a single organization.

Most of 2011 leading up to the project launch involved exploring the models and practices of others. For example, I began following the work of New York City’s General Assembly as well as several other incubators, such as Y Combinator and the Colorado-based Unreasonables. I also worked from a coworking space in Savannah, Georgia throughout several months and ultimately decided it was not conducive to studying collaboration due to its enclosed structure. Some of the things I noted were: “it feels too enclosed” and “I feel like I need to dress up to come here and can’t really be myself.” At this early stage in the project, observe and move on was an important man-

In late August, I began conducting informal interviews with a handful of local DC stakeholders and regularly working from local free-lancer hotspots (Big Bear Cafe, Tryst, Flying Fish). Through my conversations with local stakeholders, I learned that it is easy to get people interested in the idea of things but hard to get them to commit. I also learned that a primary driver for participation in outside-the-office collaboration was that it be non-related to one’s day-to-day work. Some interviewees suggested that they would prefer to forget their day jobs and would like

Image by: REBECCA HORTON

for Trestles to provide them with an alternative to talking about work. Others’ primary motivation, regardless of context, was always work. Even when I asked them what an outside-the-office collaboration might look like, they suggested it should help inform their day-to-day working activities.

During early October I interviewed the executive director of a succesful arts orga-

nization in Charlottesville, Virginia to get advice on how to build the project. She had several suggestions, the crux of which centered around building partnerships with existing organizations rather than building something new and spending the time getting to know ‘local needs.’ I also attended several local gatherings

Thirst DC Booth, ‘Twice as Warm’ Image by: REBECCA HORTON

to get a better feel for the zeitgeist in DC’s cultural milieu. Between September 1st and September 29th, I attended three different local cultural events to better understand DC’s emerging creative opportunities and the characteristics of participants. The first event was a eat-and-learn style event called ‘Hello Craft,’ which was held at Fab Lab. Attendees at this event primarily included local Etsy sellers and makers interested in taking their craft more seriously. The second event was a presentation held at DC’s German Center showcasing some recent work in urban design and opening a new exhibit showcasing the “Dupont Underground,” an underground area that a group of local and regional leaders are considering turning into an exhibit space, of sorts. This event drew heavy participation from the DC planning community, along with several young professionals who seemed curious and connected. The third event was Figment DC, the first of Figment’s DC-located gatherings. It drew participants from the Burning Man scene who were based locally; however, many of the featured artists at the event were from out of

town. Although the theme of the event was intriguing and participants were highly engaged, the crowd felt a bit sparse and it seemed like the event needed more publicity. After taking a break from others’ gatherings for a while and digging into my own project, I participated in one of Feastly’s events put on by a friend in early October. Feastly is a web-based platform that facilitates the gathering of locals over a shared meal in someone’s home. The Feastly event that I joined was well-attended, tickets sold out, and many locals from several different walks of life met one another. One of the more intriguing aspects of the Feastly gathering was the professional and lifestyle diversity of the group participating, they were of varied ages and varied jobs. However in terms of income and racial background I found the group to be fairly homogenous (all middle to upper middle class, white, lived in primarily suburban or well-established neighborhoods. At this point, I was ready to find more of the ‘edge’ when it came to local gatherings and hoped that more extreme examples existed. Later that month, I attended the Halloween gathering of another local network, ThirstDC. This event exposed me to a new group of superconnectors within DC’s creative scene and clued me into some additional organizations that I might partner with in the coming months. Following the Thirst DC event, I attended several sessions of the DC Week annual technology conference, which further exposed me to DC’s technology and start-up scenes and significantly broadened my network of local creatives, providing opportunities for me to meet representatives from local radio platforms, user experience-driven companies, and members of the community organizing realm. One initiative that seems

to be bridging the gap between many of DC’s emerging creative communities is an organization called ‘No Kings Collective.’ This organization featured artwork at the ThirstDC event and was responsible for decorating an abandoned fashion store in DC’s up-andcoming H Street corridor for the DC Week closing party. While I do not necessarily advocate the particular style of No Kings’ artwork, there model (get space for free, finance event through a funder) is fairly similar to one that I had already been considering. No Kings’ quick success as an organizer supported through sponsorships proved that my financial model (see later in this document) has legs and can work in DC.

Images: Hello Craft notes (above), Dupont Underground panel (right)

guerilla ethnography The Ace Hotel is a popular and informal coworking spot in New York City. It is one of seven coworking spaces that I visited during the month of December, 2012. Images by: JAVERIA MASOOD, fellow designer and my traveling companion

DURING THE WINTER OF 2012, I conducted a series of guerilla ethnography visits. In total, I visited approximately ten coworking sites and accelerators located in four different cities: Austin, TX; New York, NY; Washington, DC; Savannah, GA. From there, I established a working partnership with Savannah’s ThincSavannah space, where I began working several times a week. Aditionally, I established relationships with two potential future partners: Phillipe Chetrit, of Washington, DC’s Affinity Lab and Jimm Meloy, a former Silicon Valley executive who is now working closely with New York City’s start-up and coworking communities. The photos that follow document my coworking site visits. For a deeper review of my thoughts regarding these visits, please see the appendix for my post-visit notes.

These images represent various coworking sites that I visited: Linked Coworking (right and immediately below), Hive at 55 (below) and New Work City (left).

PROTOTYPING SERVICE CONCEPTS

Image from a prototyping session conducted at Ashoka’s world headquarters with members of the search team and a handful of other Ashoka staff members Image by: REBECCA HORTON

FALL 2012 WAS ALL ABOUT PROTOTYPING, Between September and November 2012, I conducted seven prototypes. These prototypes covered three broad categories of interest: professional, job-related collaboration within a single organization; goal- or taskoriented collaboration happening outside of a work context; and informal, pop-up style collaboration made possible because the right people were in the right place under the right conditions. The following pages document each of the prototyping sessions and are grouped by prototype-type, with the first being professional collaboration at Ashoka, the second being task-oriented but not work-related collaboration through a poster session, the third being thematic collaboration, and the fourth being an immersive blend of types two and three known as ‘cultural mapping.’ Some prototyping-types were more successful than others, an outcome that is likely the result of my experience level as a facilitator as well as the group conditions. For example, the first prototyping-type was wildly successful across all of the sessions. Meanwhile, the salon concept was not very successful, as people had a hard time focusing on the topic and were not trained in listening and debating skills for participating in a roundtable discussion.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Something worked really well with the posters, you let me do it with Catherine. It let me play...The key for you will be knowing when a sprit of play is going to generate the outcomes...you need participants to feel safe letting things emerge.â&#x20AC;? -Hayley Darden 24

poster facilitation Provided to the left are images from the session, including the prompts used for poster creation, a few workin photos, and the three posters created during the session. All images by: REBECCA HORTON

THE THEME OF STRUCTURED BUT NOT WORK-RELATED PRODUCTIVITY was the first focus of my prototyping efforts. My first prototype involved a two-hour session consisting of dinner and discussion about the future of DC’s creative scene. In total, there were four participants, covering a variety of ages and career and neighborhood backgrounds. During the first hour of the prototype, participants ate food and chatted around the dinner table. I invited them to fill out name badges during this time, an activity that they were not very receptive to due to the intimate feel of the event. The second hour involved a ‘poster visioning’ session. After showing the attendees a series of ‘how might we’ statements, I instructed them to develop posters encompassing their vision of the future of the city. Participants worked on their posters for about 30 minutes, with two participants opting to work together. To close the session, I invited participants to share their ideas through a roundtable chat. The session was quite successful in getting people to talk about their ideas and generating shared understanding around each participant’s envisioned future of creativity in DC. The participants were quite open about their ideas and shared valuable critique regarding what would be necessary for a successful movement. In my opinion, the posters were critical to the success of the session. Participants felt open sharing their ideas through creation of the posters and enjoyed presenting to one another. Given the intimate feel of the event, however, I think that a discussion might have worked just as a formal activity. In the future, I would be interested to explore how a poster session might work with a larger group of participants (see the cultural mapping section for a further exploration of this poster idea).

Ashoka COLLABORATION Organiational issues that emerged during my first prototype with Ashoka’s search team. Images by: REBECCA HORTON

In August, the leader of Ashoka’s Search team approached me to run a series of creative sessions focused around improving the productivity and flow of group sessions within the organization. Ashoka is a DC-based organization well-known for its work in social entrepreneurship. Given the ties between the Search leader’s goals and my own for the purposes of this project, I decided to run my first series of prototypes with the search team at Ashoka. In August, we discussed a structure for infusing design thinking throughout the organization by starting with a concentrated group of Ashoka interns. From there, we began designing several group session with the goal of engaging participants in designing tools for organizational change. Each of the three sessions that I ran with Ashoka are documented below.

FIRST PROTOTYPE: GET-TO KNOWYOU TIME As my first ‘prototype’ with Ashoka, I attended a working session of Ashoka’s Search team, which included its leader and five newlyminted interns. This first session, hosted at the team leader’s home, involved a group

introduction to the topic of design thinking, a roundtable lunch on the roof, and an hourlong brainstorming time to define a problem set for further exploration. One of the first things that I noticed during the session was the impact of the environment upon group behavior. Due to the fact that the group activity was hosted in someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home, personal barriers to collaboration were immediately broken down and participants felt at-ease sharing their opinions on highly sensitive organizational concerns. I also noticed that participants were highly engaged in the topic of design thinking. Everyone in the group, save for me and the team leader, was a new college graduate eager to find his or her niche. Several of the participants approached me after the session to express their interest in exploring design thinking as a component of their future

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We accidentally benchmarked these people on design thinkingâ&#x20AC;? career path. Finally, another key thing that I noticed was that participants were reticent to use sticky notes and when I invited them to use the sticky notes, they tended to write on the notes using bullet points or long lists, making it difficult for others to unpack or refer back to their notes in the discussion. This third issue is something I began probing deeper in future sessions and for which I am still exploring solutions.

LEFT IMAGE: a whiteboard of the group dynamic. BELOW AND ABOVE: Learnings from the session

SECOND PROTOTYPE: FIX THE BROKEN COMMUNICATION SYSTEM During a two-hour window, two facilitators and seven participants explored the topic of communication at Ashoka through a collaborative brainstorming session. The session began with a forty-minute exercise exploring the ‘antiproblem,’ designed to take participants out of their comfort zones and stimulate new thinking. After a quick break, the session coninued through a game that explored ways to take the solutions to the antiproblem and put them in the context of the real problem in ways that balanced opposites like consistency and flexibility. For this portion of the session, participants were divided into two teams, each with a facilitator and each containing interns and long-term Ashoka staff. After 30 minutes of play, the teams shared their favorite ideas and posted them on the wall for dot voting. The event was deemed a roaring success and participants were highly engaged. Participants noted that the activity was: “really thought-provoking” and that it was really useful to have staff members outside of their normal work-day in the session.

In terms of the things that I noted as successful with the prototype, I noted the following: the diversity of participants in the room was a big help: we had both seasoned staff and new interns in the room, which enabled a blend of fresh and informed thinking; the antiproblem to worked really well as a kick-off activity, the game dynamics blended with the ‘balancing opposites’ approach helped people to generate ideas quickly with little concern for whether their ideas were ‘bad’ or ‘good.’

“I liked the ‘someone would start’ and ‘someone would build.’” -participant

PROBLEM STATEMENT: HOW MIGHT WE DESIGN A SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATION AT ASHOKA THAT IS OPEN, LEARNING AND CONTINUALLY EVOLVING?

THIRD PROTOTYPE: ENGAGE THE A-YEARS As my third prototype with Ashoka, I was invited to help facilitate a team retreat for Ashoka’s A-Year program. The A-Year program is for recent graduates who are interested in social entrepreneurship and are exploring the possibility of working at Ashoka long-term. The program is a way for the graduates to feel out Ashoka and for Ashoka to feel out the graduates at minimal cost to both parties. A-Year is still in its first year and thus the organizers still have some kinks to work out. I worked again with the Search team to craft a few hours worth of team-building brainstorming activities. The session that I helped plan came towards the end of a weekendlong retreat whereby A-Year members went to a cabin about an hour away from DC to talk about their experiences, bond, and suggest ways to improve the A-Year experience. In this session, I took more of a back seat as a facilitator, helping the Search team design a few simple activities and mostly observing the flow and reactions as the activities transpired. For the activities themselves, we kicked things off with a quick brainstorming exercise where we asked participants to identify their ‘pain points’ in the program. We then asked participants to determine whether these pain points were the result of ‘too much freedom’ or ‘too much constraint.’ This simple activity allowed us to naturally segment participants into two groups: those who felt they had too much autonomy and those who felt that they did not have enough. Using these natural groupings, we split the participants and told each group

to spend several minutes discussing their experiences and defining a problem set that they would later pitch to the other group who would be hired as their consultants to address their problem. After about fifteen minutes of discussion within each group (they asked for more time), we invited each team to present their problem set to the other team in three minutes or less. The opposing team was allowed to ask questions of their ‘client’ after the presentation and then each team was told to go into a twenty to thirty minute break-out session whereby they would design solutions for their new client. Before sending them off to design, we told the teams that they would be rated on the quality of their solutions by the other team and that they would, again, present their ideas in a three-minute pitch. This series of activities ended up lasting for approximately two and a half hours. One thing I noticed early on in the session was that participants were unable to use the sticky notes to capture a ‘single point’ even when explicitly instructured to do so. As a facilitator, I was reticent to do the sticky noting for them because I wanted them to have ownership; however, it quickly became obvious that they would have welcomed any recording or visualization of their ideas. Myself and the search lead served as moderators for each of the teams, helping them to stay on track with their discussions and probing those participants who were not

“I’m going to use an analogy because otherwise i’ll get too upset” talking much. Intriguingly, the ‘not enough autonomy’ team was much faster at coming up with solutions than the ‘too much autonomy’ team. One of the things that seemed to derail the autonomy team’s discussion was that a few teammembers seemed unable to move past ideas that the group deemed unworkable. For example, one of the teammembers with experience in UX design said that he had sent a list of UX problems to the web team at Ashoka and did not understand why they had not implemented them. In a separate conversation with the Search team lead, I discussed my surprise that this teammember seemed unable to realize the cultural issues that needed repair before the web team would

begin to approach the Ashoka site from a UX perspective. He and other staff participating in the brainstorming activities seemed relatively oblivious to the fact that many of their solutions could not be pushed through until cultural change occurred within Ashoka. During this session, there seemed to be two camps of reaction: some participants loved the activities and were fully engaged while others remained on the fringes and seemed disengaged. Due to my lack of involvement in the rest of the retreat, it was not clear to what degree this was a result of a negative A-Year experience versus the dynamics of the activities themselves. One thing that was clear from this prototype, however, is that problem sets directly relevant to someone’s day-to-day work will bring out emotionally-charged reactions that may be difficult to moderate. A more successful version 2.0 might include more outside voices, like in the last prototyping session, a more thoughtful ‘move away’ from the problem itself so that participants did not feel like they were designing their own experiences, and a heavier hand in terms of moderation.

THE SALON concept

he third set of prototypes explored themed but not task-focused collaboration through a salon format. For the salon prototype, I partnered with three friends to host a gathering in their home. We each invited two people to attend the gathering, and collectively came up with a theme and selected drink and food options for the event. This prototype, albeit wellintentioned, ended up being a bit of an epic fail. In looking back at the prototype, four main issues surfaced: ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆

More structure is needed to achieve the ideal group state Need a set of ground rules or clearly defined expectations Late-comers were a distraction Facilitators need more clearly defined, active roles

The issues related to this prototype began even before it started. Several ‘maybes’ emailed to say that they would be coming late with a friend who they had decided to bring along. Once people started arriving, only a few were on time and the drinks were not ready until about 30 minutes after people arrived. One of the hosts was nowhere

to be found and did not arrive until well into the evening.The discussion itself never really got started and whenever it almost did someone would come in, arriving late to the discussion, and throwing off the momentum. One of the hosts ended up leaving the salon and going to bed, out of frustration. Another host brought a guest who proceeded to dance in another room the entire time rather than join the group at the table and myself and the remaining host sat frustrated in the dining area trying to wrangle things as much as possible. To rectify some of the issues discovered during this prototype, I scoped out a new salon structure with one of the prior hosts and her colleague, who has been trained in the Socratic method and has offered to help us with our next round. We designed a new strcuture for the salon and plan to host version 2.0 in winter 2012.

mapping the

city’s creative energy

One of the ideas that emerged out of my early prototyping efforts was the notion of mapping DC’s creative energy. A friend and I discussed the idea of creating a master map of DC’s creative hotspots and then brainstormed ways to arrive at an output that might facilitate knowledge-sharing amongst DC’s creative networks. Over a three week period, we then designed and refined a mapping workshop to last an hour and a half.

FIRST PROTOTYPE: MAPPING WORKSHOP For our first mapping event, we designed several large-scale maps of the city and a sample diagram meant to stimulate group creativity around creating their own maps. In mid-October, we ran the workshop at a home in Northeast DC and invited friends from all over the city. When it came time for the workshop itself, we had approximately ten participants who shared their own creative journeys by means of visual diagrams and then plotted their journeys onto physical maps of the city that we provided them with. Participants used simple materials such as markers and colored dots to plot

Map installation for DC Week closing party, November 2012. This wall installation featured maps created during the conference and was shown alongside the work of local artists in a space curated by No Kings Collective. Images by: REBECCA HORTON AND CATHERINE WOODIWISS

their creativity in DC. Feedback from the workshop was positive, although some participants asked for more structure and a deeper discussion around the goals of the workshop. In running the session, we discovered that the activites we ran could not easily fit within an hour and a half time window but that an hour and a half was optimal for getting people to come. Thus, we proposed a ‘round two’ of mapping to the groups as they were working on their maps, asking them if they might be willing to come back in a few weeks to finish their maps rather than present a half-finished map to the group. All participants said yes and some took this as a cue to leave. Others lingered until close to 10pm (the workshop started at 7pm), some still working on their maps and others discussing activities that they were a part of in DC. In terms of the ways in which people engaged with the activities, there was significant variety amongst participants. Some elected to work in groups on the mapping activity and expressed later frustration that they had not been able to work in groups all along. Others elected to work solo and said that creating their own map would be their ideal first step before any discussion or diagramming. One participant seemed fairly reticent to adapt to the open-ended structure of the evening, although he arrived late, and expressed a desire for more structure and specific prompts from the facilitators.

THE AFTERMATH The workshop itself generated a lot of buzz, not just amongst participants but also amongst those who were unable to attend. The number of people who were unable to

Participants working on their maps. attend that said they would be interested in attending a second workshop ended up being just as large as the number of people who actually attended. From this feedback and that of those who actually participated, it was clear that we had an interesting approach at hand. As a result of one of my conversations with a non-participant, we decided to pitch the idea to DC Week sponsors, iStrategyLabs, and to a local mapping business known as MapBox. DC Week is an annual gathering of tech entrepreneurs in the DC area. It attracts most of the local tech leadership and start-ups as well as sponsorship and intrigue by a number of larger corporations such as Ford and Microsoft. Although we have yet to sucessfully schedule negotiations with MapBox, the DCWeek pitch was successful and iStrategyLabs invited us to host a ‘project’ at DC Week in November.

SECOND PROTOTYPE: DC WEEK BOOTH To develop the ‘pop-up’ booth for DC Week, we modified the structure of the mapping exercises to involve two options rather than a twoexercise workshop. Thus there was a diagramming activity and a mapping activity and participants could choose one option or the other. We also decided to develop some additional collateral for the booth, in-

Rebecca Horton | MA Final Project | Fall 2012

cluding a large-scale banner, some business cards, and some surveys. Additionally, we launched a blog a few days before the event and gave the project a formal name, Roundabouts (see source of name in Prototype 1). In terms of the materials, we decided to keep the map idea but give people more options, providing some different sizes and scales of DC for participants to choose from. We scrapped our initial diagramming activity and gave participants a large pad of paper and some markers, inviting them to make a simple mind map of their creative journeys rather than use the diagramming activity as a discussion tool. Beyond the maps and 14x17 pieces of paper for diagramming, we brought markers, sharpies (large and fine tip), and lots of dots. For the booth itself, we set up the banner, surveys, business cards, and a few additional

material on a large six foot table, filled a large round table with blank maps and supplies, and set up a ‘diagramming station’ at a hightop table nearby. The DC Week booth was quite successful in generating buzz and interest but not overly successful in terms of garnering participation. Approximately fifteen to eighteen DC Week participants actually made maps or diagrams. Many folks would come up and ask us what we were doing, saying that they didn’t have time to make a map or didn’t know how to ‘draw.’ Even the mapping activity seemed to imply drawing to this audience and posed a barrier for participation. One passerby remarked “is this for kids,” dead

serious, indicating that there were some barriers to overcome in terms of people seeing the activity as a legitimate exercise. Amongst those people that did participate, the maps varied tremendously in terms of design, content, and visual appeal. A self-proclaimed geographer made a map that was barely legible, taking it with him to one of the sessions and filling it in with a bright orange marker. Another participant spent almost an hour making a carefullyconstructed map with stars entitled â&#x20AC;&#x153;My Top DC Listâ&#x20AC;? that was both visually engaging and informationrich. One participant duo, two graphic designers, sketched their ideas first and then made a bright, eye-catching display of what DC Week participants did during their lunchtime. Their diagram featured hand-drawn charts and graphs and attracted considerable attention from passerby. The DC Week booth helped us to not only test our activity and gather data through the activity iteslf but also to meet new and interesting people. Many of the people who came up to the booth but were not willing to make a map had intriguing stories and backgrounds unfamiliar to either of us. One passerby, for example, remarked on a sample map that we had made covering DCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s underground music scene. He noted that he worked with a local radio network and would be interested in having us run the mapping activity

at an upcoming event. Another participant asked us about sponsorship and said that although he did not have any money he might be willing to provide us with some space for future mapping activities. After the DC Week event, our maps were put on display at the DC Week closing party, generating further buzz about the mapping project. In all, we learned a tremendous amount through the mapping activity and plan to use it as a springboard for further conversations about the creative scene here in DC.

LEFT: DC Week booth RIGHT: one participant making her diagram

SYNTHESIZING THE FINDINGS

WHILE RESEARCH IS ONE THING, SYNTHESIS IS OFTEN QUITE ANOTHER... Given the massive amount of research and prototyping conducted for this project, I had quite a lot of synthesis to complete in order to translate my findings into workable solutions. To that end, the following section details my synthesized key findings as grouped into three different categories: user personas, heuristics for running workshops and group gatherings, and opportunity spaces for further exploration. For each of the synthesis sections included below, I have provided an explanation of my process for arriving at the depicted findings. For the purposes of moving this project forward, I have chosen to depict these findings using compelling imagery and moodboards rather than as rough sketch results. Some of the items included in the business plan that is described later in this process book also involved synthesis, however, I have chosen to include them in a separate section due to their general nature.

user personas Pictured to the left is an example of a mood board that I developed for two of my personas. I collected moodboard images from various magazines and scanned them digitally.

GIVEN THE BREADTH OF PROTOTYPING COMPLETED FOR THIS PROJECT, a significant amount of synthesis was necessary to cull findings. One of the ways in which I chose to synthesize my findings was through the development of six user personas, based upon findings from interviews with DC residents over lunch or coffee, attendance at local events and gatherings, and participation in my prototyping sessions.

Persona images are sourced from the following (by order of appearance): BALAZGARDI via flickr JUSTIN WOLFE via flickr THOMPSON C via flickr ABBYLADYBUG via flickr YOOPERANN yvia flickr DIOGO A. FIGUEIRA via flickr

I developed the personas by mapping user traits, wants, and perceptions and then determining trends amongst that data. From there, I built moodboards and narratives for each persona.The resulting personas fell into three categories: heavy users, moderate users, and light users. This section contains some images of my work on the personas and then the narratives and imagery for each persona. Not every potential user is represented here; rather these personas represent the most viable target market for the launch of Trestles as a full-time business.

These images showcase the work that went into developing the user personas. The work included: user mapping based upon criteria that I deemed relevant to the design (right), synthesis of user traits once users were clustered, and the pulling of images to use as inspiration for visualizing each persona.

global jetsetter GIDEON

y nature, Gideon is an explorer. He always has lots of ideas and is constantly drawing inspiration from the new people and places that he encounters. He is very trend-driven and tends to change his mind frequently based on what his recent experiences tell him. Correspondingly, Gideon’s involvements tend to be last-minute but as a result he can often be convinced to change his plans. Gideon loves collaboration. He has a broad network but shallow connections due to his global focus. Constantly traveling out of town for work, Gideon tends to have a tight

• • •

Trend tracker/ “Intrigue me” Wants to network “My job is my life”

schedule and is hard to nail down. When it comes to things happening locally, Gideon does not want to play the lead but is very willingto attend things alone. He will participate as an audience member and may help spread the word about an emergent activity or gathering. Almost always, Gideon will choose work over play. Whether he intends to or not, he finds his self-worth in his job. Therefore, in order to keep Gideon involved and invested, a provider will have to constantly demonstrate how their events or activities will provide ongoing value for his work.

the ‘designer’ DIANA

iana is a localized version of Damian. She only travels occasionally but circulates a lot around the city. Like Damian, she wants polish and sophistication in her undertakings and appreciates beauty and craftsmanship. Unlike Damian, though, she is choosy about events because she wants to protect her personal time and craves a deep balance between work and home life. Diana’s work is an integral part of her life and an outpouring of her creative passions. Focused and strategic, she has a strong concept and is looking to build it. Likewise, she

• Craves work/life balance • “Show me something beautiful” is well-aware of the compromises she will have to make to achieve success. Due to her profession in a creatively-inclined field, Diana has a deep niche and tight network. Diana is closely plugged in to social media (blogs, twitter, etc.) and maintains a steady stream of posts to Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and the like. Even if she might want to, Diana doesn’t have the time to browse the web for everything hip, and would love a local magazine or blog that could do some exploring for her. In looking for spaces to plug in, her primary motivation is inspiration, rather than experience.

daredevil charmer DAMIAN

ome people seem to always be in the know. That’s Damian; he’s well-connected and very relationship-savvy. He’s at his best when he feels both entertained and appreciated. If you were to look at his social network, online or at an event, it would be obvious that Damian’s connections are broad and diverse. Folks gravitate towards him due to his charming personality and ability to make others feel at ease and engaged. Damian’s activity is experience-driven and highly sensual: he craves good food, good fashion, good people. Traveling regularly

• • •

Experience-focused “entertain me” “stroke my ego”

for work and closely following a few blogs or magazines, he’s in the know about what is hip and upcoming. Because he’s usually got multiple options, he can be choosy about what to attend. Thus he looks for a bit of polish and sophisticiation in the events or gatherings he chooses to attend. Damian is typically looking to help others build and likes buying into big visions for the future (the crazier, the better). However, with so many options and influences, he often lacks focus and has to be convinced of a concept’s systemic value in order to invest longer than a short-term conversation.

the adapter ADAM

ou’ll find Adam wearing a threepiece suit one day and running shorts the next. He’s adaptable to his circumstances and able to mold his personality to suit almost any situation. Adam’s involvements are locally-focused but he loves big ideas. He is looking to meet more locals but targets his interactions on high-value connections. Although he’s wellconnected, he’s humble about it and rarely strikes people as inaccessible. Adam enjoys collaboration and is a great partner for local projects. His ‘get it done’ personality helps move things forward quickly and if he says

• • •

Go with the flow “The everyman” Smart, sharp, go-getter

that he will do something he’s good at following through in a timely fashion. Adam is a leader in his local neighborhood and people look to him for advice and guidance. He’s a profound speaker but not chatty. Others appreciate his down-to-earth nature and commitment to the community’s wellbeing. When it comes to getting places, Adam is usually prompt. He utilizes public transport or bike routes to move quickly from place to place. Adam’s local involvements have given him a strong lay of the land and even when routesare closedhe is able to quickly come up with an alternative.

the peacemaker PEACHES

eeper of the peace, Peaches has strong boundaries and values them in others. She prefers depth over breadth and likes to keep things cozy and down-to-earth. Peaches attracts others through her honest, warm personality and stellar hosting skills. From the outside, Peaches looks like a great juggler, capable of seamlessly balancing personal and professional goals. However, the truth is that Peaches often feels like she’s leaning a bit too far in one direction. Because Peaches tends to be outwardly-focused and has a strong concern for others’ well-being,

• • •

Make me feel at home I want you to be genuine I like to entertain you

she sometimes doesn’t make enough time for herself or her closest companions. Often, Peaches finds herself dreaming up schemes to escape for a week in order to re-set her bearings. Peaches is a place-focused investor. Wherever she is at a given time determines her priorities. She sometimes travels for long periods and can feel out-of-touch even to her loved ones. When she’s at home, though, she has a can be counted on to show up and to contribute. For Peaches, its critical to invest when she’s around and not chastize her for time away as it helps her be at her best.

child at heart HARPER

erhaps moreso than any of the other personas, Harper has lots of free time. Although she’s got a steady nine to five job, she doesn’t love it, so when she’s not a work she wants to invest in other things that will make her feel like she’s escaping from the clutches of her work. Harper’s priority and focus is her personal time. For Harper, family and friends are important and she wants to make time for them. Thanks to her flexible schedule, it’s usually not a problem. She’s a very active web user, frequently emailing friends while at work and using the internet for informa-

• • •

Help me play Let’s make something! My work is boring

tion gathering. Yet, Harper is the kind of gal who is likely to have stumbled across something interesting while surfing the web and tell you about it only after she’s become highly knowledgeable about the topic. Harper’s network and focus are niche. She doesn’t travel much but is open to building things (although it’s not a priority). She’s sometimes spontaneous and sometimes a planner but almost always playful. You’re likely to find Harper playing music or creating something crafty on the weekends. She’s not known for spending money but is willing to splurge if it’s fun and engaging.

heuristics Another key undertaking of the project was to develop some â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;rules of thumbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for running a sucessful session that brought together DC creatives. As set out in my project plan, I intended to discern what prompts stimulate group creativity when the focus was interdisciplinary collaboration and discern how things like group dynamics and organizational structure impact group creativity. For each of my prototypes, I worked with a project partner who helped me gather feedback and provided a second set of eyes on the project at all times. These partners participated in debriefing sessions with me to synthesize learnings from the prototypes. a significant amount of synthesis was necessary to cull findings. These learnings helped to inform the development of broader heuristics included in this section. For ease of reading, I have written each rule of thumb on a separate page along with imagery to capture its essence.

A few of my synthesis notes that eventually translated into heuristics for future designs. Heuristic images by order of appearance (otherwise: mine): LIGHTPLAY via flickr ZANTHIA via flickr SUBHARNAB via flickr BRENNEMAN via flickr KATEDAHL via flickr PLAYAMONGFRIENDS via flickr

WE NEED HELP

visualizing our ideas

It may sound silly, but we get intimidated by the idea of drawing something to show whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in our heads. We need you to help us bring our ideas to life through simple, eye-catching visuals.

I LONG TO BE

part of a community

When iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not at work, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want just another meet-up. I want to be a part of something that feels like a curated community, something closer to a campfire than a cocktail hour.

I WANT YOU to take the lead

It’s fun to show up and make things or have a conversation, but i’m probably not going to invest much unless it’s clear what you expect of me and what the next steps are for my involvement. I want you to drive the agenda, not me. 69

GIMME LAYERS,

same is boring

I crave opportunities to interact with people from other disciplines. The more crazy the creative mash-up the better: nerdy techie meets outdoors enthusiast, architect meets biologist, iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m all for it but want you to make it happen. 70

LATE-COMERS distract us

As much as you want to make things open and as tardy as people in this city tend to be, letting people arrive late is like inviting a gorilla into the room. Every time that someone new enters a workshop or discussion late, they throw off the momentum and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to recover.

BLUR THE BOUNDARIES

between work and play My job is an inevitable part of my life, but if you could make my work feel more like play I would love your forever. I will be reticent to join you at first, but keep probing me, eventually iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll come around. 74

TELL ME

to make something

Nothing gets my juices going like a good creative prompt. If you tell me ‘be creative,’ that’s a little bit intimidating, but if you tell me to make something and give me a few parameters, suddenly i’ll come to life. 77

BE CAREFUL

how you use the word ‘creative’ Some of us want you to talk about ‘the creative economy’ the ‘creative’ as a noun. For others, calling us creatives feels constricting. Everyone is creative in one way or another; don’t ever forget it.

opportunity SPACES Exploring financing concepts, early fall 2012 Images by order of appearance: PETE ASHTON via flickr JD HANCOCK via flickr THOMASHAWK via flickr COWBARK via flickr RLANVIN via flickr BARL0W via flickr 917 PRESS via flickr SUTTON HOO via flickr

DUE TO THE BRIEF NATURE OF THE PROJECT, it was not possible to explore every element of what a business to serve DC creatives might look like. Yet, the research and prototyping conducted for this project uncovered a number of ‘opportunity spaces’ that might be worth exploring through future work. I have chosen to represent these opportunities as ‘what if’ or ‘how can we’ statements for the sake of brevity. This section covers each of the key opportunities for further investigation, represented through a two-page spread that is highly visual to spark curiosity and generate engaging ideas.

What If...

our core offering was a maker space with shared tools and resources? 82

What if... the business model was emergent?

How Might... the network utilize public transportation hubs as connection points?

What if... space was free? 89

How Might We... create wirefree zones?

What if...

artists â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;daylightedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as creative consultants?

What If... the financing was flexible?

What if...

our investors were sponsors rather than shareholders? 97

SERVICE CONCEPT AND BUSINESS MODEL

SWOT analysis conducted during late fall

ONE OF THE KEY OBJECTIVES of this project was to take the notion of creating something to serve DC’s creative community and turn it into a business capable of making money. Beginning in spring 2012, I started exploring service concepts fitting in with my research topic. Following upon that early concept exploration, in fall 2012 I began drafting a business model for the concept based upon ongoing market research and feedback from my prototyping sessions. This section outlines some of my concept work and the business model development process. Unfortunately, I do not have detailed images for many of the steps involved in either component of the project; however, the resulting ‘Pitch Book’ and business plan should indicate the level of thought and care that went into crafting both of these project elements.

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developing THE CONCEPT AS WITH ANY BUSINESS , THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS MOVING FROM IDEA TO VIABLE MARKET CONCEPT. The early development of the Trestles concept began almost five years ago when I began working with up-and-coming artists and entrepreneurs scattered across the United States through an angel investment network catered to the creative domain. In my conversations with several of our ‘artist members’ who were seeking financing from investors for their latest records, films, or fashion projects, I noticed the unbalanced nature of the investor-investee relationship. While investees were only giving artists money in return for their financing and thus the relationship became somewhat transactional, I saw an opportunity to create a model whereby artists provided investors with business services, i.e. help reinvisioning their business strategies, creative brainpower, a jolt of outside the box thinking beyond what traditional consultants might offer, instead of shares in their businesses. This kind of exchange held within it the possibility to fundamentally transform the nature of ‘investing’ and to elevate the artistinvestor relationship beyond a primarily financial one. Thus was born the early kernel of the Trestles concept.

To left: exploring the language used by Union Square Ventures in articulating its venture capital concept.

Between 2008 and 2010 I began honing the concept while continuing to work with a variety of emerging artists, albeit not in a professional capacity. During this time, I began to envision a three-story building that would provide a platform for creatives to work and to grow their businesses, a consult-

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Trestles was the name that I settled on during spring 2012. The name encompasses the goals of the initiative, yet leaves enough room for the movement to become global or national.

ing entity that drew upon the rich resources of the creative coworking platform as a means for fueling larger organizations while also providing practical guidance for the artists, and a community space that enabled the broader city to engage with the work of the upper levels through events, gatherings, and informal coffee chats. Conversations about this concept continued and matured for several years thereafter and in 2010 I discovered that I was not alone in imagining that this concept might have legs. I began talking with a small group of creatively-minded friends in Washington, DC who had similar ideas for a ‘creative live/ work/convene’ space that offered more than a typical coworking model or business incubator. In fall 2011, I began more formally studying creative movements throughout history by means of developing an era analysis, as already noted in the literature review section. Through the development of this era analysis, I discovered another interesting kernel: that creative movements rarely, if ever, happen in isolation. Whether it was the Medici partnering with Bruneschelli or Parisian handicrafters elevating and supporting their work through a trade guild, the best partnerships tended to happen at the intersection between creativity and business and where creative minds had the opportunity to mash up with one another. As early as the 1650s, we see the rise of “penny universities,” entities similar to coffeeshops whereby patrons paid a flat fee to enter and engage. Across time and across creative era, people have sought opportunities to engage, to collaborate, and to empower their work. When I began studying and visiting coworking sites during the winter months of 2011 to 2012, it became clear that coworking spaces were serving a very important community need, one that could be monetized and could grow substantially if placed under the right care.

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As my research winded down for a few months, the concept development process continued, with many of these ideas beginning to sprout into new ones. In the spring of 2012, I designed a value

proposition and initial concept description for the project and pitched to several students at SCAD in a mock investor presentation. Trestles was the name that I settled on during this period. I developed it through a rapid ideation process using some of Edward DeBonoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lateral thinking methods. The name encompasses the goals of the initiative, yet leaves enough room for the movement to become global or national. After articulating and, in a sense, rapid prototyping the concept at SCAD, I established and honed the project concept statement and initial project plan with a goal to explore the concept further through my graduate final project. During summer 2012, I moved back to DC and began conducting meetings with initial stakeholders to determine interest in carrying the project to fruition. Within the same time span, I soft-pitched several workshop ideas to friends, e.g. salons, mixers, a pop-up nightclub, etc. Then I reached out to a handful of potential local partners, such as coffee shops and creative workspaces. By fall 2012 I had a somewhat loose plan in place to run a series of service prototypes throughout the fall to discern: user needs, user engagement with different social and organizational constructs, and most of all user resonance with the concept as it was evolving. In late fall, I went back to some of my original concept notes and began pruning the service model through a more formal business plan structure. The following pages document that process in further detail.

Below are some of my spring 2012 pitch materials.

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business model design The final stage of the Trestles project involved exploring and building a business model for the concept. To kick off the business model design process, I used Osterwalder and Pigneur’s book Business Model Canvas as a primer for business model development. In developing my business model, I built upon the Fremium model, exploring ways to make the service free or as close to free as possible for the core user while designing a tiered membership structure for heavier users’ involvement.

draw from two key sources: businesses paying to receive creative services from Trestles’ members and businesses paying to promote their brands through Trestles space or gatherings. Start-up investments would involve Trestles’ work with the emerging creative community: we would provide them with space and resources in return for a share in their companies or a small cache of their future work product.

In late fall, I did several back of the envelope calculations around three core revenue streams: fees related to space usage, consulting revenue and start-up investments. Space usage monies would come from either renting or hourly use of the community space by larger groups and income from the sales of food and drinks. Consulting fees would

Beyond exploring revenue streams, I continued to hone the business mission and set long and shortterm objectives for the growth of the business. Short-term objectives included a plan to build out the DC network to 20,000 members over

“...we would provide them with space and resources in return for a share in their companies or a small cache of their future work product.” 104

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Re-

a three-year period,while beginning to establish a web base for the network. Longer-term objectives included a plan to scale nationally over years 4-9 and a goal to go global beginning in year 10, if not earlier. For each round of expansion, I mirrored the initial scaling of the DC network, with room in the years prior to expansion built for exploration and research in potential new markets.

vices, I developed a rough 15-year cash flow statment and an investor pitch to accompany the business plan and projected cash flows. For the sake of brevity, I have not included the business plan or investor pitch in this document. However, the images to the left provide a glimpse of some of the investor pitch materials.

Furthermore, based upon the financial assumptions I made for costs and revenues to run Trestles’ core ser-

year 15 year 14 year 13 year 12 year 11 year 10

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APPENDIX A: bibliography

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Adams, K. 2005. “The Sources of Innovation and Creativity” Amabile, T. 1996. “Creativity and Innovation in Organizations” Berg, L., J. van der Meer A. H.J. Otgaar. 1999. “The Attractive City.” Clifton, N. 2008. “The Creative Class in the UK: Initial Analysis” Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography Currid, E. 2008. The Warhol Economy Epstein, S.R. 1995. “Craft guilds, apprenticeship and technological change in pre-modern Europe.” Florida, R. 2002. The Rise of the Creative Class “History of Jazz.” Online resource, via Scholastic. http://teacher. scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/history_of_jazz.htm Isserman, N. and Markusen, A. 2012. “Shaping the Future through Narrative: The Third Sector, Arts and Culture” Jacobs, J. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities Johnson, S. 2010. Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation Kelly, K. 2005. Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World. Kloosterman, R. C. 2008. “Walls and Bridges: Knowledge Spill over between ‘superdutch’ architectural firms’ Lavanga, M., Stegmeiger, E. and J. Haijen “Incubating creativity;

“Unpacking locational and institutional conditions that can make cultural spaces and creative areas work” Markusen, A., and King, D. 2003. “The Artistic Dividend: The Arts’ Hidden Contributions to Regional Development” Mayer, M. “The Onward Sweep of Social Capital: Causes and Consequences for Understanding Cities, Communities, and Urban Movements.” “Medieval Sourcebook: The Arte della Lana & The Government of Florence, 1224.” available online: http://www.fordham.edu/ halsall/source/1224artelana.asp Paoletti, J. and G. Radke. 2005 Art, Power and Patronage in Renaissance Italy. Parks, T. 2005. Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, And Art In Fifteenth-century Florence. Swanson, H. 1988. “The Illusion of Economic Structure: Craft Guilds in Late Medieval Towns.”

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APPENDIX B:

coworking notes CONJENCTURED, AUSTIN TX-predominantly male. “Quiet room.” 2 meet-

ing spaces-one with conference table, one for small meetings/ calls. Tech-focused. Kitchen had lots of coffee. Family-friendly-kids running in and out of building. “people take naps here”-couch in one of the 3 workspaces. One of the workspaces was heads down (more intense). Founded by 3 people. Had Google Group for booking rooms. Founders were not there. Events and activities (what’s offered?)-casual hang outs in the evenings-we’re all friends. Someone had their instruments in the nap room. Guy offered me some seaweed that was sitting in a box on the floor. Other boxes on floor nearby. Messy space-items strewn everywhere, a little grungy. HIVE AT 55, NY, NY-had a check-in list located right when people walked

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in. Permanent seating spaces-graphic team, tech team, etc. Do not disturb spaces for up-start businesses. Artwork-”it has made a big difference.” Big conference room, small conference room, room specifically for taking calls and/or whiteboarding. Huge rolling whiteboard, which was covered with information. Bulletin board with pictures of folks in the space. Graphic design team~10am or later. Lots of extra supplies with them-platforms for keyboard. Space was really quiet until the graphic design team came in and they started talking when they came in. The messy closet-”don’t

look at that.” NEW WORK CITY, NY, NY-sleeping loft, donated furniture, lots of light,

open concept, lockers, mail slots. Woman took a folded desk and set it up in an empty area without asking anyone, then sat down with another guy and started working-guy had just walked in, she had been sitting at one of the computers in the back. HP donated tons of printers-they’re interested in coworking. “Do it yourself” mentality and “anti-corporate” feel. Skeptical about Google, etc. Google sometimes has meetings in their space. New York Times technology team is building a new product in their space. Lots of males. Tech-focused. 5 females, 12-14 males. Huge windows in the front. The back was also very open, a little bit darker. The aisle in the back is a little crowded. Sound room-one of the guys set it up. “Quiet rooms”-ones where you could close the door for a while. Full members get to have a mailing address and locker. Parttime don’t. No one has to pay money to use the meeting space. Skillshare events a couple times a week; people use the space but it becomes a logistical struggle. Space was formerly a sweatshop. Thing with the string, interactive.-leftover from the sweatshop. There was this one guy who kept listening to us talking and getting really excited-especially when we were talking about the skillshare

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stuff. Bookshelf-”people look at these more than they use them.” “I wish they were digital.” He didn’t like having the physical books because they were taking up too much space. Storage space in sleeping loft. Very defensive-had to give an explanation for everything. Books: CS5 basics, board games on lower shelf, Etch a Sketch, Purple Cow, fiction. LINKED COWORKING, AUSTIN, TX-moment we entered someone greeted

us-later learned it was one of their interns (Claire). First part was “heads down,” bar style. Seating behind screen-couch, a few desks. Meeting rooms on the lefthand side that could be rented out. Large conference room was at the back. Bathrooms were very clean and white, smelled like lavendar-fun decorations. Cute little items scattered around the space. Telephone booth. Tiny objects. Cutouts on the window and on the walls in bathroom. Comic in the kitchen about working from home. Kitchen had water dispenser. Coffee maker and mugs. Glasses. Storage space in back that had been blocked by a board. Books-Good to Great, a few others. All furniture was on rollers, not the couches though. Had screens, which were movable. Right outside the meeting room was a space that had a screen one day but not a screen the next. Whiteboard in open space and then filling the walls in the conference room. Woman presenting-everyone participated except one person, who was watching from his computer. Late 30s/early 40s folks. Hidernear the door, really friendly, used to work from home, he was from Jordan. Claire heard about space at networking event. Caseyhas been coming for a year, was really happy about it, “I know about other disciplines because I come here,” older-30s. Linked’s space was kind of hard to find. Food places right nearby. Chipotle lunch-ordered in, free for members, $5 for non-members. “She makes a lot of money off of these events.”

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“If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.” -Steven Johnson

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