alexknows...stuff

"If I’ve learned anything from Spread Firefox, BarCamp, coworking and the like, it’s that..."

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:02:06 -0400

““If I’ve learned anything from Spread Firefox, BarCamp, coworking and the like, it’s that propaganda needs to be free to be effective. In other words, you’re not going to convince people of your way of thinking if you lock down what you have, especially if what you have is culture, a mindset or some other philosophical approach that helps people narrow down what constitutes right and wrong.”
and
“On the one hand, there’s uncertainty about how to build a “national identity”-slash-business on top of lots of user data (that, oh yeah, I thought was supposed to be “owned” by the creators), and on the other, a model of the web, that embraces all its failings, nuances and spaghetti code, but that, more than likely, will stand the test of time as a durable provider of the kind of liberty and agency and free choice that wins out time and again throughout history.”

-Chris Messina, writing at factory city about open standardsm data portability, and market competition, in this case for data, protocols and so called “open” code.”

- -Chris Messina

"Bad culture happens as well. Trying to unlearn the bad habits of two years in a public company with..."

Wed, 14 May 2008 16:08:14 -0400

“Bad culture happens as well. Trying to unlearn the bad habits of two years in a public company with a lot of high level control is difficult. Basically, it’s the same no matter how you do it: force yourself into good habits. Encourage those in others. Enable your employees. But throw the mission statement document in the fire.”

- You don’t create a culture - (37signals) - John Athayde Commentary

"They call it “creative” because they want a wide enough range of industries to show economic impact...."

Mon, 12 May 2008 18:09:37 -0400

“They call it “creative” because they want a wide enough range of industries to show economic impact. They put “economy” on the end so they can justify the city spending money on it. Or at least that’s my perspective.”

- Matthew Fisher, regarding the so-called “creative economy”

"At my wedding, I’m going to have 200 guests. Not 200 users."

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:05:01 -0400

“At my wedding, I’m going to have 200 guests. Not 200 users.”

- drew olanoff dot com. - Ok, that’s it. The next time I hear the word “User”…

"Planned economies have as many unintended consequences as the free-for-all we have in the United..."

Thu, 08 May 2008 22:40:39 -0400

““Planned economies have as many unintended consequences as the free-for-all we have in the United States.””

"On the one hand, the event struck me as an effort by the city-funded Innovation Philadelphia..."

Thu, 08 May 2008 22:39:22 -0400

“On the one hand, the event struck me as an effort by the city-funded Innovation Philadelphia organization to make a case for why the Nutter administration should provide funding for it. Currently, the city budget contains no money for the agency, which was created during Mayor Street’s first term.”

- Philly.com

"We decided to lose all regard for professionalism in Philadelphia. We were three hours late for an..."

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:06:57 -0400

“We decided to lose all regard for professionalism in Philadelphia. We were three hours late for an interview after struggling with Manhattan traffic. I conducted the interview in a backwards San Francisco Giants hat and a muscle tight Uppercut Boxing T-shirt. Alex Hillman, founder of Independents Hall, didn’t seem to mind.

Independents Hall is like a gym for entrepreneurs. Young business people normally working from home can come together to feed off the entrepreneurial energy bouncing around in the building.

The two story building is only a few blocks away from the real Independence Hall. The bottom floor is home to about ten scruffy males in their twenties sipping coffee and intensely staring at computer screens. We headed upstairs to the loft for a bird’s eye view of the computer lab before sitting on a hand-me-down couch for an interview with Alex.

Alex is twenty-four years old and fits in nicely with the demographic of customers attracted to Independents Hall. He sports a look that suggests he hasn’t shaven in a few days. The t-shirt he wore says “Viddler,” advertising the newest video sharing website he was into.

The most interesting response in the interview was what Alex would say to his twenty-two year old self.

“Embrace chaos. I don’t know if I didn’t do it then, but I didn’t consciously do it then,” Alex thoughtfully said. “Now, it’s like every day I know something crazy is going to happen and there’s nothing I can do about it. How can I capture that energy and spin it someplace positive?”

The piece of advice was perfect for where I was at that point in the journey. I had gotten a taste of what embracing chaos was like in New York, but could the craziness actually be spun into someplace positive on the road from Philadelphia back to Phoenix?”

- Brett Farmiole-Pursue the Passion

"most of my successes in life are the result of a series of well planned accidents."

Wed, 07 May 2008 16:34:03 -0400

“most of my successes in life are the result of a series of well planned accidents.”

- me, of course

"I believe the best software is written by small groups of people who have both passion and vision...."

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:16:59 -0400

““I believe the best software is written by small groups of people who have both passion and vision. Passion is easy to define; you care so deeply about something that it wounds you if it’s done poorly. Vision can mean different things, but I mean the ability to not just come up with new ideas, but to actually be able to see how they would integrate with people’s lives. Vision without passion gives you a guy who sitting on couch saying, ‘Flying cars! Wave of the future! Mark my word, the guy who invents that’s going to be rich… pass the chips.’ Passion without vision gives you America’s current political situation, where we allow huge companies to destroy the world but pass laws to make sure nobody marries a turtle.””

- Wil Shipley, via evhead

"Tara Hunt: “Marketing is the price you pay for creating mediocre products."

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:33:11 -0400

“Tara Hunt: “Marketing is the price you pay for creating mediocre products.””

- found on Tapio by Alex de Carvalho, from the

Self Replicating Awesomeness: The Marketing of No Marketing panel at SXSW

"I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Hillman of Phildelphia coworking space, IndyHall,..."

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:24:34 -0400

“I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Hillman of Phildelphia coworking space, IndyHall, about finding your niche as an owner of coworking space and than reaching that niche. Coworking spaces vary greatly in their audience. While coworking is about openness and community, each space has its own character and appeals to different groups. Alex wisely pointed out that each space has to build its community in order to be successful.”

- Face Time: Building the coworking community « Coworking Community Blog

"Went to the Past of Web Apps (POWA) conference. The best session covered the first tablet - used to..."

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:21:28 -0400

“Went to the Past of Web Apps (POWA) conference. The best session covered the first tablet - used to launch the Ten Commandments. It became very popular in spite of being TOTALLY proprietary. Compared with earlier Templetops, it was mobile but still very heavy, and relied on inflexible hard-coding. Now, it did format side-by-side columns with a clean, table-free design, but they only displayed correctly in one browser - Mosezilla. The code itself was easy to learn, though, and represented the first universal set of standards.”

- …And another thing

"I like the way that Tony B worded it at BarCampNYC3: coworking is both an action (getting together..."

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:25:34 -0400

“

I like the way that Tony B worded it at BarCampNYC3: coworking is both an action (getting together and working) and a movement. Coworking (big C) is the starfish organization of spaces that exist and participate in this list, supporting and helping one another.

Jelly is definitely part of the action.

”

- Tara Hunt on the Coworking List Serv

"This year’s SXSW has left me optimistic about the conference. Last year I felt like grew too..."

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:19:19 -0400

“This year’s SXSW has left me optimistic about the conference. Last year I felt like grew too big for its own good. This year it grew bigger still, but everyone seemed to find ways to make it work to their advantage. One of these years the conference will probably just turn into a large Katamari ball, but until then I think I’ll keep showing up. Actually, that might be even more incentive to show up.”

- http://www.jasonsantamaria.com/archive/2008/03/

Brains On Fire Blog » Campaigns vs. Movements

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:01:03 -0400

Brains On Fire Blog » Campaigns vs. Movements:

Let’s think for a moment about the old advertising model (campaigns) and the new word of mouth model (movements).

Campaigns have a beginning and an end.
Movements go on as long as kindred spirits are involved.

Campaigns are part of the war vocabulary.
Movements are part of the evangelist vocabulary.

Campaigns are dry and emotionally detached.
Movements are organic and rooted in passion.

Campaigns rely on traditional mediums.
Movements rely on word of mouth.

Campaigns are part of the creationist theory.
Movements are part of the evolutionist theory.

Campaigns are you talking about yourself.
Movements are others talking about you.

Campaigns add to awareness.
Movements add to credibility.

Campaigns are “you vs. us.”
Movements are “let’s do this together.”

Coworking Interview with Spike

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:28:13 -0400

Spike Gillespie emailed me a list of questions about coworking. here were my responses.

Name: Alex Hillman
Occupation: IndyHall co-founder, Web Developer/Strategy/co-founder Round3Media

How’d you get involved in coworking?
I was introduced to coworking by Chris Messina and Tara Hunt, who run citizen space. I was recently independent, and had begun working at home. Quickly, my longing for people came back. After a failed attempt to move to the valley, I reflected why I was going in the first place. It wasn’t the money, it wasn’t the job. It was the community. Coworking became the end goal for a community building initiative here in Philly. Looking over the existing infrastructures (or lack thereof), it became clear that coworking could succeed here and be a core to a new movement.

How did IndyHall get started?
There was an existing local organization, PANMA (Philadelphia Area New Media Association). I’d become active on their email list, and was sort of recognized as a rabble-rouser/pot-stirrer. One list member who’s eye I caught, Geoff DiMasi, emailed me off list and we got together to chat. He’d had similar co-op ideas (and good experience with artist co-operatives. Using our combined powers and interests, we worked on a regiment of events and ideas that would lead us to being a visible center for an independent creative community, again, working towards a permanent home at our own coworking space.

How long has IndyHall been open?
The IndyHall list serv began March 1, 2007. We had our first bar-based meetup on March 26th. Our site was launched a few days later. Near the end of April, we decided to start our own version of Jelly. We ran it bi-weekly until mid-summer, around the time we had 15-20 people attending regularly. We signed a lease on August 10th and moved in immediately. We opened our doors on September 1st, 2007. Putting us just past 6 months of being open to the public.

Are you seeing growth?
We’ve not only seen growth, we’ve seen stabilization. Initially, we had a mostly “basic member” membership, and only a couple of full time and lite members. Since, we’ve seen a conversion of basic to lite, and lite to full time members. Our total numbers have increased steadily over time, and the weight of our membership has balanced more.

All y’all for profit?
We like to say “for profit without a focus on profit”. So long as we’re making enough to cover the costs and invest more back into resources, we’re happy. I never expected to make a mint on having a coworking space. Coworking/IndyHall helps me do my main job better, which has made me more money.

Coworking is really picking up steam in the media. Why do you think that is?
Because it’s brilliant. :-)
Really, though…right place right time is one factor. Everyone’s learning that telecommuting is kind of a disaster from a social perspective, and coworking seems to be a natural evolution. At the same time, the fact that coworking is a starfish movement with so many smart leaders all over the world means that every time someone gets visibility, it encourages journalists to research their own backyards and see if coworking is happening there. And, as time goes on, the likelihood of them finding what they are looking for increases.

What’s your favorite part of coworking?
The fact that it helps cool stuff that may or may not have happened anyway, happen faster. It’s a very serendipitous community FULL of “doers” instead of just talkers. I love that.

Is your role in IH cutting into your time to be a “regular” coworker? Is it
taking over, I mean?
If I said no, I’d be lying. Not only that, but my desire to help the community outside of IndyHall cuts even deeper. But that just means i need to prioritize and reorganize. My love for this community is massive, so i took my independent development firm and partnered up with some of the best talent I know (much of which works at IndyHall) to handle my workload along with even more. Keeps quality high, lets me keep a handle on things, but also put my focus elsewhere while this movement gets its legs.

Did you hit any major unforeseen obstacles at the beginning?
One of the weirdest things to me is being mistaken for an agency. Not just the agency I run, but IndyHall itself has a membership pool that’s diverse and wildly talented. When someone comes in and asks me to staff it, it’s hard to say no and explain that we’re not a staffing firm and that for me to place our members in projects would be potentially damaging to the community.

As far as getting started…it almost came together too easily. Yes, it was a lot of work. But I had awesome support and my own drive coupled with a lack of care to ask for permission. “Let’s just try it” was uttered over and over, and every time we tried something new, we were pleased with the results.

Do you have all those worked out?
There are still day to day “issues”. The way we’ve approached it has helped a lot: give the community simple tools to communicate, let them sort it out themselves. Bottom line is, you can’t make decisions for everyone and you can’t force culture. Just give the members the tools they need to discover themselves, and encourage them along the way. Applying that to any obstacle, issue, or otherwise takes a huge weight off my shoulders and ultimately, yields the best reaction/result.

Can you tell me about some of the coworkers who use the space (I’m more
interested in types of folks and their work— you don’t need to send names
of people)?
We’ve got a designer/developer heavy community, because that’s who we know. But we also have writers, marketers, project managers, telecom consultants, video producers…you name it, its been through our doors. That diversity is beyond cool.

Also…not everyone is independent. I think that’s really important. The fact that gainfully employed people are supported by their employers to work at an office is huge, and even more than that, some people actually use our office as a retreat from their “corporate” offices. This says to me that this is a statement about HOW people want to work, not just WHERE. I think we’re helping redefine worker culture.

You’re coming in for SXSWi— what are you going to be doing while you’re
here?
Well, this has come and gone. What DID I do?
I rocked out, hard. SXSW is a bit of a reunion for me. The panel programming is far less interesting, and has opportunity for disappointment. I have yet to be disappointed by a hallway conversation. I have yet to be disappointed by a new friendship made. I have yet to be disappointed by the response when i get a chance to meet someone I respect and read and simply want to shake their hand and thank them for rocking my world. That’s my SXSW approach. Frankly, I attended 3 sessions including the 2 related to coworking. The third was Kathy Sierra, who I positively adore.

Besides that…SXSW is a social event and there is no escaping that. I’ve got some big plans for a co-working/co-partying event next year. Stay tuned!

What’s the future of coworking?
It’s only uphill from here. More spaces will open. More models will be explored. More spaces will fail. More lessons will be learned. Someone will write a negative article. Whatever.

This is the most exciting part of the future is it’s in our hands. This movement is whatever the hell we want it to be right now. And with something this large and this real, that really makes me happy to wake up in the morning.

Will you bring me a cheese hoagie, a couple of soft pretzels and a box of
TastyKakes?
Send me your address, I’ll fire off a box of TastyKakes :-)

"Something else that is really important is to be open to partnerships. That could include..."

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:56:34 -0400

“

Something else that is really important is to be open to partnerships.

That could include partnering with people, with institutions, with spaces.

I only mention this because if you do this right, the opportunity to partner will probably present itself at some point.

Choosing the right partnerships could be the difference between making your coworking space happen or not.

”

- Geoff on Partnerships

"About 40-45 people were at my presentation, mostly CS students. I opened the presentation with a few..."

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:43:28 -0400

“

About 40-45 people were at my presentation, mostly CS students.
I opened the presentation with a few questions, and the numbers I
report here are approximate since it was a show of hands.

How many of you think you want to start your own company someday?
65%

How many of you will leave Philadelphia when you graduate?
70%

”

- Chris Cera, vuzit.com

"When my good friend and Indy Hall founder Alex Hillman and I parted ways last night, he left me with..."

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:27:39 -0400

“When my good friend and Indy Hall founder Alex Hillman and I parted ways last night, he left me with an incredible statement: “When I came to SXSW last year, I left with the goal of bringing coworking to Philly. This year, I want to bring coworking to the whole world.””

- cooperBricolage - coworking in NYC » Blog Archive » South by Southwest – A Special Event for Coworking

"Understand what customers want, not what I think is cool."

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 10:46:48 -0400

“Understand what customers want, not what I
think is cool.”