Carrboro Creative Coworking

December 12th and 13th, 2009 Caktus Consulting Group is sponsoring a Django Development Sprint here at CCC. Django is a python based web framework.

Please contact Caktus if you have any questions. Here is some more info about the event.

What's a sprint? How do I participate?

See Sprints for information about how sprints work, how you can participate, etc.

Anybody, anywhere around the world, can participate and contribute. We'll be gathering in person in Carrboro Creative Coworking, but if you can't make it you can also help out in IRC.

You can find all the gory details on the Sprints page.

Attendees

If you plan to participate on-site, please RSVP via Eventbrite so we get an idea of how much food to plan for.

Getting there

Carrboro Creative Coworking (CCC) is located in downtown Carrboro and is within walking distance of many restaurants, bars, and shops. The address is:

After turning on Lloyd St, CCC will be on your left just past Rice's Glass. The sign reads "The Lloyd Street Office Center." You can park in the lot immediately in front of the building or, if space is limited, there's additional parking beside the building (just turn into the main parking lot and continue straight to the gravel parking area).

Last week was Carrboro Creative Coworking's first birthday. We opened our doors in early October 2008.

So much has changed. I've learned SO much. I have a beautiful son. The community has grown. So many smart and friendly people work here now. Its an amazing environment that is bursting with energy.

Unfortunately the anniversary came and went without much fanfare. Fact is I'm so busy that planning a party or other celebration was just too much. But sometime soon I'll organize something special. I want it to be fun and different. So stay tuned!

Our survey, and lots of feedback, has uncovered that you'd like a coworking space in Raleigh, North Carolina. Where in Raleigh would you like to see it built? Please take this survey to tell us where. Thanks!

Andy Bechtel, who teaches Copy Editing at the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communications, came by last week. I gave him a tour of the space and we had a great chat. Like a pro he did his research right and asked me a ton of questions. He followed up our talk with some questions via email. See my answers on his blog in this post Q&A with Brian Russell of Carrboro Creative Coworking. Here's a taste.

Q. Newspapers have typically operated from a central newsroom with bureaus in surrounding communities. Now, many bureaus have closed because of financial pressures. How could newspapers use coworking to cover the news?

A. Newspapers could use coworking spaces as ad hoc gathering places to meet and create news. Journalists should be in the field covering the news and regenerating the news beats of old.

Coworking spaces are also greater community hubs. With a diverse group of people working in the same place, lead generation is amplified. Plus, coworking spaces are about sharing resources and are very cost effective.

Thanks for coming by Andy. I'm looking forward to the future of coworking journalist.

When I was doing my original business market research for CCC I discovered that place is very important. This is the case for most physical businesses with public space. (ex. retail) Experienced business people express this with the refrain, "Location, Location, Location".

As I got into the day to day of running a coworking space the assumption about where our space is located seemed to be validated. I believe that being close to where people live, shop, and play is essential. But can coworking spaces exist in other places?

This is why I created the following survey. If you work at a Coworking space I'd really appreciate it if you could take it. The results are located here. You can even download the data and use it how you want.

I feel its essential we have big numbers of survey participants to validate or disprove this assumption. Once we've made it over two hundred participants I'll elaborate more on why I think this is important.

Thanks!

Telling people about Carrboro Creative Coworking has been largely done by word of mouth. Social Networking websites have really helped amplify this. By far the most valuable site for us is . Its a POWERFUL two way communication medium via your computer and mobile phone.

This week Twitter released . Its a great introduction to what Twitter can do for business. So if your curious how this free service can help you check . Here's a bit.

So what does Twitter do for businesses?

Twitter is a communications platform that helps businesses and their customers do a number of useful things. As a business, you can use it to quickly share information with people interested in your company, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and other people who care about your company. As an individual user, you can use Twitter to tell a company (or anyone else) that you've had a great--or disappointing--experience with their business, offer product ideas, and learn about great offers.