Haven’t been able to visit the new IndyHall office yet?
Filed under: coworking, In The News, Independents Hall, Videos
Not to worry! Our friends from Technically Philly came by last week and not only got the ten cent tour, but caught it on camera along with some interviews with a couple of members. This is a TINY glimpse into what’s been going on at the new IndyHall, and by no means is a substitute or a full representation of what’s been going on. You REALLY need to come down here and see it for yourself!
It’s no “MTV Cribs” walkthrough, Brian Kirk of TechnicallyPHL and Drew Lazor of Philadelphia City Paper put together a great set of clips. If anyone wants to produce a “Cribs” style walkthough with Geoff and I…you know how to find me.
Enjoy!
Coworking meets Media Production Studio
Filed under: Community Support, coworking, Education/Workshops, Events, Independents Hall, Kudos, Library
It’s been a while since I waxed philosophic or daydreamed out loud on the IndyHall blog, and as I’m looking back on 2008 and into 2009, I thought it was a good opportunity to empty my brain a bit.
Growth
IndyHall has seen exceptional growth and stability over the last year. While we were operationally break even quickly (before the end of 2007, in fact), we didn’t have a lot of working capital and we did have a little bit of debt. And while we also had a really robust and active community all along, our desk usage and membership has seen tremendous growth as well, with all 12 of our full time desks occupied since August 2008, a paying membership roster in excess of 50 members at various levels, and very exciting activity from our non-permanent memberships.
Specificity and Specialization
One of the things that I’ve prided IndyHall on has always been zero exclusion. Unlike incubators, we don’t require you to have a “business model”. Unlike associations, we don’t require a you to be a member of a specific industry. If you can work from anywhere, we believe you SHOULD be working from a place like IndyHall.
That diversity is important to the ethos of our coworking space. I wouldn’t change that for the world.
But I remain curious what happens when a specific set of under served needs get specific attention, and how diversity can be approached in a new way.
The plot thickens
One of the smaller, but still certainly present, demographics at IndyHall (and many other coworking spaces) is media production. Audio/video editors, producers, photographers, videographers, podcasters, so on and so forth. I admittedly know very little about this industry from a production standpoint, what the roles are and how they inter operate. However the limited knowledge I do have suggests something that is really intriguing to me: could a coworking space designed for independent media producers thrive? I think the answer is yes.
One of the biggest reasons I find that media folks tend to not be the best fit for IndyHall is the difficulty in being mobile. Even with field equipment becoming smaller and more accessible, that’s only one piece of the equipment equation. As great as a Macbook Pro can be, it doesnt come close to a Mac Pro for video work, and a number of potential IndyHall coworkers have expressed that if it wasn’t for the thought of lugging their rig across the city, they’d be all over coworking. We’d either need to provide some machines as part of membership, or be a bit more geared towards full time members and less for migrant workers. Most likely some combination of the two approaches would be ideal.
The other side of the equipment fence that could be approached, though it comes with its own set of complications, is equipment rental. As we’ve done with IndyHall, making an office in Old City with a conference room available for $275/month or less is only possible when a bunch of people are sharing the resources. High end, otherwise unapproachably expensive equipment could be shared in a similar fashion. Again, this comes with a whole set of liability questions to be answered (the cost of replacing and maintaining office equipment is much less than high end A/V equipment). But that’s a technical problem with a solution, I’m sure.
Diversity within Specialization
Thinking further about the types of people who might use this space: even though they are a more focused group than the “types” of workers who hang at IndyHall, there’s still a good deal of diversity in workers, process, etc. The way I think about it is there are writers who don’t like to direct. Directors who don’t like to edit. Editors who aren’t as good at digital effects and prefer working directly with footage (and of course the other way around). Basically, at every step of the production process there’s the opportunity for a handoff if someone more specialized is available. A similar “stick to what you’re good at and find complimentary partners” strategy as is employed often in software and web at IndyHall can apply to media production, making everyone’s end product supremely higher quality. At the risk of sounding trite, it’s like a production company without the company. The powerful “small pieces loosely joined” model strikes again.
I’ve admittedly thought about and talked through a lot of this model already, but have my mind open to how it will best serve this community. My ultimate goal is to enable the independent media creators in Philadelphia to up their game and produce even better content for themselves and their clients. I need you, those independent media creators, to tell me what’s missing.
So, whaddya say?
Are you an independent or remote media producer who’s looking for comradery, business development opportunities, opportunities to learn new skills from peers, and above all, put on some pants and get out of your house? In Philly, and interested? I’m going to follow my own roadmap and host a meetup to talk about this idea, and I’d like to do it before 2009 is here.
ACTION ACTION!
Let’s meet at National Mechanics Next Monday, December 22nd. 6:30pm. RSVP on Upcoming, or heck, just show up. Tell your friends. Invite anyone who might be interested. It will be an open forum discussion with the goal of having actionable next steps to walk away with. Maybe identify some new leaders in this community. Let’s rock and roll into 2009.
PHLedit – Inagural Video Hack @ IndyHall
Filed under: Announcements, Community Support, coworking, Education/Workshops, Events, Independents Hall
Videographers, videobloggers, and video podcasters: come on down to IndyHall and work on all those videos you’ve been meaning to work on for the last 6 months!
Join us for PHLedit, which is being organized by Lauren Galanter (who’s responsible for our namesake, Independents Hall). It will be held at Indy Hall starting at 5pm on Saturday, October 4, 2008.
PHLedit is a free, unstructured video-centric coworking event. Video editors, video bloggers, video podcasters, or anyone who wants to come and edit in a supportive and casual environment are invited to do so. Wifi and power connections, seats, and desks are provided, but you’ll have to bring your own equipment and software.
This event was inspired by similar events across the country–PHXedit in Phoenix, AZ and SF Video Edit and SuperHappyVlogHouse in San Francisco, CA. It is loosely affiliated with Node101, an open-source movement to teach and spread videoblogging.
Some food and drink will be provided, but we’d like to do a potluck of sorts as well. Please bring some snacks (nom nom nom) to share if you are able to.
Please RSVP:
Facebook or Upcoming
Going to reblog about the event? Official event tag: “PHLedit” (for vlogs, blogs, flickr, etc.)
