Some months back, I was approached by my friend Dana Vachon about any interest in having a mural made for one of the large, stark white walls. Of course! We’d been looking for ways to get more color and interest into the space for some time, and a full paint job was just a bit more daunting than we were ready to take on in our free time/off-hours.
Dana is a graduating senior from the Fine Arts program at The College of New Jersey. One of her final-term classes was a mural class, and since her and her project partner had to make a piece anyway, it made sense for us to help cover their materials costs and in return, have a piece of art for our hall.
Dana and her classmate Jess McGovern asked for input on any themes. Honestly, I wasn’t comfortable providing too much of a lead, because a) I’m anything but an artist but, more importantly, the space we work in doesn’t just belong to me. I wanted something that could be meaningful for all of us, and embodied some important themes of our work.
After shooting down an Alex Hillman portrait in the style of Andy Warhol, we talked more about themes of coworking. I explained to Jess and Dana about The Starfish and the Spider, the notion of leaderless organizations, and how that tied into the coworking model as well as the coworking movement. At the same time, I felt that it was really important to keep things themed to Philly, the city we’re all so proud to represent and call our home.
What Dana and Jess came up with was much, much cooler than anything we could have asked them to do.
Following our lead with the “Philly” theme, as well as taking the Starfish’s “unstoppable power”, and depict what we all *ahem* hope is a reality in the new future: that our actions and goals take the city of Philadelphia by the tentacle and make a very REAL impact! (Of course our version of this reality, unlike the mural, does not involve ripping the roof off of Independence Hall and carrying it across Old City to the Ben Franklin Bridge).
Editor note: This thing is huge. its 5′ tall by 12′ long. We’ve yet to get a picture of it next to something to give it perspective. But seriously. Huge. Perspective? Check it out next to my 24″ iMac, on the left.
In case you’re curious, the buildings/structures from left to right include:
- The Ben Franklin Bridge
- The spire on top of Independence Hall
- One Liberty Place
- Independence Hall (minus the aforementioned spire)
- Our beloved National Mechanics, the cause of and solution to, so many of our problems.
Dana and Jess have worked incredibly hard on this project, from the concept to the installation, and we can’t thank them enough. We’ve got a meaningful piece to adorn our walls that they should be proud of, because we certainly are!
Tags: mural,starfish and the spider
This Thursday (4/10) at 6pm, we’re going to be schmoozing our usual spot but this time with a special guest!
Matt Mullenweg, founding developer of Wordpress and founder of Automattic, will be in Philly for a few days while he accepts an award at Temple University. Congrats Matt, and welcome to our city!
I’ve coordinated with the dudes (and dude-ettes) at National Mechanics to show Matt what our crew is all about: good times with good friends!
There are a LOT of Wordpress fans in our community (if by no other measure, we have enough to have our own track of Wordpress workshops).
I look forward to seeing many of them out, and a fun evening of geekery.
Tags: wordpress
Rather than write all of this down, I decided to talk for 9 minutes. If you’re willing to stick with me, I wholeheartedly appreciate it. Enjoy.
LINKS
NYTimes Article
Coworking SXSWi08 Meetup
After almost a year of conversations. 9 months of grassroots team building. 3 weeks of blood, sweat, stress, name-calling, goofiness, power tools, moving trucks, and absolutely no sleep. And for what? Oh yeah…this:
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Or whatever gift-giving holiday you choose to participate in :-)
Here’s the scoop:
Months ago, I was introduced to a contact at Belkin by IndyHall supporter, and my good friend Chris Messina. It turns out that for many Barcamps, Belkin provides power and networking gear. They were interested in partnering with some coworking initiatives, and were looking at us. Jory (the contact) and I spoke a few times while IndyHall was in the “growth” period, and he said “keep me posted, and let me know when you’ve got an office!
Months passed, and quite obviously, we found ourselves at the aforementioned crossroads. I dropped Jory a line to see if they were still interested, and he said absolutely. We talked about the approximate size and number of desks, and together put together a list of things, mostly focusing on networking and power strips.
The next thing I knew…boxes started arriving. Lots, and lots, of boxes. The first box was a teaser…a couple of extra useful toys that Belkin tossed in, including a wireless USB print server, and some USB hubs. The next delivery was the motherload, though!
Includes:
5 x Slim Power Strips
15 x Clamp On Power Strips
6 x 14′ snagless ethernet
3 x 8″ cable ties (MUST HAVE!)
3 x 25′ ethernet patch
1 x Wireless N Router
1 x wireless networking USB hub (for printers and hard drives)
2 x 7 port USB hubs
2 x 4 port USB hubs (nest on the 7 port…sweet!)
We can’t thank Belkin enough for this contribution to our new space. In return, along with evaluating their cool gear and giving them feedback, we’re going to be helping them put together packages on a per-desk basis. Essentially, they’ll be able to sell a “coworking special” for a certain number of desks, providing all of the gear that a coworking space would need for that number of desks. Way cool, and a way for us to give back to Belkin and the coworking community!
And a special thanks to Jory, also, for coordinating this for us. We really, really appreciate knowing that you get what we’re doing here!
bonus! Johnny has returned to his Wallpaper Wednesday regiment and kicked out a sweet unofficial Belkin wallpaper for us to sport on our desktops. As always, nice work dude!
Tags: belkin, coworking, independents hall, power strips, networking, usb, sponsor
