BandwidthCamp

Last week I wrote about The Top 5 Environmental Factors of Creativity, which included the idea that people need to be able to interactive and break out in discussing with one another. Now on the heels of that post comes BusinessWeek.com with an article on co-working facilities called Where the Coffee Shop Meets the Cubicle. Snip from story:

Over the past few years, co-working facilities—both grassroots, co-op-like versions and for-profit models—have started popping up across the country and the world, from Seattle to Copenhagen. A co-working wiki hosts pages for dozens of other cities with co-working initiatives in progress. And while the concept of shared office space is nothing new to entrepreneurs, an increasing number of them are signing on and finding that the community-building and networking benefits outweigh even the virtues of a shared fax machine.

In a recent report on the future of small business, the Silicon-Valley based Institute for the Future pegged co-working as a trend to watch over the next decade (see BusinessWeek.com, 1/31/07, “The Face of Entrepreneurship”). After co-working first took off with clusters of free-agent programmers and writers, its flexibility and low cost have also proven a good match for startups unwilling to sign a long-term lease. Because many of these facilities operate on a gym-membership model that doesn’t assign workers to specific desks, co-working is cheaper than most subleasing arrangements. And unlike traditional business incubators, co-working isn’t just for startups with high-growth potential.

The study’s lead author, Steve King, says the increasing popularity of co-working facilities reflects the rise of one-person “personal businesses” as well as a broader fluidity between virtual and real-world communities.

The article even mentions Toronto’s co-working facility Indoor Playground, which I’m interested in checking out. The price is right and the networking ability could prove very usefully in the long-term to me.

TechCrunch is reporting that Second Life is going to add voice chat within the next few months. The game has been getting strong mention in the press over the last eight months and should be interesting to see how this new feature effects that.

I’m not feeling well today and instead of writing a post. I decided to point you toward a post about the colour red. David Armano at Logic+Emotion has a post called The Passion of Color. Check it out and see how you truly feel about red. I personally love the colour and the right shade can excite my creative juices.

Lately I’ve been thinking more and more about my environment and how it affects me. Waking up at 6:00am vs 9:00am, I know I’m more productive and work diligently by the glow of my computer monitor, while my roommate sleeps. Being in an artful and colourful space has a bigger impact on my creative juices than sitting in a cubical by myself. Also, I love my white erase boards. Here are my 5 factors that effect creativity as follows:

1. Being in a colourful space that inspires
2. Having stimulating music play
3. Having ways to relax and release stress
4. Having videos & DVDs play in the background
5. Providing forums for debats and discussing to breakout and occur between people

I’ve found when all or some of the above factors are in play, I’m a move productive and creative individual. Letting the creative juices bubble is as important, if not more important, then getting work done some days.

After watching part two of Gamer Revolution on CBC the other night. I’m more giddy then usually about the future of our industry. When you add in announcements from Ubisoft, it can make the future look even more bright.

The documentary on Thursday night was insightful and well edited. It was like watching a class on gaming history 101, with a peak into the future. The only bad part was that I wished it was longer. I don’t think two hours was enough to give this industry justice. Hopefully the CBC will start coving the industry more now.