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MultiFireFox
Code contortionist is home to the MultiFireFox utility for Mac OSX!
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MultiFirefox on TUAW!! http://moourl.com/mff_tuaw
Posted in Cool Things
by David on June 18th 2008 at 22:13
Sent to Twitter
Announcing my new project, "sVersioN": http://moourl.com/tvtik
Posted in Cool Things
by David on April 30th 2008 at 21:12
Sent to Twitter
Code contortionist website finally has RSS feeds! Ain't that lovely. http://moourl.com/wcb06
Posted in Website
by David on April 23rd 2008 at 11:52
Sent to Twitter
5k run with @indyhallfitclub and friends ruled! http://moourl.com/m1197
Posted in Life
by David on April 19th 2008 at 19:39
Sent to Twitter
Today is "GOOD PEOPLE DAY" and I know plenty! http://moourl.com/snt3e
Posted in Life
by David on April 3rd 2008 at 08:33
Sent to Twitter
Venice is awesome! Second home, absolutely. Miss Philly, love Italy!
Posted in Cool Things
by David on March 26th 2008 at 17:29
Sent to Twitter
MultiFireFox hits the home page of download.com!!
Posted in Cool Things
by David on March 21st 2008 at 00:48
Two Guys On Beer launches! http://twoguysonbeer.com
Posted in Cool Things
by David on March 21st 2008 at 00:47
Thursday release of a new project of mine (and Johnny Nines). Can't wait to release it!
Posted in Cool Things
by David on March 19th 2008 at 01:28
Sent to Twitter
Back at Indy Hall - so long SXSW, see you next year!
Posted in SXSW
by David on March 14th 2008 at 17:30
Categories
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- Good People Day
- IndyHall
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- SXSW
- Two Guys On Beer
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RipItRipping DVDs is now about the easiest thing in the world. On a Mac, at least.
iPhone SDK Event
Engadget's coverage of the iPhone SDK announcement event.
Check it out
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On the way to Cape... Austin
I'm sitting in the Austin airport, just about to head over to our hotel. My friends will be arriving here in about a half hour, so in that time I figured I'd jot down some thoughts.
Coworking
We're out here as a group with a couple of goals. One of the biggest is to represent the fantasticness that is coworking. I personally hail from Philadelphia, PA, and we have one of the more famous coworking facilities around right downtown, thanks in no little part to its founders.
It's called, in full, Independent's Hall, (or "Indy Hall") and was started by three local gentlemen. It has changed my life. Many a moon ago, I was working for a large business in the "evil world of Corporate America." To reduce that to brass tax, I had me a job. Then, said large business decided it didn't need my services anymore - or the services of anyone in my department - and I was out of that job.
I had two choices.
Option 1: Get another job.
Well, it sounds good on paper, and at the point in time I was downsized, my resume and experience would have made getting another "job" easy to do. I had interviews within two days and could have had a job before my (incredibly short) severance ran out.
Option 2: Strike out on my own.
This was much more compelling. Mostly because of the "lack of commute" thing, but I had just recently worked for a company that was practically no commute anyway. Despite the obvious advantages of working for yourself, something was just eating at me. It was more than getting to work in my PJs. It was a desire to be part of something more.
There's this whole community of people that you'll never notice if you're not looking for them. Well, Austin will notice them this week, but on a whole - in your community - they're a bit of an underground. It's the New Media crowd. Comprised of some real brains and many a self-employed contractor or small business owner, it's a completely unpretentious, totally accessible group of incredibly talented individuals. While you're watching TV at night, they're the ones scheming up the next great community experience. Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Twitter - these are just a few of the companies that came from this humble community. The list could go on forever... Meebo, Pownce... And it's not just online experiences either (although you'll be hard pressed to find any project that doesn't take full advantage of the technology tools around them), but micro-conferences pop up all over the place. Meet-ups, not unlike SXSW, but only covering one topic, and often with an audience of 5-15 are not uncommon. They're totally participatory (as much as you like) and are never presumptuous.
It's this community that makes working as I do possible. Its a community more interested in giving than taking. Growing social capital in your own person-brand is a big deal, and is done so by contributing to - not taking from - the ideas that come out of the community.
There is a secret code word I've used constantly in this write-up - "community." This is what drew me away from simply rejoining the rat race and brought me into the world of private consulting and coworking. I took on some side projects to keep cash coming in, but the introduction to this community sealed my fate.
Dave Gets All Community..y
I happen to live about a block-and-a-half away from Indy Hall's Philadelphia location. I also happened upon (thanks to the guys at Bar Diver ) the opening of Indy Hall, and met some really good people. Many were like old friends. All were approachable. And then I realized something - while Indy Hall was definitely the reason for the season, it was only a small part of the whole collective. Here were about 100 people, many of whom were self employed or work-from-home contractors, at a small opening. They represented that with a little hard work, working for yourself WAS a viable alternative, and the apparent benefits - a community of people behind you, supporting you, going through the same challenges as you - made taking the leap in to self-employment a little less scary.
I was instantly smitten, and after a few months of building relationship with the people in this community, I was hooked. For life.
Yes things will change. I may at some point find myself in a "real job" again. Every man has his price, especially in the future, when I may have offspring to care for and college tuitions to prepare for. But I'll never leave the community.
Here's the best part. When you have so many talented people around you, one might think that there is so much to exploit. First off, perhaps surprisingly, that is the complete, total, polar opposite vibe you'll find in a coworking facility. Rather, you also become anxious to contribute back to the community at large. And I can tell you that here, in this fantastic community of developers, designers, artists, managers, marketers, and more - karma repays ten-fold. You'll find yourself in awe, once again.
Categories: Coworking
Tagged: SXSW, coworking
Comments
Alex Hillman says:
Your enthusiasm for this community is infectious too, Dave. We're so stoked to have you around, and even more stoked that you came out with the crew to SXSW and helped represent. And did we ever represent! Catch you in the office on Monday...afternoon ;-)
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