Blog of the Gate 3 WorkClub

Telecommuting: Not an Easy Fix

There it is, on the front page of today’s Financial Times, in a list of energy saving recommendations issued in a proposal by the IEA (International Energy Association). Point #5 is the simple statement: “Telecommuting: Inform public of benefits of working from home”.

The article, and it’s prominence on page 1 is prompted by the rocketing price of oil – and heightened anxiety caused by the Goldman Sachs report of prices as high as $105/barrel.

Reducing long commute distances IS a significant part of the answer. The problem though is that, as we know from the past two decades in which telecommuting programs have been tried in various forms, more, much more, is going to be needed than simply “informing the public” of its virtues. Proponents have for too long oversimplified what it’s going to take to shift the modern post-industrial workforce to accept telecommuting as their norm. Telecommuting isn’t just another commuting option – like choosing to pick up passengers that allow driving in the commute lane. It is/will come about as part of a major shift in organization design, work patterns, urban patterns and culture and will be enabled by a myriad of new technologies (already here) and more importantly, social institutions and service industries.

Of course, what I’m getting at here is the WorkClub – or to use the definition I’ve been using lately – networks of ubiquitous, shared (aggregated) work spaces that provide access to work support services and technologies, social networking and learning opportunities. And the key characteristic of the WorkClub is that it should be really close (say 5 – 10 minutes commute) to where someone LIVES (which is why they need to be ubiquitous, and provide common work systems when they are away from home (which is why they need to be a network).

So, why is telecommuting as it is mostly promoted not so simple – and therefore not succeeding to the degree that it is going to make a big enough impact on oil use. Like anything complex, the reasons are many and interrelated. Here are a few (discussed at greater length below);

1. WORKING AT HOME IS NOT THE (WHOLE) ANSWER.
2. SHIFTING THE COSTS INFRASTRUCTURAL SUPPORT FROM CORPORATIONS TO WORKERS.
3. JUSTIFYING THE SHIFT OF INFRASTRUCTURAL SUPPORT BACK TO THE CORPORATION
4. CHANGING CORPORATE STRUCTURES TO REALIZE THE FULL BENEFIT OF DISTRIBUTED WORK
5. CHANGING URBAN STRUCTURES TO FULLY ENABLE DISTRIBUTED WORK

Watching Signs Along the Way (with care).

I’m on flight 2609 bound for John Wayne airport headed to a meeting to discuss a possible future of workclubs. The captain has just made the announcement that we will be landing shortly – at GATE 3! What am I to make of this? A pure coincidence with the name I gave to my vision of the future of work? Or a portentious sign that this saga is indeed not yet done.

As I sit here, pondering the demise of Gate 3 WorkClub while sitting on a jet heading for gate 3, the role of serendipity presents me with some hard questions – how much credence to give to these unexpected events and unsought opportunities, and how much to rely purely on rational decision making; the business plan and careful analysis of the possible.

From the beginning, this adventure has been fraught with happenstance and coincidence that I have consciously decided to yield to.

The Connectivity Club

While this may be the first blogsite solely dedicated to discussing the emergence of this new work institution, it is by no means a totally new or unique idea.

The first posting in the category of convergent thinking is a site I just ran across it here. It describes “The Connectivity Club, how do you work and how do you study?” as “…a place for people to meet and exhange information…It offers individual and shared instruments for work, training, information and entertainment activities both distant and in the area.”

It is one of a number of "Sustainable Everyday Scenarios of Urban Life" including "The Food Atelier", "Mobility Agency" and "Energy Workshop".

As best I can tell the site is the work of the Faculty of Design at Milan Polytechnic, and the work derives from design school students around the world.

The End? Part 2 – What is a WorkClub?

I recently wrote to a correspondent that, though the club is closing down in Emeryville, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure that eventually “there are workclubs in every city in every corner of the world”.

Then I realized that I have never clearly articulated what a workclub is, if its not what we built in Emeryville. What have I learned about the essential elements of a workclub that I would like to see in every city? If the concept is to succeed, there are going to be a huge variety of forms and types that will be variations on a theme – but at their core they will need to reflect some common elements.

So here goes a first pass at a definition: a workclub is a congenial place, where people can find work community in a location that is easy and quick to get to and provides them the work amenties they need to do the portions of their work that are not best done at home or at a centralized corporate facility.

That’s quite a mouthful. And it involves a number of concepts that bear further definition.

The End of Gate 3 WorkClub? Part 1

Having been scooped on my own story by Heath Row at Fast Company (http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2005/01/27/work_space.html#comments) I bring bad news to those of you who were rooting for our little experiment in new work community in Emeryville, and good news for the other three of you who scoffed at the idea or the particular interpretation of it: I have decided to shut down the WorkClub in Emeryville. February will be our final month of operation.

The main reason for shutting down is lack of funds to do the serious kind of marketing that it is going to take to get subscriber traction – and the short runway I have left myself to generate this funding. The feedback I received in the early stages of development (and continue to get today) led me to believe that I would not need that runway – that fundraising was only needed for the next, expansion phase, which would be undertaken once the concept was proven in the single location. Hindsight proves me wrong.