Posted on 31 August 2009 by tony
Reposted from the CoStructure blog.
Independents have it made, right? Being in charge of one’s own schedule is both a blessing and a curse– while one is no longer compelled to go to an office when the boss says so, one is also left with the responsibility to self-impose proper balance. Without an external force being applied to help structure one’s life, the balance is hard to achieve and harder to maintain.
CoStructure is an effort to achieve that balance by working towards it together. Learn more about the original idea on this wiki page: http://nwc.wikidot.com/costructure
Below are the first posts from our first set of participants: myself, Mark Burstiner, Greg Palmer, and Whitney Hess. Each has their own unique personal and professional background, but each shares a common need to improve the structure of their lives.
Check out our first posts, which we all wrote after our first meeting last week:
“Co-organizing CoStructure” by Mark Burstiner
“I Wish I Knew How to Quit You” by Whitney Hess
“Accountability Game” by Tony Bacigalupo
“Keeping CoStructure Challenging” by Greg Palmer
This is very much an experiment, one which doesn’t yet have all the ingredients and certainly isn’t fully baked. But as we explore how to help one another stay sane and get our stuff done, we thought we’d share and have you along for the ride so you can help us figure things out as we go.
How do you achieve better structure in your life?
Posted on 15 March 2009 by tony
HELL. YES.
Let me make this very clear: New Work City is a platform for you. It is your space, your own little city. I am your Mayor, and I represent you.
If you want to do a UX lab, do it!
If you want to get people together and do a SHDH-style hackathon, we really need one! Do it! Pick a date and email me.
If you want to do a workshop. A talk. If you want to just pick a time to watch TED talks on our sexy new projector…
Pick a date.
Email me.
Make it happen.
NWC exists to make it easir for people to do all the great, creative, innovative stuff that people would otherwise have a hard time doing in NYC. The more cool stuff you want to do here in New Work City, the better.
My friend Charlie Oliver just hosted the inaugural NY Blog Academy Meetup yesterday, and a ton of people showed up. To the first event!
My friend Matt Coop is doing an Open Government Meetup on Monday 3/23.
When are you going to use NWC for something awesome?
Let’s kick some ass together.
It’s a recession, so let’s get a move on! There’s much economic growth to make!
Posted on 29 January 2009 by tony
The “other mayor,” Mike Bloomberg, spoke strongly about his support of initiatives to help laid-off workers get on their feet as entrepreneurs. This is very closely aligned with what we at New Work City are about, and what we intend to pursue in the coming weeks:
Our Small Business Services agency and our Economic Development Corporation will work together to help laid-off workers connect to start-ups and small firms in other industries by launching new job-training programs.
“They’ll also partner with private foundations to create ‘entrepreneur boot camps’ for all those interested in starting their own companies. And when the aspiring entrepreneurs are ready to take the next step, we’ll help them find office space. Right now, many landlords face rising levels of vacancies. But a number of academic institutions see value in those vacancies, and are interested in creating incubator space for new start-ups. By connecting these two groups, we can fill vacant commercial space and help launch start-ups that may have come up with the next big thing.
“We’ll stimulate entrepreneurship in other ways, too. For instance, we’ll provide additional seed funding to high-tech start-ups. Right now, across the whole city, only $40 million in private money is being spent on this kind of ‘angel’ investing and yet there is a huge demand for it. So our Economic Development Corporation will find $3 million in its budget to attract new private angel investors. That will allow us to increase the pool of available financing by $10 million net – a 25 percent increase.”
New Work City stands ready to help in any way it can to help. We are already working on our own recession-busting program, and will be calling for you to help us. Let us know if you want to participate early on!
I believe strongly that, even in difficult economic times, if you find a way to provide something of value that people will pay for, you will propser. The more we can help each other find ways to value, the more we will all benefit– as a community, as a city, and as a nation.
Best,
Mayor Tony
