This is a story of a collaboration about collaboration.

Gerrit Visser and I have been working together, fairly intensely, especially for the last few months. Gerrit is one of the foremost "cybrarians" (a term coined by Howard Rheingold) - a chronicler of collaborative technologies and initiatives. More than a decade ago, he and I began working together on a site called "CoWorking." I had conceived of CoWorking as an extension of my work with Technography. Technography relies on the skills of a computer-proficient facilitator. Coworking envisions collaboration in an environment where those skills are generalized - where every individual in the collaboration can take over the keyboard on behalf of the whole group.

Fortunately, this environment has materialized, in many ways. Virtual teams taking advantage of online meeting technologies, chat, phone, instant messaging, etc., have become masters of technology and social processes. Most recently, Chris Messina and Tara Hunt have been instrumental in launching the Coworking Movement - an international effort to provide physical environments that are conducive to the needs of the wireless coworker.

About three months ago, Gerrit invited me to add what he perceived as being a needed perspective to all this. He'd send me a link to some story he found on the web - something he thought would benefit from what I have come to understand as coworking. And I'd send him my heartfelt. And so began Coworking Visions.

Since then, our relationship as friends and coworkers has grown more and more empowering, deeper, more deeply satisfying. We are learning from each other at a startling pace. I've found myself with more and more to say - with things to say that I've wanted to say for years, and only now am finding a reason to say them. More importantly, I've found myself a coworker - a friend, a resource, someone I respect and rejoice with, someone who can bring the best out of me, all the way from Holland to here.



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: work