CoolTown Beta Community - Latest & Highlighted Discussions

What should a CoolTown site have?

Neil — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:23:21 GMT

The blog, of course!

What platform? Expression Engine? Wordpress?

Should it have an integrated social network like this CollectiveX groupsite that you're reading this post in right now? How important is single registration for both comments on the blog and this groupsite?

The main site needs a wiki, for sure. Suggestions on how it should be set up?

How can we make the site more of a community site? Should this CollectiveX groupsite be separate from the blog site?

How can crowdsourcing be applied to design?

Neil — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:01:42 GMT

How can architects and the beta community best collaborate to have a resulting design that inspires its future tenants/customers, which is the beta community.

Crowdsourcing examples

Neil — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:26:57 GMT

A wiki would be great right about here...

Name This - Crowdsourced project naming. $99 for three names, $ for the winner.

Residential/Mixed-Use Development

Neil — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:57:15 GMT

Beta Community Member Incentives
-Decision-making influence – The ability to say that they were part of what is built, created.
-Establish desired local third place – Being able to influence the creation of the very kind of third place that they themselves have always wanted to frequent alone or with friends, associates.
-Lease concessions based on unused marketing, market research and retail analysis expenses, weighted based on beta community contributions -This needs to be determined based on what the developer is saving in terms of market research, market development, product development, program development, and marketing/publicity costs, partially passed on to beta community members based on their % of contribution.
-Triple bottom line mission – The feel-good and satisfaction of working with a project that has highly tangible social and environmental impact.

Identify Developer Goals
-Number of residential/commercial units to be sold?
-Square footage of leasable space contracted – How much space needs to be leased?
-Tenant mix – What is the ideal tenant mix?
-Number of tenants contracted – How many tenants need to sign contracts?
-Design Scheme completed – What architectural decisions will best attract the desired tenants and patrons?
-Experiences Program completed – What event and experience programming decisions will best attract the desired tenants and patrons?

The Preparation – Identifying the Vision, the People
-The Beta Community Sponsor: A developer, building owner or entrepreneur must be secured as the sponsor to execute the group’s vision.
-The Beta Community 3BL DNA: What is the developer’s vision for this project, what kind of tenant/patron best represents that vision. CoolTown Beta Communities (CTBC) will aid in framing this in the mindset of the emerging creative class market, and where we provide a very unique, customized service to tailor the Beta Community program to the developer’s needs once we have discussed them more thoroughly.
-The Beta Community change agents – The actual people, ‘connectors’ that represent the identified DNA, people that resonate with the words and examples on the CoolTown website for example
-The Beta Community evangelist (or spokesperson) – The local beta community ‘mayor’, someone that beta community members trust and feel represent themselves, could be from the development team
-The social network platform – The online community (eg discussion board, member directory, calendar, resource library) that best provides for the group’s needs
-The Beta Community Seeders – Mission driven membership organization leaders, such as representatives from green nonprofits, entrepreneurial groups and arts organizations seeking their own vision executed in bricks and mortar. These groups often validate their involvement by the CTBC’s commitment to the beta community program.
-The Beta Community Leechers – NIMBY equivalents, to be avoided or neutralized by assigned beta community agents. This is not a nonprofit exercise, but a 3BL one, and the developer must reserve and utilize the right not to invite just anyone into discussions, as the beta community in many ways is an extension of the development team.
-The Beta Community Members: The local conscious creatives, those influentials, early adopters and cultural creatives that want to use their vastly untapped potential to both create and do good in a much more tangible form.

The Process Phase I – Establishing the Beta Community Core Team
-Establish the Beta Community Core Team representing the DNA of the developer’s vision, made up of beta community seeders, change agents, the evangelist, the initial beta community members and identifying leechers to avoid.

The Process Phase II - Building the Beta Community
-Monthly face-face meetings – Two hours, refreshments, lead by the beta community evangelist (agenda details available)
-Online discussions – Idea exchanges, brainstorms, feedback as it relates to face-face meetings, and the developer’s vision, validated by relevant examples and trends pointed out via the CTBC’s library of 1200+ stories.
-Surveys – Tangible feedback upon which to make development decisions and motivate beta community members to realize they are being listened to, that their input is valued. CTBC specializes in asking the right questions that surveys rarely ask, mainly because they don’t understand both the market’s needs and the developer’s needs.
-Tracking of time by individual participants – Acknowledgement that each beta community member’s time is valued and will be compensated in some way that overall, reduces the developer’s expenses

The Process Phase III - Milestones:
-Naming the place – If one hasn’t already been chosen
-Beta community membership benchmarks – The developer needs to determine how many are necessary to achieve their goals
-Social network list of resources benchmarks – The number of ideas, links, examples needs to be documented
-Community/social network website launched – This can either be an existing platform, or a customized website with a unique domain name.
-Beta community sweat equity agreement – Formal agreement for what the beta community gets in return for their contributions. Details available.
-Developer’s vision recalibrated monthly based on beta community feedback – The initial developer vision presented to the beta community at the beginning of the project will evolve, and this needs to be presented to the group.
-Final design scheme – Architectural and programmatic changes based on the beta community’s input will be presented upon final design approval.
-Inaugural experiences program – Seasonal, periodic and daily events and experiences (ie happy hours, themed nights) for both the building as a whole and individual tenants will be scheduled and presented, aided by CTBC’s extensive library of examples.
-Individual tenant lease LOIs – Letters of intent by potential tenants to reserve spaces
-Individual tenant lease refundable reservation deposits – Greater level of commitment from LOIs.
-Final individual tenant lease agreements – Highest level of commitment.

Red Bull HQ London [Luke Graven] Re-Formatted

Neil — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:34:06 GMT

Red Bull’s London HQ is an office that brilliantly matches this energy drink’s Brand image. Case in point: A slide services as an option to descend a floor.

JUMP Studios is the Architecture, Interior and Graphic Design firm responsible for this unique office interior oozing with Energy. This firm has also designed award-winning projects for clients including Levi’s, Honda and Nike. Architecture Week covers this work place in an article.

The entire layout goes against a typical blasé office. The conference table in in the shape of a ping-pong table (paddles included). Instead of boring cubicles there are glass meeting “pods” that offer privacy. The front reception desk is made of a metal usually reserved for industrial purposes, yet in this office serves as a hip and trendy entrance.

This is definitely one example of a company not only “building” a strong brand name with outreach and smart marketing, but within their work environs.

Red Bull HQ London [Luke Graven]

Neil — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:15:38 GMT

Red Bull’s London HQ is an office that brilliantly matches this energy drink’s Brand image. Case in point: A slide services as an option to descend a floor.

This is definitely one example of a company not only “building” a strong brand name with outreach and smart marketing, but within their work environs.

GOforChange invites you

Julie — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:11:51 GMT

Introducing GOforChange, a website that presents stories of positive change in the Baltimore region. This spirit of greening, advocacy, and social justice is cultivated throughout our region by businesses, organizations, and individuals. Each one is a vibrant, kickin', hopeful, gorgeous thread in the shimmering tapestry that is being woven every day in our community.

The site includes articles, a social network, and discussion forums. Also, during the summer of 2008 we are developing a marketplace to connect our site visitors directly to local products and services.

At GOforChange, we believe that everyone's work is necessary to this great project of bringing about changes for a just, healthy, and restorative world. Our posts call attention to people, projects, and businesses that:

* contribute to the well-being of people and the planet;

* operate from the premise that all things are interconnected;

* abhor waste of any sort: of people, resources, ideas, time;

* express humility, generosity, and compassion;

* use nature as a model and mentor;

* seek to restore the damage that has been done; and

* envision a world where human enterprise is good for the earth and for people.

I invite you to take a tour of the site, subscribe to RSS, join our social network, and contribute to the discussion forum. We welcome your comments on how to make the site better, more useful, and financially sustainable. If you have ideas or suggestions, you can email me directly.

julie.gabrielli@verizon.net

East Stroudsburg, PA

stephen — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:15:28 GMT

I am working towards creating a Beta Community for East Stroudsburg, PA. This small town of 10,000 permanent residents also hosts East Stroudsburg University with a student population which is set to reach 10,000 when the Science and Technology, School of Business and Computer Security campus are completed. The main ESU campus sits adjacent to the downtown district. It is my contention that the Borough of East Stroudsburg does not provide a "college town" environment and lacks the proper commercial and residential mix necessary to create a vibrant and prosperous social center. I am in preliminary discussions with a number of commercial developers as to the potential of East Stroudsburg.

Located next to ESU and adjacent to the downtown district is Pocono Medical Center, a regional hospital which has seen massive capital investment in the past five years.

The Penn Regional Business Center, a 3 Million Sq Ft Grade A Office complex on 5 sites is underway within a couple of miles of downtown. This $3.5 billion project is part of the regional Wall St. West initiative designed to create a second home for a vertical slice of the NYC financial securities industry. This project will create 20,000 high paid jobs when completed over the next ten years. The developers have substantial political support from the Governor and the area's congressman (Kanjorski) who is the chair of the sub committee on Capital Markets for the US House Finance Committee. It was Kanjorski who commissioned the white paper in 2003 which started the ball rolling on WSW. The PRBC has a commitment from the state of $50 million dollars for infrastructure building.

Monroe County's population is expected to double over the next 20 years with much of that growth coming from metro NY & NJ as well as Philadelphia. East Stroudsburg sits immediately at the end of I-80, 60 miles from NYC and approximately 20,000 commute every day from Monroe County to NY & NJ to work.

East Stroudsburg's neighbor across the interborough bridge is Stroudsburg. Stroudsburg's main street remains a focus for the two communities and I believe the two boroughs will eventually merge.

The long awaited plan to reestablish a commuer rail lnk between Scranton and NYC is moving slowly along but as gasoline reaches $4 a gallon (and beyond) will accelerate. East Stroudsburg will see a commuter platform situated at the center of the downtown district under this plan.

Because of the rapid population growth of Monroe County we have seen significant commercil development along the SR611 corridor starting in Stroudsburg. New stores attracted to this commercial district in the last two years have been. Borders, Starbucks, Linens & Things, Panera, Lowes, Army & Navy, Red Robin, Texas Steak House and about a dozen other national franchize stores are in construction.

East Stroudsburg has a number of empty or under used industrial sites adjacent to the downtown which could be rezoned and redeveloped.

I have created a myspace to explore the potential www.myspace.com/eca18301

These are additional links of interest:

http://www.synchriumgroup.com/

http://www4.esu.edu/

http://www.poconohealthsystem.org/section.cfm?id=35

http://eastburg.org/calendar.php

http://www.eastburgalliance.com/

STEPHEN WASHINGTON

President - Eastburg Community Alliance

Chief of Staff - State Representative John J. Siptroth

Building: New Orleans

Neil — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:24:24 GMT

Building: New Orleans

After the initial “September 2007 meeting:http://cooltown.collectivex.com/discussion/topic/show/15958” by NOLA Yurp, organizer Zach Kupperman met Lee Stafford who owns a building in the economically-challenged neighborhood of OC Haley a few blocks west of the downtown. Lee has plans to transform the building into a green cafe on the bottom floor and a coworking site on the second floor.

They held the first beta community meeting on November 14, 2007, and the project now has its own working site here. This is NOLA YURP Beta Community’s first project.

An introductory message from Lee Stafford, the building owner:

”The Green Space
1618 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, New Orleans

Goal: Open the first for-profit business in an economically challenged area in the Central City neighborhood of post-Katrina New Orleans.

“The Green Space” (interim name) coffeehouse will be a gathering point for community events and a location for nonprofits to strategize their efforts. It will host a wide diversity of weekend and evening events catering to all groups in the city, including theatre, poetry readings, movies, art gallery, lectures, music venues, crafts and food markets, used book exchanges and fashion shows. Wi-fi will be available.

Being eco-minded is one of the main themes of the coffeehouse. Recycling will be promoted. Literature on recycling and related events in the city will be displayed. The electricity used in the building will be at least partially supplied by the sun. Only fair-trade coffee will be served. Bicycle racks out front will promote exercise and a better quality of life.

Oretha Castle Haley, formerly known as Dryades Street was a booming commercial district from the late 1800s to the 1960s. The walls of the coffeehouse will feature photographs and other antiquities helping it serve as a museum of the former grandeur of the neighborhood.”

Based on estimates and the fact that the building needs minimal work, Lee is looking at a Spring 2008 opening date.

The Beta Community Program

Neil — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:05:10 GMT

CoolTown Beta Communities, a crowdsourced placemaking practice, utilizes the modern process of crowdsourcing to produce built destinations by enabling the local creatives as an investing community of future tenants and/or customers; the “beta community” - to build their collective vision.

The CoolTown Beta Communities Program:

Residential, mixed-use development.

Beta Community: New Orleans

Neil — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:27:06 GMT

Any and all discussion on the beta community project is being initiated by the Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals (YURP) in New Orleans.

The beta community commenced its first development project in OC Haley on November 14, 2007 – the discussion and update thread for that project is here.

Building: Arts Warehouse, Syracuse NY

Neil — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:01:27 GMT

Any and all discussion on the arts and music building that a beta community is co-creating in Syracuse, NY.

Building: Green building, Anacostia, DC

Neil — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 21:12:38 GMT

Any and all discussion on the green building that a beta community is co-developing in Washington DC.

VIBE: Elements green restaurant/bar, DC

Neil — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:08:19 GMT

Any and all discussion on the green restaurant that a beta community is building in Washington DC.