Marcel van Marrewijk's Blog, page 158
May 19, 2016
My first S2M for Locals experience
The other day I travelled to Vinkeveen, perhaps one of the most Dutch surroundings you can possibly imagine. On the bus ride from Breukelen to the Marina, the new S2M for Locals location, you could see nothing but meadows (all very flat) and cows (lots of cows). It was a very peaceful sight, and the Vinkeveen Marina was no exception!
Kristien van Elteren, the owner of the Vinkeveen Marina (best Marina in the Netherlands, and I sure understand why!), informed me that some people had booked a workspace with her that day. When I arrived at 1pm the three men from Promigion were already sitting in the lodge enjoying their cup of coffee and working hard. I felt rude interrupting, but yet I really wanted to know: what made them decide to work in the Marina that day? It turned out they were all familiar with the S2M concept, and once they found out there was a pilot going on at such a cool location they booked a workspace right away!
Not only were the surroundings beautiful; you can walk outside for a small break, if the weather allows it even sit at one of the picnic tables and do some work. And yes; you can even swim in the water during summer! But there was just a general sense of tranquility. The intimacy of the workplace, the personal interactions with the hosts and a cute (massive) ridgeback puppy running around. You are truly working in someone’s ‘home’ for a day, but you really get the sense that you are at home as well.
Kristien has many plans for the Vinkeveen Marina. The number of docks will double and there will be more arcs for people to stay the night. Or work during the day! You want to spend your day working at this beautiful marina? Or you just really want to pet the cute puppy? Why not check it out for yourself: https://seats2meet.com/en/locations/966/S2M-For-locals-Sunny-Waterfront-Villa-at-Marina—Amsterdam-pilot
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Nationaal Crowdfunding Onderzoek 2016
De crowdfundingsector groeit hard, maar toch is er nog weinig echt bekend van de redenen waarom mensen wel of niet bijdragen aan crowdfunding projecten. Wat motiveert de donateurs en investeerders om deel te nemen aan deze campagnes? En wat kunnen we leren van deze eerste resultaten om nog beter in te spelen op de kansen die deze nieuwe manier van financiering biedt? Om hier inzicht in te krijgen, is onderzoek nodig.
Het Nationaal Crowdfunding Onderzoek is in 2013 al eerder uitgevoerd. Op basis van die 1300 deelnemers hebben we in 2013 interessante conclusies kunnen trekken. Al die resultaten zijn openbaar beschikbaar en worden ook veel door andere onderzoekers en afstudeerders gebruikt. Het rapport van 2013 is te downloaden op: http://www.crowdfundingonderzoek.nl/download
De CrowdfundingHub voert het Nationaal Crowdfunding Onderzoek uit in samenwerking met onder andere Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Hogeschool van Amsterdam en Utrecht Universiteit.
Onder de deelnemers aan de vragenlijst van dit jaar worden twee iPads verloot. De iPads worden beschikbaar gesteld door Viisi (onafhankelijk hypotheekadvies op maat aan hoger opgeleiden). Daarnaast kunt u met een echte investeringskeuze 500 euro winnen.
Om het onderzoek ook dit jaar mogelijk te maken vragen we iedereen de bijbehorende vragenlijst in te vullen. Het maakt niet uit of je nog nooit, of juist heel vaak crowdfunding hebt gebruikt. Ook als je er nog niet bekend mee bent of het nog niet hebt gebruikt, horen we graag van je! Als je interesse hierin hebt dan sturen we de uitgebreide resultaten na afloop van het onderzoek natuurlijk op! Het invullen van de vragenlijst kost ongeveer 14 minuten. Dit kan via de volgende link:
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May 18, 2016
Mooie momenten en serendipity
De afgelopen weken hebben bij mij in het teken gestaan van veel bijzondere ontmoetingen. Sommige vluchtig en eenmalig andere slechts het begin van een langere relatie. Echter allemaal hadden ze de belofte van iets moois. Een vriendschap, samenwerking, een duwtje in de goede richting, kennisuitwisseling of puur een gedeeld mooi moment. Ofwel serendipity op z’n sterkst.
Op onze locaties proberen we nu al 5 jaar die serendipity te faciliteren. Om zo waarde toe te voegen aan onze locaties. Maar vooral om dat wij (Tianne en ik) er sterk in geloven dat door serendipity je mooiste, relevantste en waardevolste ontmoetingen hebt. Alleen hoe faciliteer je die serendipity zowel voor jezelf en al helemaal voor een ander?
Als ik een regelmatige blogschrijver was dan heette dit artikel: Brekend, vaste formule voor Serendipity gevonden! Alleen dan moet ik je helaas teleurstellen. Er is geen vaste formule wel een aantal voorwaarden en die deel ik graag met je 
May 17, 2016
Winner of the “Architecture Nobel” Releases Popular Housing Projects for Free
The 2016 Pritzker prize – considered the nobel of architecture – winner, the chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, has released four of his most famous popular housing projects for free. That means they can be used and adapted freely by anyone who is interested in doing so, in other words: open source.
Aravena announced it on a debate with other awards winners at the United Nations HQ in New York. He believes that architects have to work together to find solutions for problems migration waves that has happening all over the world.
The projects, which are what is called “incremented” phase, are available to free download on the Aravena’s architecture firm called Elemental. The drafts offer a basic notion to build the low cost houses.
According to his firm, until 2020, 1 billion people will be living in cities and will be below poverty line. That means that governments will need to create popular housing in a massive scale.
The architecture hopes that his initiative shows politic leaders and the market that popular housing is not expensive, and that is goes as an inspirations to other architectures around the world. Watch Alejandro Aravena in an interview where he approaches the architecture role in social causes.
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Balance between profit and purpose – A need or a luxury?
Let’s cut the crap. Of course it is a need. Look at companies as Whole Foods, Patagonia, even Google or Seats2meet itself. All of those companies grow and are still growing without losing sight of what they were aiming for since the beginning. That is called sustainable growth.
I recently read an article from shareable which discussed about the growth of coworking spaces and the lack of the community spirit that it has on its beginning in 2008. It is true that when a market grows, businessmen with their suits and acronyms come close. That is not necessarily a bad thing.
Getting organized and professional a good sign of growth and everyone should keep on with it. There is a difference between getting big and being a sell out for money. There are already NGOs to help companies growing understand this and also help big corporates to see less numbers and more people – to come around and create a purpose, one of them is conscious capitalism. Is worth it checking it out – could be eye opening.
I have been working on S2M for a short time, but it is great to read about it as a reference of business that scaled up without losing its human touch and purpose – which in this case would be “a strong focus on independent professionals supporting each other, connecting, and contributing to the space” as Cat Johnson nicely said in her article on shareable.
We can apply this for any kind of business, but it is important to acknowledge this is the moment that coworking spaces are going through currently. This raise lots of questions, will all the consumers of this market go to the companies that offer comfort but no community? Is it a coworking space with no actual coworking, given the literal mean of the world, still a coworking space? Or would it be just desk spaces?
A community couldn’t be a product, only if you mean it in a mathematical way where a sum of factors ends in a product. A community is something build through time. A coworking space is a location that facilitates it. The difference between the spaces who have a community and the one who doesn’t is where the investment is in. I am not talking only about money, I am talking about energy. Is it on the people who frequent the room or is it on the amount of people per meter it fits?
It might sound a little bit misplaced but I was reading an article about Ashton Kutcher’s investments. Yes, the actor. Don’t judge me. In contrary of what some people might think he doesn’t spend his money in cars, mansions and yachts. Since 2003 he has been investing in tech companies as Spotify, Airbnb, Skype, Uber and foursquare among others.
Kutcher didn’t limit himself on tech companies. In 2015 he invested on Beebo, a shoulder strap that holds a baby bottle. In an interview he told about his main investment: “My relationships — taking the time to get to know [people], what motivates them, what their challenges are. These things are often overlooked. Investors get so wrapped up in returns and numbers that they forget that the true privilege of their position is to share a journey with exceptional people.”
That is the mainly the reason why building a community has a lot of value. It builds up relationships. But it is important not seeing it as product to be sold and achieving sales goals, but see it as an end for itself.
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May 16, 2016
Tech savvy & a creative mind?
Our API is open to anyone with a plan
Great things happen when you let people study, play with and improve products. That is pretty much the concept on which the Permanent Future Lab (co-created at S2M Utrecht) is built. Get a space, put awesome robots, drones and other toys in it and let the people play with them. Who knows; someone might just develop something totally new.
That is a lifestyle we generally try to promote at S2M; share your abundance with others so together you can co-create something amazing. And in order to practice what we preach we’ve decided to open up our APIs for everyone to play with, let’s see what you come up with!
What is it for?
It gives access to specifically requested data from the Serendipity Machine. This opens up new ways to experiment with the many opportunities created by the Serendipity Machine. Any programming language can be used that is able to call the API Url’s.
(eg: Javascript, PHP, .Net, Java, Swift, Python)
Not sure if this is for me
Even without programming experience, your creative idea with the data can become a reality.
http://notrealtwitter.com Is…not real twitter. It looks like it and does almost everything twitter does technically speaking.
It was built without using a single line of code. Just by visually composing what it should look like and using the different building blocks to make the application functional including the right database structure. https://bubble.is is worth trying out, experimenting and prototyping with even if you are a developer.
What people already came up with
We currently have someone working on linking library cards to the Serendipity Machine, so that whenever you go to the library it automatically checks you in and matches you to other relevant people present in the library. It sure as hell is awesome!
Where to start
Have you been waiting since forever to use parts of the Serendipity Machine to make your own innovative features? Well here’s your chance! Just send an email to wouter@seats2meet.com and you will receive your API key and documentation.
Comment your Idea below
Even if API’s are not your favorite pet, someone might be able to build upon your creativity.
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May 13, 2016
Jonge honden zoeken grijze haren
For my PhD research at the VU in Amsterdam, i am researching organizations that are renewing their way of organizing. Currently, the main way to reorganize is twofold, either they move into self-steering teams or they set up a network of independent workers (or do both). My hypothesis is that these type of work are good for the innovation performance and work output for the organization, but is less positive for the individual career perspectives of the employees or independent worker. What is needed to help individuals in their careers so that employees can grow but also independent workers can become more senior, ask higher prices etc. I do think that this is not only a responsiblity for the individual but that also from the company and its systems. I am very curious to hear your feedback or experiences on this topic and what you would feel is important. Curious to learn from you.
Please also read my last column in Financieel Dagblad (in Dutch)
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May 12, 2016
Werken in de Wind – KantoorKaravaan
Dankzij de voortschrijdende technologie op het gebied van ICT en duurzame energievoorziening wordt het steeds makkelijker te werken waar je maar wilt. Voor een gestaag groeiende groep professionals een ideale ontwikkeling. Zo wint het begrip ‘digital nomads’ – continue reizende ZZP-ers die werken vanaf de mooiste lokaties die de wereld rijk is – snel aan bekendheid. Ook in Nederland slaat de trend aan, wat voor de KantoorKaravaan uitbreiding en opschaling betekent.
Wat begin vorig jaar begon met één reizende zelfvoorzienende mobiele ‘werk-unit’ – voorzien van zonnepanelen, WiFi en koffie – is inmiddels uitgegroeid tot een hele vloot van uiteenlopende werk- en vergaderunits.
Het idee is simpel: zoek een oude vintage caravan, haal ‘m leeg en bouw ‘m van binnen strak weer op, met geïntegreerde bureaus, led-verlichting en uiteraard een espresso-apparaat.
Het exterieur wordt donker geverfd en van oud pallet-hout voorzien, zodat een ‘schutkleur’ ontstaat en het geheel mooi opgaat in het bos. Om het af te maken is elke unit voorzien van lichtgewicht zonnepanelen, zodat laptops en telefoons ten allen tijde kunnen worden opgeladen.
Samen met landgoederen en landschapsbeheerders worden de mooiste plekjes natuur beschikbaar gesteld aan de KantoorKaravaan. Zodoende werkt je echt op unieke locaties. Op dit moment zijn dat landgoed Roggebotstaete in Flevoland en vanaf juni is er ook een hide-out in het Amsterdamse Bos beschikbaar. In de toekomst wil de KantoorKaravaan samen met Seats4Silence een netwerk opbouwen van unieke natuurlocaties, om de werkende mens van nu een duurzaam en inspirerend alternatief te bieden voor de gemiddelde kantoortuin anno nu.
Vooruit boeken = mee financieren
Om de hi-tech kantoorvloot uit te bouwen loopt er nu een crowdfunding campagne tot eind mei (teller staat op 70%!). Wanneer je nu investeert (met korting!) werk je straks alleen of met je team in één van deze unieke werkplekken. Desgewenst uit te breiden met workshops en/of teambuilding activiteiten.
Meer weten? Kijk op www.kantoorkaravaan.nl of ga direct naar de crowdfundingpagina
See you in nature! Tom van de Beek
Kantoor Karavaan is één van de mooie buitenlocaties van Seats4silence – Werken en ont-moeten in de natuur. S4S is een pilot met S2M. 1 juni 2016 ben je welkom op onze grote ontmoetingsdag in de natuur.
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A day at the office, uhm, no…at the marina!
Today marks the day that the first users visited an S2M for Locals location! Sitting in the sun with a nice cup of coffee and some apple pie, these two professionals spent their workday at the waterfront villa in the marina of Vinkeveen. Kristien van Elteren, the host, said the experience was truly inspiring. You have an even more awesome workspace to offer? Go to locals.seats2meet.com. Would you rather experience it for yourself? Just book a space at one of the S2M for Locals locations!
House with a View– Amsterdam
Sunny Waterfront Villa at Marina– Amsterdam
Stellingwerf– Amersfoort
Peona– Utrecht
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Permanent Beta – we are here for the awesomeness
What if I tell you that every month thousands of people gather to talk about their awesome projects to other awesome people with awesome ideas, abilities and projects? Better yet, all the awesome ideas have something aim making the world a better place. Not only for that awesome people. We are talking about worldwide awesomeness here. That is Permanent Beta.
I spent a day with Martijn Aslander, creator of life hacking and writer of the books easycratie and nooit af, as he gave speeches in an event in Rotterdam. The event included a solar panel powered car, multiple igloos with different activities and a ringue-stage for Martijn’s epic talks. Now let me explain why I am talking about Martijn. He is the guy who started the Permanent Beta movement.
Since always he had the power of bringing people together for a cause. When he was 15 he started his first company. He took groups for activities on open air. He did that because he was a boy scout and it didn’t feel like working. It was fun and people paid for it. When he moved during high school he noticed that his school was the only one who didn’t throw parties. In no time he gathered 80 students (that being the new kid in school) to organize a party. When he sold his company in a bad deal he thought: “hey, let’s gather 10 thousand people to pile stones”. Ok, maybe that is not exactly how he planned it, but that is what happened. 10 thousand people joined him in a festival where they gathered stones weighing literally tons. The name of the project was Gathering Stones.
Now, more than 10 years after the permanent beta gathers amazing people every month to meetings. Permanent Beta is an organization free of risks. The meetings occur in places free of charge, people who show up know that the cost is on them. In that way there is no way of failing. It is always going on. Evert meeting is about quality, so even if only one person shows up they are still having it, which doesn’t seem to be a problem – the next meeting already have 50 people confirmed out of 100 guests and that being they don’t even reveled the program yet. We are there for the awesomeness – which is guaranteed.
By being decentralized and awesomeness drive people who participate on permanent beta do project quicker, with more excellence and cheaper than any organized company does. Those same companies are already seeing the value on that and partnering up. For now there isn’t much I can say. What I can promise is that things that seen as impossible by some are happening and are catching up to everyone who is reading this sooner than what you think. Wait and see!
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