WebWorkerDaily readers are a diverse bunch. Every week, I profile a different reader and ask them to share what they do, how they do it, and some of their favorite hints and tips.

Who are you and what do you do?

For my main job, I am a dentist. No kidding! But in 2001, I got a Palm m100 as a gift. I knew nothing about tech stuff or the web. However, I fell in love with that device, because it helped me a lot in my work. Now, nine years later, here I am: mobile tech-savvy, with the largest blog about mobility in Brazil, a podcast, writing in some magazines, talking on the radio and reviewing gadgets on a TV show. That was completely unexpected, because I started blogging in 2002 as a hobby. But mobile tech changed my life and gave me an opportunity to expand my original business. Today, I give dental home care to elderly and handicapped people, at their homes, hospitals or retirement institutions.

This year, I had to make the most difficult decision of my life: to take my hobby seriously. I don’t have a dental office any more — I just provide home care. I made this change so that I would have more freedom to travel for lectures and consulting. I talk about using mobile tech to improve productivity and social media as a marketing tool for non-IT professionals. I also spend a lot of time writing and reviewing smartphones and software.

What’s a typical day like for you?

While I don’t have a dental office anymore, I needed to improve my organizing and working tools. The weekly review (from David Allen’s GTD) is very important to keep so many activities under control. It’s done every Friday or Saturday, depending on my schedule. Running two businesses (www.odontopalm.com.br and www.garotasemfio.com.br) demands a lot of planning.

Once or twice a week I visit my patients around the city. The other days I am at my mobile office, or at a TV/radio studio, or in meetings with my mobile consulting clients and some press events. So as a mobile enthusiast, the world is my office.

On a typical non-dental day, I wake up, grab some coffee, feed my cats and write my web and magazine articles in my home office. I try not to check email before 11 a.m., as it always delays my writing plans. Even if I don’t answer them, thinking about the still-upcoming tasks spoils my focus. So no checking the inbox until the writing tasks are done! The rest of the day is spent testing new gadgets and software, reading the news and doing chores. I am also a housewife, and like to prepare our meals. Some days I also have a press event, radio or TV appointments or meeting to go.

On a dental day, I don’t have a set time to visit my patients. It depends on their health and needs, but visits are usually in early mornings or late afternoons. A single visit may take three or four hours. I arrive home very tired! The rest of these days, I usually spend reading a book and doing chores. I like to listen to podcasts while doing laundry or cooking as it helps me to relax.

My husband is an engineer; he is out all day and some nights teaching at the university. When he is not working, I try not to be working, too. So I plan my week with my husband’s schedule in mind as well. We subscribe to each other’s calendars.

What gear and software do you use, and why?

My smartphone is my main daily working tool. I am not tied to a specific one — I am always testing and reviewing new ones — but as an Omnifocus user (for Mac and mobile), the iPhone is always with me.

I live in two cities. In one, I keep my MacBook. In the other, the iMac. I subscribe to MobileMe in order to keep the two Macs and the iPhone in sync, like magic. MobileMe (for calendar, contacts and iDisk), Evernote and Dropbox are the tools I cannot live without. I also have a Nokia Symbian phone to type longer texts, with a Nokia bluetooth keyboard. This setup means I can keep my luggage very light while commuting — I even dumped the netbook as my smartphones fill all my mobile needs!

My digital daily tasks are mostly done with my smartphone: managing the patients’ database with Bento; reading RSS in NetNewsWire; saving interesting articles in Instapaper Pro; working with Office documents with Quickoffice; chatting with Nimbuzz; and tweeting (at twitter.com/garotasemfio) with Echofon Pro. I also carry tons of ebooks and dental reference material in iSilo, Stanza, Skyscape and Medscape.

Sometimes I’m away from any kind of computer for one or two whole days. These are very overwhelming days, so it’s important to get things done through my smartphone. Most of my email is managed on the go. I would hate to come home and have to spend the evening working in front of a computer!

What’s your favorite web working tip?

Be organized. Always. Plan your week, schedule all your activities, but be careful: Keep some gaps in your calendar. You will always have to deal with urgent tasks and unpredictable issues along the week, and these gaps will help keep you sane. I love the freedom mobile tech gives me. It would be impossible to do all the (many) things I love without it.

If you would like to be profiled on WWD, get in touch with me at simon (at) gigaom (dot) com.

WebWorkerDaily readers are a diverse bunch. Every week, I profile a different reader and ask them to share what they do, how they do it, and some of their favorite hints and tips.

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Adam Valuckas, and I have an awesome full-time job creating online video advertising for a newspaper. My second full-time job is my startup VJIX Creative. At VJIX I make online videos that highlight how applications will befit their customers. I have two projects completed and a few more on the way.

What’s a typical day like for you?
When working on VJIX projects, my days are spent animating motion graphics. It can be painstaking work — I imagine that watching me work is about as exciting as watching my girlfriend knit. To keep myself entertained I stream films from Netflix on my Xbox nonstop unless I’m editing audio.

What gear and software do you use, and why?
My main offline apps are:

• Adobe After Effects. I am an Apple guy but nothing compares to After Effects for motion graphics. For longer projects I create individual shots in After Effects then edit them in Final Cut Pro.
• Final Cut Pro. If you’re an editor then you’re either a Final Cut Pro or an Avid person. I got into editing when nonlinear editing (computer editing, not tape-to-tape) was just coming into stride with the Sony ES7 (if you know what this is, you’re old!) and Media 100, Final Cut was the logical choice for me.
• Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I use these for general photo and vector manipulation.
• Firefox. The Firefox extensions PermaTabs and FaviconizeTab are the perfect duo to create small permanent tabs for web sites that you use frequently.

I also use a ton of other Mac applications to get my work done. Something a professional might not think about using is iTunes, but it is a fantastic production music library program. You can lump music into genres, convert it to AIFF for editing, and then easily “locate in finder” to keep your production music easy to listen to and quick to find.

My main online apps are:

• Google Apps. Google Apps provides great email, document editing and calendaring. I just wish Google would treat Apps users as first-rate Google citizens.  The video encoding is awesomely horrible — also I would like to have access to services that my personal Gmail account does.
• PipelineDeals CRM. Pipeline’s CRM lands somewhere between Highrise and Salesforce in complexity, but its customization and flexible sales flow are by far the best for me. I have custom fields, to-do lists, and reports that fulfill my lust for information organization. Plus, it is really easy to use. I use it for project management as well, even though it wasn’t intended to do that.
• Evernote. With Evernote I can keep insane amounts of Internet snippets in one location. I use tags with Flickr, but with Evernote I use a ton of folders, which means I can make quick web clippings with the Firefox extension without having to think about filing. No more losing things!
• Netvibes. What makes this service really useful is its widgets. On one of my Netvibes tabs I have (my ego surfing tab) is my Alexa rating, Feedburner subscribers, Google page rank, various keyword alerts, Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools.
• JungleDisk: Every hard drive will die; it is a sad fact of life. I chose JungleDisk online backup and storage for its additional services, such as the local disk, and being able to keep files backed up that are no longer on my computer.

What’s your favorite web working tip?
If you’re going to make a web video you should aim to produce it to HD standards (unless you’re talking about video banners). With HD video you can upload it to video-sharing sites like YouTube (maintaining HD quality playback), repurpose that footage for TV, and size the video down to play on your web site (a win-win-win situation!)

Always remember that compression is your video’s nemesis. When uploading your video to a video-sharing site or converting it to the Flash format, you want to limit the amount of compression before encoding it for the web. In the video editing world, Quicktime is the best format to use. An uncompressed two-minute video may be 4-8GB. But a Quicktime video using the Photo Jpeg codec will give you around a 600MB file that retains virtually all the quality. These files are huge, but you want to start with the best quality video before converting it for the web.

If you would like to be profiled on WWD, get in touch with me at simon (at) gigaom (dot) com.

Israel “Izzy” Hyman’s passion is video. He’s a video podcaster who makes a living producing three different online shows:

• Izzy Video — How to shoot and edit video. It covers a wide range of topics like cinematography, lighting, recording good audio, gear, editing and distribution.
• Paperclipping.com — This show is hosted by Hyman’s wife, Noell, and it’s all about scrapbooking and design principles.
• Rolling R’s — This show is hosted by Hyman’s friend, Larry Keim, and teaches people the Spanish language.

All three are membership sites where some of the content is available for free, but the majority of the material is available to paid members only. I caught up with Hyman to ask him a few questions about the work he does, and how he does it. Below is an edited transcript of our interview:

Simon: How did you originally get into video? And what made you decide to start blogging about it?

Hyman: I’m one of those people who started with video as a passion. I got my first video camera when my first son was born nearly 12 years ago. A few years later, I got my first Mac and found iMovie, so I started doing some basic editing. Then I upgraded to Final Cut Express, upgraded my camera, and started getting other gear like microphones and lights. Eventually I moved to a Mac Pro, Final Cut Pro, and now the camera I use is the Sony PWM-EX1.

When I got into video, I did a lot of reading on the subject. I was shocked there weren’t a lot of great places to learn video on the web, so I started making videos that showed the principles I was learning. That was how Izzy Video got started. It filled a need.

Simon: What’s a typical day like for you?

Hyman: The days vary, but on days when we’re shooting video (once per week), it goes like this:

1. Clear out the furniture in my living room.
2. Set up my studio gear like lights, C-stands, microphone and background.
3. Shoot video for a couple hours, depending on the subject and what shows we’re shooting.
4. Transfer the footage into the computer.
5. Edit the video, and while it’s rendering I take down the studio and move my furniture back into place.

Between shooting, editing and posting the videos, that keeps me busy for the day. On other days of the week I keep my load pretty light. I work from a coffee shop probably three times per week, answering emails, researching, outlining, writing, tweeting and doing other social media stuff.

I’m also working on creating a resource that shows other people how to create profitable video podcasts like we’ve done. We’ve done it three times, using a business model based on what Don McAllister did with ScreencastsOnline.

One of the reasons I became a full-time video podcaster was so I could spend more time with my family: I do things like take my kids to and from school, help them with homework, and run them to dentist appointments. Also, I exercise every day, and right now I’m participating in NanoWriMo, so I’m writing a novel in November. I frequently joke with Noell that I feel as if I’m retired. When I’m working, I do the stuff I love to do. And my work leaves plenty of time with my family.

Simon: Your blog is based around the message that video is not a “black art,” and is accessible for nearly anyone. The barriers to entry for aspiring video shooters/producers are getting lower. What gear would you recommend to someone just starting out; I’m curious as to whether you’d recommend a video-capable DSLR over a dedicated video camera?

Hyman: The biggest mistake I think people make when they’re buying gear for video is they spend too much time and money on the video camera, and not enough on audio and lighting. What kind of gear should a new person get? That depends on what they’ll be shooting, but for someone who just wants to post video on the web, something like this might work:

1. A basic three-point lighting setup such as three Rifa lights from Lowel. Lighting is critical for a good image, and many people don’t spend any time or money on it.
2. A wireless lavalier (lapel) microphone setup like the Sennheiser Evolution G2 series.
3. Any video camera that shoots HD, has an external mic input, and records to a solid state media like an SD card (I capture to SxS cards). I don’t recommend someone buy a tape-based or hard drive camera. Tape is going away, and hard drives have too many problems.

A video-capable DSLR can be an excellent choice if you’ll always be shooting short video clips and you don’t mind spending more on important accessories that make the camera usable as a video camera. I just bought my first video-capable DSLR a few weeks ago. I love the imagery I get from it, with the shallow depth of field, color saturation and overall film-look. Still, for professional gigs, it’s probably a good idea to stick with dedicated video cameras. That might change over the next couple years, though.

Simon: I suppose it varies with the project, but what gear do you like to use?

Hyman: Some favorite pieces of gear I use:

• My camera is the Sony PMW-EX1, and I adore this thing. It shoots amazing HD footage, and it shoots true slow motion. It’s incredible.
• My favorite microphone is the Sennheiser ME66 shotgun mic.
• For lights I use several Chimera lights inside of Chimera soft boxes.
• I also love my Scrim Jim set of diffusion panels and scrims. I use this for controlling light outdoors.

I could go on and on, because I do tend to be a gear hound. I enjoy the tools probably a little too much. Here’s a list of most of the gear I use. By the way, I’ve created video tutorials on how to use all this gear. They’re on my web site.

Simon: With modern computers and software, video editing and production can be added to the list of careers that are “web worker compatible.” What’s your office setup like, and if you work on the road, what makes it possible?

Hyman: My office is in my bedroom. I work at a table with a Mac Pro (8 cores). I edit in Final Cut Studio, which means Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, Compressor, and other tools. I have a closet full of gear, and as I mentioned earlier, I periodically convert my living room into a studio.

If I’m just doing Internet work then I use my MacBook Pro and a Verizon card, and I’ll usually head to Starbucks for that. Sometimes I’ll do mobile video editing, but not often. That’s a good thing, because I have an old 17″ Macbook Pro, and it’s a little slow for video these days.

Simon: Finally, video is being used in a lot of places on the web now (on web sites, in advertising, as part of multimedia projects). What is an interesting use of commercial video you’ve seen recently?

Hyman: One of the most interesting things I’ve seen lately with video is the Apple ad running on major web sites like the NY Times. Along the top of the page there’s a video banner, and in the sidebar there’s another video ad that interacts with the video ad at the top of the page. That’s brilliant.

WebWorkerDaily readers are a diverse bunch. Every week, I profile a different reader and ask them to share what they do, how they do it, and some of their favorite hints and tips.

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Sam Glover and I wear two main professional hats: I am a consumer rights lawyer, and I write and edit Lawyerist with my business partner, Aaron Street. My law practice is a two-lawyer firm, and my associate, Randall Ryder, and I are full-time litigators. We sue debt collectors and defend consumers who are sued by debt collectors. Lawyerist happens almost entirely online. We call it a “lawyering survival guide,” but you could also call it a blog. In November, I will start writing a column on law and the Minnesota legal community for MinnPost, an online media source.

What’s a typical day like for you?
A combination of online and offline meetings, working on cases (usually writing things), writing for my consumer law blog, writing and editing posts for Lawyerist, and researching and writing for MinnPost. I do a lot of writing.

Meetings with clients generally happen in my office, but I can use Skype to attend by video. Other meetings may be in person or over Skype or the phone. Court hearings obviously happen in court, and I average three or four per month. I spend a lot of time networking, and I try to have coffee or lunch with someone every day.

I usually work from home or my office, but some days, I prefer a coffee shop or the Minneapolis Public Library. It’s nice being almost completely mobile, and my associate and I are rarely in the same place at the same time for long, so we use Skype when we need a face-to-face meeting.

What gear and software do you use and why?
My computers are a ThinkPad T400 running Windows with Bitlocker enabled and a Dell desktop (whatever was cheap at the time) with a 22″ widescreen monitor. Randall uses an old iMac at the office and a MacBook Air for the road. We have three Fujitsu ScanSnaps — one at home, and two at the office (one for my Windows PC, one for Randall’s iMac). We use Google Apps, Remember the Milk and Freshbooks to do most of our work in a browser. Local apps include OpenOffice.org, GnuCash (until January, when we will switch to Quickbooks), Skype and Dropbox.

The two most important programs I use are Dropbox and Skype. I am paperless because paper is inconvenient and ties me down, and Dropbox keeps all my files synced up, and makes it easy to share client files with Randall and Lawyerist files with Aaron. We use Skype for the phones, so we can answer the same number wherever we are. It also lets me have face-to-face meetings with my co-workers and clients, even if I’m not in the office.

What’s your favorite web working tip?
Use the web for what it does best — sharing, collaborating and communicating — but not for what it does poorly, like personal networking and document production. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are to networking as Google Docs is to OpenOffice.org: a complement, but not a replacement.

If you would like to be profiled on WWD, get in touch with me at simon (at) gigaom (dot) com.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Jennifer Woofter and I run Strategic Sustainability Consulting (SSC). We’re a boutique consulting company that works with small- and medium-size organizations that want to “go green.” I spend about one-third of my time on billable sustainability consulting work (green audits, carbon footprinting, coaching and training) and about two-thirds of my time running the business — made up of three in-house staff, between four and six interns, and a freelance network of more than 450 sustainability experts.

What’s a typical day like for you?

I’m a night owl, and since I usually go to sleep in the wee hours, I’m rarely awake before 9 a.m. Since I work from home, that’s not a problem — I just walk downstairs to my office (stopping in the kitchen for a cup of coffee) and am ready to work by 9:05. I try not to schedule any meetings until 10 a.m., which gives me just enough time to check email and catch up on my RSS feeds before diving into the day. I focus on client work in the morning, then work in the afternoon on business development. My evenings are spent with my husband and two puppies in front of the TV, where we play “dueling laptops” as we both try to cram in as much additional work as possible in between episodes of “House Hunters” and “Chopped.”

What gear and software do you use, and why?

I have a desktop computer (Dell Inspiron) for daily work, a laptop (HP Pavilion) for evening work, and a new netbook (Toshiba NB205) that I use when I travel specifically because I get over nine hours of battery life. Tech gadgets that I use frequently include a webcam for videoconferencing (Logitech Quickcam), a digital voice recorder (Sony IC Recorder) for keeping track of my crazy ideas, and a Flip Mino HD camcorder for shooting quick video. I have a special relationship with my iPhone that I think might threaten my husband.

On the software side, I use GoToWebinar at least once a day for web conferencing (staff meetings, client presentations, and our weekly webinars and online training).  I use Audacity for SSC’s podcast interviews with sustainability experts, and we put up video through our newly created YouTube channel. Our entire company uses Skype for instant messaging and telephone, and I use Tweetdeck to manage my Twitter account (@jenniferwoofter).  I’m a huge fan of 5 pm project management software, Highrise for contact management and Google Docs.

What’s your favorite web working tip?

Set up a remote back-up system that allows you to synchronize file-sharing between different computers. I was spending a huge amount of time before each trip (whether it was a coffee meeting in the next town or a week in Hawaii) copying files that I thought I might need onto a flash drive for use with my laptop. Not to mention the time and confusion of sending files back and forth to my remote team — we were never sure who had the most recent version of a document we were collaborating on, and Google Docs only goes so far. A couple of months ago we switched over to Dropbox, and it was like the clouds parted and angels started singing. Not only is it 100 times easier to manage our workflow and document control, but I don’t have to worry about backing up my materials since it automatically does it for me.

If you would like to be profiled on WWD, get in touch with me at simon (at) gigaom (dot) com.

Gary Vaynerchuk is the host of Wine Library TV (with over 80,000 viewers a day) and Director of Operations at his family’s company, Wine Library, in Springfield, NJ. He grew that business from $4 million to $60 million in only five years, and is now the co-founder of VaynerMedia and a consultant for Fortune 100 companies. An in-demand public speaker, Vaynerchuk has keynoted at events such as FOWA and South by Southwest, and also appeared on many television shows such as “Ellen DeGeneres”, “Late Night With Conan O’Brien”, “The Today Show”, and CNBC’s “Mad Money With Jim Cramer”.  Vaynerchuk’s second book, “Crush It!“, came out earlier this month.

I sat down with Gary at LessConf in Jacksonville, Fla., to talk about working hard and building brands.

Nancy: You are famous for cheerleading, for telling people to work an 18 hour day. How has being a dad changed your perspective on that?

Vaynerchuk: It hasn’t. I don’t necessarily need people to work 24 hours a day. I need them to not do stupid stuff when they’re unhappy. If that ends up being 12 hours a day, or seven, or four, that’s fine. Because obviously family is first. And a lot of times for a lot of people, your first job is first, because that’s what pays your mortgage. It’s just at night, instead of plopping on the couch and eating junk food and watching Baywatch re-runs, there’s a lot of opportunity to build brand.

Nancy: Although you are known for doing all that motivational speaking, recently it seems to me that your focus has shifted a little bit away from pure motivation into a little more practical advice, especially with the book. Can you talk about that shift a little bit?

Vaynerchuk: It’s always been there. It’s just that the “rah-rah” stuff is so sexy, and people focus on it. I’m not a motivational speaker as my profession, or a life coach, or a self-help dude. I build businesses. I built a $70 million wine company. AJ and I, my dad and I, our partners and family have spearheaded Vaynermedia, which is well on its way to being a million dollar company. And Gourmet Library. And I was the kid that was making a thousand dollars a weekend selling baseball cards, which if you prorate it is $52,000 a year for one day a week’s work. So, this is a knack, this is a skill. I’ve always said be patient, hustle, you know, practical advice, but it always got pushed to the side. So this is no shift…this is probably why I wrote the book. Because in a book environment, I think it comes through more for a lot of people. It doesn’t get lost as much, because there are sections just devoted to it.

Nancy: You’ve been investing in a lot of startups lately. What gets your attention or gets you excited about one? Like at my house, when we’re looking at a new tech product, it has to pass the mom test of “could our moms use it?”

Vaynerchuk: Well, I don’t think that I would invest in any startup if that had to be my barometer, because moms get involved later. Products iterate to become mom-friendly. Mine is, is this valuable? And does it invoke emotion? Those are the two things that I’d look at. Does this product make people think about something, feel something? Facebook inherently created an environment of your world, gave you a feel of speed, almost like having a fast Porsche that you never saw before. So those are the kind of things that I look at.

Nancy: So you assume that if it brings that kind of feeling, that that’s a good investment down the road, because it’ll gain some traction?

Vaynerchuk: No, that’s just some of the things I look for from a product standpoint. Then I look at who’s the entrepreneur — who’s driving the car. That’s imperative to me. And so, there’s a lot of factors. Is the product over-hyped in the mind of the entrepreneur, which means it’s not going to be as good of a deal for me? There’s a lot of practical things that I look at.

Nancy: You’re talking a lot about personal branding, finding your passion. What are the top three skills that you think people need to be able to craft that sort of branding for themselves?

Vaynerchuk: I think this is what’s important: I think everybody can win. Everybody is going to win. Not everybody is going to be Oprah, there’s going to be a lot of Donahues, and a lot of Sally Jesse Raphaels, and a lot of Geraldos, right? What I think is important is this, for people to understand: The fact that we all can now go to Yankee Stadium and tap the plate and get a swing at the bat, was not real three years ago. You couldn’t become a brand. What you were going to do — leave your kids and your husband and fly to LA and find an agent? You had no shot. So that’s what I’m screaming about. Not that necessarily everybody’s going to win on this epic level and everybody’s going to make a trillion dollars, but do not disrespect the fact that everybody has a swing at the plate. And that’s a big deal.

Nancy: Everybody knows you want to buy the Jets. Do you have any other goals?

Vaynerchuk: The only goal that I have is that, and to spend time with my family and make sure that they’re healthy. And even the Jets goal is a big one but not something I’ll let define me. I’m not going to jump off a cliff if I don’t end up buying them.

Nancy: A lot of web workers spend a lot of time on the road, just like you do. What’s the number one piece of travel advice that you’ve picked up in your time on the road?

Vaynerchuk: That’s a great question. I do a lot of interviews, so when I get a new question, they’re good. The number one piece of advice? I think there’s only two things you should do as a businessperson in this web world when you’re flying. Two: Sleep or do email…no in between. Hardcore get in the trenches with your audience and answer their questions, or get the rest you need to execute it. Don’t watch a movie. And I understand you need time to unwind, people need that. But that stuff needs to be cut out a little bit. That part, where you’re watching Seinfeld reruns on your flight. That’s those two hours that really are the difference in building a big business. Now if you’re happy, and content, then watch Seinfeld.

Are you really working towards your goals? What are you giving up?

Mike McDerment is the co-founder and CEO of Freshbooks. I caught up with him at the recent LessConf event in Jacksonville, Fla, to chat about Freshbooks’ focus, whether you can trust web apps with your data, and working with family members.

Do you work with family members? How does it work out for you?

Speaking at Izeafest, influential blogger Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss) of Successful Blog said that she considers authenticity her “extreme strategy,” both online and off. Strauss, who is a social media and web strategist based in Chicago and CEO and founder of SOBCon, thinks authenticity is key to being successful online. So, how can you improve your authenticity?

“Be there, be behind the screen,” says Strauss, meaning that you need to be present, you need to be engaged yourself, and you need to care. “Who you are is who you are, all the way down to the cells of your body.”

According to Strauss, some ways to enhance your authenticity — beyond simply being yourself — include:

1. Pay attention. “Be the consummate observer. Be the listener.”

2. Be positive. “Be as positive on the back channel intercom of the Internet as you are on the front channel intercom.” Strauss emphasized that even “private” communications can be quickly made public so, in a way, there really isn’t a back channel online.

3. Use “Thank you.” “If you can’t get to thank someone, you walk around the room until you can,” said Strauss. Even if someone says something terrible, just say “Thank you” and let those two words hang in the room. People will get your point between the lines.

4. Own your passion. Still trying to identify your passion? “What are you always, always talking about? That’s your passion,” said Strauss. “Look where your friends come to you for help. The problems you are solving is what is most dear to you.”

5. Solve problems. Said Strauss, “If you end up solving problems for people, you end up solving it yourself. If you solve a problem for yourself first, be generous about solving that problem for others, too.”

6. Make connections. Strauss explained how much she loves connecting ideas, connecting people. By caring so much about connecting to other people, she has built a real community with conversation via her blog, not just a repository for comments.

7. Start a conversation. Strauss gave a few tips on how to build community on your blog: “Don’t blog too thoroughly. Leave some white space for people to comment…When people comment on your blog, don’t just reinforce what they said. Ask them a question back.”

8. Play for keeps. Strauss asked, “Why play a game if you’re not going to play for keeps?” adding, “Don’t ’sorta blog’ for anything because no one will know you. You’ve got to own it.” Hearing this, I felt it was a key tenet of authenticity: to realize the commitment it takes to be yourself, be real and to be committed to your community.

How are you owning — and reinforcing — your authenticity?

Today sees the release of MindJet Catalyst, the latest edition of MindJet’s mind mapping software. A few days ago, I had the chance to talk to MindJet’s CEO, Scott Raskin, about the new release, his perspective on mind mapping software and where the company is headed.

Imran: It’s almost a year since we covered MindManager, what can you tell us about the newly released Mindjet Catalyst — what’s new and what’s the migration path for existing users?

Raskin: Mindjet Catalyst is the most exciting announcement that we’ve made as a company, combining powerful applications for online document sharing, web conferencing and project management with our award-winning application for visual collaboration. Mindjet Catalyst takes the concept of a team brainstorming on a whiteboard and brings it into the digital realm, meshing the best of creative, in-person meetings with online collaboration capabilities, ultimately enhancing creativity, innovation and problem-solving.  All current Mindjet Connect customers will be upgraded to the Mindjet Catalyst platform at no extra cost.

Imran: Are there any mind mapping theories, methodologies or best-practices upon which Mindjet bases its products?

Raskin: We believe that in today’s business world, several factors are making it imperative that organizations of all sizes re-evaluate how they encourage and manage collaboration. Innovation and creative problem-solving are key to every enterprise, large or small, and we believe innovation depends on unleashing the collective creativity and ingenuity of employees, partners and business ecosystems. Gary Hamel noted that companies intent on generating sustained wealth must create a dynamic, open internal market for ideas within an organization.

Our products are based on a strong belief in the power of visually linking and layering information to build relationships between knowledge and insights from every member of a team (be they images, lists, notes, data, charts or documents) and by locating — virtually — every piece of pertinent information for any given project, all in one place.

Imran: What can you tell us about the broader marketplace, where it’s headed and why we’re seeing product after product entering this space?

Raskin: Well, it’s interesting when you mention the “broader marketplace.” If you can say anything about collaboration right now, it’s certainly a “broad” sector. People are lumping everything into “collaboration” these days — whether it’s web conferencing, virtual workspaces, wikis, enterprise social networking, microblogging, you name it. If it facilitates communication among groups, people are calling it collaboration. This is where we differ with most people. My argument is that these tools are not collaboration tools — they’re really just communication tools on steroids. I can meet with people in a web conference, or post items to a wiki, but we’re really just continuing to push information back and forth and not engaging in activities that lead to true innovation.

People are overloaded with information and companies must innovate. That’s why companies are rushing in to try to meet this need. But unless people have a platform that enables them to dialogue and brainstorm with others in a visual manner, create strategic and actionable plans and then execute on them, they’re not going to address the innovation problem. We think we offer significant value that no one else who makes a “collaboration” product today offers.

Imran: Is mind mapping as critical as a word processor or spreadsheet? Should iWork, Google Apps, OpenOffice or Microsoft Office integrate mind mapping?

Raskin: Absolutely. A customer of ours who is a former VP at WebEx says that he tells all of his teams that Mindjet is the “only tool that is never optional.” Will the word processor or spreadsheet ever go away? Certainly not — they fulfill specific needs for specific purposes. But imagine having a central, visually-oriented dashboard that enables you and all of the teams you work with to collaborate in real time, manage multiple documents and spreadsheets related to any project, and track your progress from start to finish to success. If you’re in sales, imagine a tool that creates instant trust with your potential customers by mapping out for them in real-time that you understand their critical needs and can visualize for them a path to meeting those needs. Some have called what we do the “indispensable fifth productivity app” after documents, spreadsheets, presentations and email. Adding mapping to your current suite of tools makes those tools work exponentially more productively for you.

Imran: What’s next for the company after the move to Catalyst?

Scott: We have a lot coming out in the next few months and even over the next year that we’re very excited about:

• Our currently available Mindjet for iPhone app, and also the upcoming release of MindManager 8 for Mac on October 20th.
• For Mindjet Catalyst, we’re on schedule to go out with a new release every 45 days.
• Our readiness for several of the exciting new capabilities that will be coming for MindManager in Windows 7, including touchscreen compatibility.
• We’ll have more news about purpose-built solutions that integrate with existing infrastructures.
• We’re working on enhancements for working with maps in social media outlets.

MindJet has kindly offered WebWorkerDaily readers a year’s free subscription (worth around $1,500) to the first 25 people who contact the company at gigaom@mindjet.com.

How do you see mind mapping tools evolving in the future?

Aaron Brazell, aka @technosailor and founder and lead editor of Technosailor.com, when he spoke at Izeafest 2009, shared his thoughts on what makes someone an “influencer.” The difference between being a celebrity and an influencer, he said, is that, “Being a celebrity gets you attention now; being an influencer gets you attention over the long term.”

A few of the characteristics of an influencer, according to Brazell, are:

1. Quality. Says Brazell, “It’s not numbers. It isn’t the number of followers you have. You can be the best marketer in the world but nobody cares if you don’t have quality.”

I agree with Brazell’s statements about quality over quantity, but if you’re working with clients or trying to convince a decision-maker  — such as your boss — about social media, they still expect numbers. I may argue with my business partner every time she is looking to find the numbers to show our clients that “it is not about the numbers,” but I know I have to understand that when the person holding the purse strings demands those numbers, we’re just between a rock and a hard place.

But for those who are chasing the big numbers like thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers at the expense of quality content and engagement, they are in for a very rude awakening as the marketing and advertising landscape continues to change. It isn’t how many eyeballs you get in front of, but how engaged the people behind those eyeballs are with you that matters.

2. Transparency. “With an influencer you know what they are thinking, what they are going to do, why they are doing it — because they’re transparent. You do what you say, you say what you do. Transparency builds trust,” says Brazell.

I couldn’t agree more. Whether you’re a blogger or other kind of content producer — even if you’re just commenting in someone’s else’s forum — be transparent about who you are, what you do and why you do it. People appreciate that honesty. And they resent it when you hide your identity or intentions; trust is broken. Don’t go there.

Brazell also mentioned two other qualities of influencers: they have charisma and are inspiring. He says that there is a motivational aspect to what influencers do. “Know how to talk to people. When you motivate people, you start building people up, and you give somebody something that is worthwhile.”

What do you think makes someone an “influencer?“

I love my iPhone and am practically obsessed with downloading new apps every week. I gravitate toward communications and publishing applications, but if it helps me be more productive, access my work tools remotely, or connect to news and information, chances are I have it on my phone.

As a big fan of iPhone apps and a reviewer of applications of all kinds, I’m constantly trying to come up with a “big idea” that will be a runaway App Store sensation — and bring in some passive revenue on the side — and so have been pondering the question “What does it take to make an iPhone app?”

To answer this, I interviewed Jeremiah Dunham, a programmer at Design-PT, Inc., an Anchorage-based technology solutions company, which recently came out with the latest version of its iPhone app Here Say. The premise of Here Say is that you can be in a location, take notes digitally through the Here Say app and post them. These notes can be viewed by others who are close by. Your notes could be a quick restaurant review, a mention of road conditions, a particularly scenic view, whatever you’d like to remember next time you are in an area or that you’d like to share with anyone else using the same application when they pass through the same area.

The early impetus for creating Here Say came from the way Design-PT’s principal, Orion Matthews, carried a notepad around everywhere taking notes about anything and everything. In speaking with Dunham, the idea for a digital version of this analog location-based note-taking seemed like the start of a promising application.

Version Evolution

Like any software product, Here Say has gone through several iterations so far. v1.0 users had the basic ability to post geo-coded notes; browse notes posted nearby up to 500 miles away (there is a slider where you can adjust your perimeter); and choose private or public posting. v2.0 added the ability to post photos; comment on other people’s posts; view everything posted in the world; see a compass heading, and the ability to report abuse. Dunham also moved the “My Notes/All Notes” filter from the settings page to a button on the main view.

As with any development process, feedback from users can initiate changes although the developer stands firm that Here Say will never become another community building app. With v2.0.1, the radius of nearby notes was increased to 2,500 miles away; the ability to ban abusive users was added; and due to user feedback, Dunham moved the My Notes/All Notes filter back to the settings page — the button on the main view caused too much confusion.

iPhone App Development Challenges

Dunham says learning Objective-C and the Cocoa framework was challenging, since he had never developed a Mac or iPhone application before.

“The example apps are great, and Apple’s documentation is very good, but there were a few subtle aspects of developing Here Say that could only be discovered empirically,” Dunham explains. “One good example of this is the trade-off between speed and accuracy when accessing the GPS in the iPhone.”

In order to provide the maximum accuracy with acceptable speed for Here Say, Dunham had to come up with an algorithm that allows the user to see something relevant quickly, but then refine what they are seeing as more accurate GPS coordinates came in.

The limited resources of the iPhone were also tricky. “As developers, we always try to write applications that perform well, but the iPhone raises the performance requirement pretty substantially. When compared to a standard laptop or desktop machine, it has a limited amount of computing resources on it and the usage pattern is totally different,” says Dunham, adding, “Apple’s philosophy on this is that you maximize the usage of the iPhone’s limited resources and hence the user experience by only allowing one app to run at a time. That is a blessing and a curse to developers. It’s a blessing because you don’t have to worry about another app hogging all of the resources behind the scenes, ruining the user experience. It’s a curse because you have to do a lot of caching and other performance optimization tricks, since you have the user starting and stopping your app all the time.”

Business Reasons Behind Developing iPhone Apps

There were a couple of reasons for Design-PT to develop an iPhone app.

• To get experience with iPhone app development. Says Dunham, “I believe that mobile application development will continue to be a growth area for many years to come and the demand for skilled mobile application developers will increase substantially. As someone who writes applications for a living, getting this experience is an exercise in survival as much as it is fun or cool. I experimented with developing for Windows Mobile and BlackBerry, but the iPhone is miles ahead of those platforms, so that’s why I got serious about writing an iPhone app as opposed to something else.”
• Business diversification. Dunham says that as an IT services firm, all of the company’s revenue comes from contracting,
  consulting and IT support services. “It’s only natural that we would want to use the software development capability that we already have to create a product that offers a revenue stream that is entirely uncorrelated from our other lines of business.”

Reaching “Critical Mass”

Some reviews of Here Say note that the user base for the app is still small and to work well, there needs to be a higher adoption rate. However, according to Dunham, it really depends on how and why you are using Here Say. The most common use for the app today is informal polls and discussions, like a traditional web forum or message board. The current user base — a few hundred users per day — seems to be using Here Say effectively in this manner.

In terms of the application’s potential for news and reviews, Here Say could achieve a critical mass in individual markets — cities or regions — with only a few hundred or a thousand users in that market. Dunham says the ultimate goal is to create a global community so that you could pick up Here Say and get the buzz on every major city or landmark in the world. “That would require maybe a thousand users in every major city or region — probably a few million users in total.”

The Pay Off

Because Here Say is free, I asked Dunham where he sees revenues coming in. Dunham speaks of an “augmented reality” with the possibility of leasing every acre of land in the world as an advertising space.

“Let’s say that you wanted to advertise to people in Times Square. That would probably be prohibitively expensive in the physical world,” says Dunham. “In the augmented world of Here Say, anyone who wants to lease that space can put their message at the top of the app. This is, of course, predicated on the idea that the app is getting a lot of eyeballs in Times Square and that advertisers really want location-based advertising. The critical mass for this is, like most things for Here Say, location specific. A bunch of users in a small area would make that area valuable to advertisers.”

Besides dollars, Here Say has helped to establish the firm as a player in the mobile application space in Alaska. The company has also received inquiries from existing and potential clients because of it, and gained PR opportunities related to the app.

“It has also been a great morale booster for our organization,” Dunham admits. “Most people in our office have iPhones. and there was a lot of excitement about the fact that we were going put our own stamp on it. This was one small way for us to reassert our focus on innovation.”

Have you developed an iPhone app? What has it done for you and your company?

We don’t often give much thought to our bios, even though they’re actually important and a big part of everything we do online. They’re on the “About” pages on our web sites, in our profiles at social networks, and in pitches that we send out.

Often, we fill out the fields provided by social networking sites like we’re filling out some random form that we don’t intend for anyone else to see, not giving it very much thought. It isn’t until we see how the information is displayed on our profiles that we even take notice.

“About” pages are often even worse. (I know. I build web sites every day, and I see how clients struggle with what to put on them.) They are frequently forced, flat and not at all engaging.

Think about it. Have you ever gone to an in-person networking event or even a class where the participants were asked to introduce themselves? Every person stands up and works his or her way through an uncomfortable 30 seconds in the spotlight. “Hi, my name is Bob. I’m a coach with Lifeline Consulting. I’ve been in business for nine years. I specialize in helping business professionals, and if you’d like to know more about me or my company, please check out my web site. Blah, blah, blah.”

Every once in a while, though, you’ll hear someone give a very compelling introduction that makes everyone in the room laugh or smile and perk up with enthusiasm and interest. Maybe the person says something about climbing Mount Everest or working alongside his potbelly pig, Mr. Bojangles. Whatever it is, it’s attention-grabbing and memorable, and chances are, he’s the only person you’ll remember from the event. In fact, you’ll probably never forget him.

The Internet is just one big series of personal introductions, except this time, we aren’t dreading it, because we aren’t even thinking about it. Every time someone visits your profile, sees your photo (or lack thereof) within a network, or visits your web site, you’re making an impression (or not), so it’s important to make sure that you’re telling a story that grabs the attention of your ideal client and target audience.

I recently spent time with publicity expert Nancy Juetten of Main Street Media Savvy, and we had several discussions about personal bios and the importance of a compelling story. Nancy had just completed a book on the topic, and I was very interested in learning how it might help my clients with their bios. At the end of our time together, I realized that my own profiles and “About” pages needed some attention.

She gave a few helpful tips. Most importantly, you have to be authentic. She also shared her four cornerstones of an exceptional bio, which include:

1. Stunning results. You have to be able to show how you help people. What have you done for your clients? Do you have several testimonials from satisfied customers to demonstrate your abilities and unique skill set?
2. Succinct stories. Why did you get into your line of work? Is this something you imagined doing when you were a child? Is it something you’ve always had a knack for? Do you have specific stories of how you ended up where you are?
3. Sassy soundbites. Nancy shared a story of Kim Duke, sales trainer and founder of SalesDivas.com, whose personal soundbite is that she believes “cold calling is best left in the freezer,” which is a much more interesting way of saying that she doesn’t believe in the tactic. What soundbites could you share about you, your beliefs, or your business?
4. Social information to help ideal clients connect. Do you love adventure? Are you an artist in your off time? Do you love horses? What about you might be attractive to others and help your ideal clients connect with you?

A big take-away from my time with Nancy was that we shouldn’t just “play it safe and only share facts about our credentials, clients lists and work experience.” Instead, we should “share our passions, our personalities and our unique perspectives that set us apart and make us memorable.” This is what makes people connect with us, and at the end of the day, our businesses come down to the relationships we establish with our customers and clients.

How do you set yourself apart by sharing a unique and memorable story? Have you seen an increase in the number or quality of clients coming your way as a result of being more personal and compelling?

Image from Flickr by Swift Benjamin

Personal branding, whether you like the term or not, is something every web worker should consider. Don’t look at it as marketing or packaging yourself, but more as being true to yourself. Micheal Port’s book, “Book Yourself Solid” makes that distinction very well, while the Food Network demonstrates exactly how to make it work for you and your business.

Michael Port’s concept of personal branding starts with his belief that, “When you work with clients you love, you’ll truly enjoy the work you’re doing; you’ll love every minute of it. And when you love every minute of the work you do, you’ll do your best work, which is essential to [booking] yourself solid. Second, because you are your clients; they are an expression and an extension of you.”

The cornerstone of his philosophy is that “the greatest strategy for personal and business development on the planet is bold self-expression,” and many successful personal brands have used this very strategy to rise to the top.

The Food Network is filled with great examples of personal branding success stories using the “bold self-expression” strategy, and while the brands are very unique, they all attract their individual audiences by being exactly one thing — themselves.

Take three of the popular Food Network personal brands: Rachel Ray, Paula Deen and Emeril Lagasse. They each have individual flare and have used that individuality to create tremendous personal success.

It doesn’t matter if you like their individual personalities. In fact, the people who dislike them are probably as relevant to their branding efforts as their loyal fans. They boldly demonstrate who they are, like it or not, and that’s exactly what makes them successful.

As Michael Port says in his book, “In order to create a respected personal brand, you must be fully self-expressed. You can’t hide behind the shingle that you’ve hung over your door and you can’t water yourself down in any way, shape, or form.” That’s an important quality of the personalities at the Food Network; none of them are watered down. They’re bold, they’re in your face, and they’re successful.

But how do you mimic their efforts and create your own successful personal brand? That’s the easy part. Figure out who you are and who you aspire to be. Then figure out the conditions that must be met in order to always be representing that brand. Only work with clients who meet those conditions and are best suited to work with you. Never water yourself down. Never live outside of integrity. Be true to yourself — always. It’s the surest way to guarantee that you only work with ideal clients, meaning better service, better results, greater client satisfaction, and in the long run, a truly successful business.

How do you make sure that you only work with the most ideal clients for you? What methods do you use for interviewing and screening clients before taking on their work or projects?

Images from the respective web sites of Michael Port, Paula Deen, Rachel Ray, and Emeril Lagasse.

A friend of mine told me today that he just can’t work from home. He simply cannot do it. This guy enjoys his work, he likes his team, he’s great at what he does, and he feels a sense of responsibility to his employer. It made me wonder: What makes him incapable of working from home, when others have no problem at all? What is it that we remote workers have, that others don’t?

1. Discipline

You knew this was going to be first up, and it’s probably the single biggest factor in remote working success. Discipline isn’t just about staying focused when it’s a nice day outside and no one really knows what you’re doing. It’s also about keeping reasonable and appropriate working hours, and keeping commitments outside of work as well as within. Generally, I think of discipline as the thing that lets you hold up your end of the deal you made with your employer, as well as the one you made with yourself.

I tend to think of my time as being fairly compartmentalized: When it’s work time, I do work, and that’s pretty much all I do and think about. And though I do sometimes think about work outside designated hours, I never actually look at work-related stuff in my downtime. It’s a sort of knack I’ve developed. Being able to become absorbed by work can be very handy for the remote worker — so long as you can snap out of it at knock-off time.

2. Passion

You have to care about something to work remotely. You probably need to be passionate about what you do, or the temptation to slack off my soon prove too great. But if you don’t harbor a wild enthusiasm for your job, you’ll have to have a vivid appreciation of what remote working gives you: perhaps it’s more time in your day to do other things, perhaps it’s simply a life without partitions.

I’m fortunate in that I have both a passion for what I do, and for the things working remotely affords me. It’s not all roses, and there are things I miss about working in an office, but overall, I love doing what I do, and doing it remotely.

3. Drive

Motivation really is crucial for remote workers, but especially so for those who aren’t on a salary. We all know how hard it can be to get out of bed on Monday morning; it’s even harder when bed is five meters from work. And you need serious, world-class drive to get up and going.

I get around the big motivation issues by making them non-negotiable. I always start my workday at the same time — that way, I don’t have to make decisions about whether or not to spend another half hour watching TV before I begin work, or how much time to take for lunch. If I have decisions to make, it’s all too tempting to take the “easy” option rather than just sitting down and getting on with it.

4. Support

Perhaps you have a great boss and some cool colleagues who make it very easy to work remotely. Maybe you have a sterling family, who respect your work time and space and give you lots of latitude. Possibly you have a geeky neighbor who helped you set up your network and now acts as your tech support in return for occasional lawn mowing.

The point is, remote working is impossible without support at some point in the process. When I sat down and thought about it, I realized that I had all these supports — and more — helping me to make the most of the remote working experience. And I thank them for that on a regular basis!

What are the characteristics that make you a successful remote worker? Which do you think is most important?

The trouble with not working a 9-to-5 office job is that often you work more, sometimes much more, than your cube-dwelling counterparts. The risk you run with an always-connected, always-working lifestyle, of course, is of getting burned out. And once that happens, not only will you end up exhausted, but both your work and your personal life will suffer.

A List Apart recently published a great article by Scott Boms, “Burnout,” that examines the stress, exhaustion and illness often associated with web work. Burnout is not just stress, he notes, but is caused by an “imbalance in an individual’s personal goals, ideals, and needs as related to their job.” So how can you regain that balance? Boms outlines several steps you can take, including:

Stop (or at least slow down). When you realize you’re suffering with burnout, it’s important to start taking steps to reduce the amount of work you’re doing. Cut down on the hours that you’re working, use sick days, or take a vacation.

Set boundaries and expectations. When you’re no longer working a regular 9-to-5 schedule you need to set boundaries between your work and home lives (see my previous post “Mark the End of the Day and Finish on Time“). It’s also important to manage your clients’ expectations. As Boms notes, when you start answering client email at 10pm, it sets a precedent that is then hard to undo.

Create a daily routine. Most people have a time of day when they work most effectively. Organize your day around these times (see our previous post “Change Your Work Hours to Get More Done” for tips on how to do this).

Make time for numero uno. Sometimes it’s hard to justify making time for yourself when there are so many demands on your day from bosses or clients, but everyone needs some “me time.” Spend time with family, goof off, visit a gallery, play a game — whatever makes you happy.

Change your situation. Changing careers might be in the cards, but there are also plenty of steps you can take to improve your current one. Shake up your routine (try working from somewhere else, perhaps), offload responsibilities, or learn a new skill.

Rely on a good process. If your current process isn’t working as well as it should, try another one. GTD works for me.

There’s plenty more detail, tips and information in Boms’ article. It’s also worth checking out the discussion thread on A List Apart, too.

Are you feeling burned out? What steps are you taking to make sure you don’t get burned out?

I first met Linda Broughton — head of NTI Leeds, part of Leeds Met University — in May 2007, at a meeting on the use of open-source software in the public sector where I planted the seed of an idea to develop a coworking community in Leeds in Northern England.

Within a few months, Linda had launched the “met:space” coworking community at Old Broadcasting House, which has now become the hub for most of the city’s web and new media community (also see my previous interview with OBH resident, James Ward).

I spoke with Linda about the development of OBH and her thoughts on coworking.

Imran: Tell us a little about the background of OBH. What were the motivations for coworking in Leeds?

Linda: It started out as an idea space for our graduates to move on to. We recognized that many of the students’ final year projects had the potential to become commercial businesses, so we wanted to develop a space that could support them in the early days.

I think our views on supporting the graduates have changed as we now recognize that our role is to create a climate where ideas flourish. That means the space needs to attract more experienced freelancers and businesses as well as graduates. I don’t think it would work if everyone was at the same level.

Imran: Do you see much collaboration between residents?

Linda: Yes, definitely. FriiSpray, from Jam Jar Productions, is a collaboration between three members who met here at OBH. Also the Cardboard Laptop Stand is a product developed by two of our members. We are also seeing quite a number of examples of where work is sourced between members. So we see our web designers working with our programmers, and our filmmakers working with our social networking experts. Startups, in particular, need access to good freelancers to help them grow. A coworking community helps to build trust between members which makes collaboration more likely.

Imran: What were your greatest challenges and surprises in bootstrapping Old Broadcasting House – and the largest operational challenges.

Linda: We were fairly empty at first. It took time to persuade people that coworking might work for them. But what’s great is that now people love it! I am constantly surprised by how much our members really love the space. Also it was a revelation to me just how vibrant the Leeds scene is, with so many groups meeting  regularly.

The largest operational challenge is long-term sustainability. We want to keep the rates at a level which does not deter people, while still covering our costs. This is likely to mean attracting more members, and we need to manage this without detracting from the experience for members. Overall, the space just about manages itself. Personally, I really don’t like rules and regulations so everything works on a trust basis. That seems to work just fine for everyone.

Imran: What’re your plans for the future?

Linda: I’d like to grow the community, with more physical space.  I’d also like to see a pipeline of startups from the University and the city using the coworking at OBH as  a stepping stone for growth.

Imran: What’re the key pieces of advice you’d give to people thinking about coworking and people thinking about establishing a coworking space.

Linda: To potential coworkers I’d say think of it as  joining a community. Be prepared to give something to that community. Make some time to get to know other members.

If you’re thinking of establishing a space, don’t expect everyone to join at once. You need some patience to get things going. Go out and find the groups of people who are your potential members and encourage them to try out coworking (offer introductory rates or trial memberships). You need some “fans” to get the community started; they will act as your champions. I would also say be quite flexible, if you can be, on the offer.

The relationship between OBH and the local university is unique, enabling a large institution to access grassroots entrepreneurs and innovators. Coworking can help achieve social goals. We’d love to hear your comments on other community-building offshoots from coworking.