Media tools, roles, and working

Too busy to do more than a few lines on each of these, but there’s a wealth of interesting content in my click-stream today!

• Microsoft’s Community Group Therapy blog had a piece on ‘Co-working‘ (found, as with so many good things, via Smart Mobs).
• This led to what was apparently the original story on the topic, in Business Week. The concept is to set up one of these rent-a-cubicle places for freelancers (an idea that’s been around for a long time), but with lounge areas and a coffee-bar. The aim is to replicate the ‘Starbucks’ atmosphere, where independent creatives tend to hang out rather than work alone at home, but with a more focused clientele that may be better for networking and stimulating creativity. This really seems like an idea that would work in Singapore: I’m pretty certain from my working experience over the last year that there would be a market. Business Week apparently identified it a trend to watch earlier this year.
• There’s a wiki dedicated to discussing co-working, and an Institute to promote it. Hmmm, I wonder how much capital it would take to get one going here…?
• Staying in Singapore, Cherian George reflects on the changing balance of power between the local mainstream media and blogosphere, and speculates on how the government may react.
• Indeed, how should mainstream journalists react? This article on Public Journalism Today gives some suggestions on introducing innovation to the newsroom.
• On the other side of the divide, NGO-in-a-box has a handy guide to using free, open-source software to produce multimedia content.
• I’ve also found this interesting blog: Innovation in College Media – likely to be a useful resource in my new job.
• And rounding up, back to where I began, at Microsoft’s Community Group Therapy blog. I’ve written a lot about the intergenerational culture gap, the Gen-X and Gen-Y approach to power distance and technology, and how this may impact management – particularly in Asia. This article is an extremely good example of the kinds of issues I’m thinking about.