Digital United (http://digitalunited.co.uk), as part of its ethical working principles will be running small-scale events here at Chapel Studios and elsewhere (for example, with our friends over at the Werks who actually have dedicated event space - we have workspace, meeting area, kitchen and chill-out area but no event space). Simple knowledge-share affairs for the community from members of our expert team, who you can find out about here: http://digitalunited.co.uk/people.html

We will also be delivering dedicated corporate seminars and are developing a range of training programmes.

Stay tuned and follow me on twitter - @ralff as that's a good way to get notified in realtime.

All the Best from the Digital United crew

As of last Tuesday the Digital United website went live 

We haven't had the promised celebratory party (which seemed so called for when we were originally rushing to put the site together in time for Xmas), but instead we'll have a proper, rather more justified celebration when the brace of projects won and commenced recently all go live.

The launch of the DU site also makes this blog quite redundant, since Chapel Studios is home to DU and our growing network of self-employed genii. 

With a sprinkling of sentimentality, we'll keep this site live as it charts the origin of Digital United, the Web Cooperative, from quite a cool idea to a rather more tangible cool company and collection of lovely people.

The Web Co-operative is a network of self-employed digital talents. We share office space  and also ideas and contacts. You'll find us at Chapel Studios, tucked away between Western Road and the Seafront, and at the moment we're recruiting.

●      Why the Web Co-operative beats staying home

It means never having to watch Jeremy Kyle. It means not having to explain why you're home to the postman. It could even mean eating less toast. Taking a desk with us you'll avoid certain distractions and you could even free up some space. 

●      Why the Web Co-operative beats sitting in your favourite cafe

There may be plenty of choice at your local Megabucks Coffee Emporium, but at Chapel Studios hot drinks are 100% free of charge. We've great coffee and it's on tap 24/7. The financial savings on your caffeine habit could soon add up.

●      Why the Web Co-operative beats going to the beach*

We can't offer pebbles, but we can offer networking opportunities. Our business is run on co-operative lines, giving you access to a whole roomful of web specialists who you may come to know and love. And, of course, we have Wi-Fi too.

So why not book your place in a unique collaborative working space? Get in touch and find out more. Email hello@chapelstudiosbrighton.com  

Click here to find out more about co-operative working.

Antony, of Alchemy Leadership, based here in the studio, is looking for a Junior Web Developer to assist with online marketing of their new e-commerce site. Please reply via the job ad on Wired Sussex: http://www.wiredsussex.com/WorkProject/project.asp?Item=100 or the contact form to the right -->

On the way to the dentist this morning, spotted a couple of gems in Oxfam: 

- The urgency of now. A small book about the madness of inequality and poverty: how they're wrecking people's lives and why sorting them out will make things better for us all.

«We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable...Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilisations are written the pathetic words: Too late.» Martin Luther King Jr

- A Cognitive-Behavioural Approach to Clients' Problems by Dr Mike Scott

Although primarily intended for practitioners in social work, clinical psychology and community psychiatry, I believe CBT approaches have generalist applications too, such as disorders of self-regulation (why don't I feel motivated today? Exchanging new habits for old, emotional intelligence etc.) which very much fall into the domain of management and leadership theory and practice. 

We're fortunate to have a great chap in the office that is the 'real deal' (5 years Royal Marines Officer, 7 years with McKinsey & Company) for helping us all become first-rate leaders, as we must do to build the web cooperative, fulfill our potential and go home satisfied at the end of each day. The in-house team, here in the studio initially, will lead from the front and manage a large agile resource in line with clear principles.

Re-posting this excellent talk from Web 2.0 Expo NY:- Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library) on passion being at the heart of everything we do and the need to continuously hustle, 'Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape' picked up and commented on by @joshr on his blog

With what we're doing here in the studio and by focusing on mobilising our external networks to a common purpose, we have patience, passion and belief in spades, which helps get us through depressingly cold and windy days like today. It also helps that we have a commitment to a clear set of Ethical Principles as well as having the honour of being the very first «Web Cooperative« and part of the extremely powerful international cooperative movement in general.

As per posts below, I've set aside 8 coworking workspaces at discounted rate for experienced Digital folk to come on in and grow the worker cooperative from the ground up, albeit with very handy funding for business development and internal R&D for promising product / service ideas. 

Ian Ozsvald's quite rightly picked me up on the fact that I haven't been specific on just what kind of Digital folk I'm envisaging being these core 8 (which is in addition to the 3 of us already working on this in the studio). The thing I know for sure is that these 8 will be experienced practitioners who will make up the co-op's first management team. For creatives, we have a creative director on-board, capable of leading a diverse creative team. Likewise, developers will be seasoned professionals capable of defining technical strategy and leading teams in-line with structured, agile processes. We are certainly looking for another business developer to work alongside me in bringing new clients on-board / develop client relationships in a consultative manner.  

I've purposefully avoided being proscriptive on likely roles so as to avoid being just another agency doing the same thing, on the same project treadmill as in the other agencies I've worked in and for over the last few years.

If this were the case, then the model would be a creative digital agency targeting the entertainment & gaming sectors, pushing the limits of Flash creatively and technically, producing Flash microsites, advertising and games, but also able to take on complex web builds and so requiring additional designers / developers (across the most popular coding architectures) who are able to take projects through from requirements gathering, creative concepts, etc., adopting a structured process through design, build, testing to launch and maintenance, including integrated marketing activity.

That would be my kicking-off point, although I've most recently enjoyed consulting on the commercial applications / building business cases and coming up with creative pre-production ideas for Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) activity for a major Games Publisher's forthcoming flagship title launch...

Scope of the Agency / Consultancy:

So what I'm getting at here is that I'd hate to limit the scope of the cooperative agency / consultancy (and I say this deliberately as the 8 people we're looking for will be capable of creative, technical, marketing and commercial consultancy, in addition to ensuring that first class production values are upheld) to simply being a scalable production house with a core in-house team and agile freelance network utilised on an ad-hoc basis. Certainly top-notch production & advisory skills in house are an essential element giving a service offering consisting of but not limited to: 

• Digital branding (Strategy, Creative consultancy, planning, brand guidelines)
• Rich Online advertising (Strategy & plannng, Rich media advertising, campaign sites, viral marketing)
• Email marketing (Strategy & planning, campaign management, tracking & analytics, deisng & build)
• Websites, microsites & applications (strategy and planning, site & total online activity audits, user experience design, information architecture, usability & accessibility, design & build, content management, e-commerce applications)
• Web 2.0 (web 2.0 planning, technology, user-generated sites, online community strategy, blogs, online reputation management, wikis, ARGing...)
• Mobile (strategy & planning, management, mobile site creation, mobile asset generation) 

This is where we're currently coming from and this is no doubt heavily influenced by the fact that the 3 of us currently making up the in-house co-operative are an ex-Digital Agency Creative Director, Senior Designer and Account Director / Producer.

This is both +ve and -ve :- on the plus side we're good at developing client relationships and delighting clients by over-delivering excellent work. On the negative, we're perhaps a bit insular in our outlook, but by being aware of this can compensate and correct, to ensure that, in addition to working as close partners to clients' Marketing Departments, we're also thought-leaders to whom clients turn to for more general expert advice, recommendations on the commercial implications of the latest internet technologies and their implementation...

Basically we'd encourage anyone with 'traditional' Digital agency skillsets and a proven track-record of delivery to get in touch. Likewise if you're a specialist in a discipline that leading clients and Brands should have their attention drawn to, we'd love to hear from you. If you're sitting on the next killer app., but it's lying dormant owing to a lack of investment / resource, get in touch.

I've added a page to supplement the announcement in my last post, which is a primer on worker co-operatives and our rationale for starting a Digital Consultancy / Agency as a worker cooperative.

There's 3 of us in-house working on this and we're looking for 8 ambitious, entrepreuneurial freelancers to join us who want to expand their horizons and work on larger projects than is possible as an independent and basically have all the benefits of co-operative-based corporate life whilst retaining autonomy, including democratic ownership of the corporate entity...

Have a read and, as ever, if you're interested in joining, contact me on 01273 779384 or email: ralf (at) chapelstudiosbrighton.com

A light and airy, open-plan shared studio with strong creative credentials set in a quiet mews on the Brighton and Hove border, 200 metres from the seafront.

WORKSPACE WITH A PURPOSE, RUN BY FREELANCERS FOR FREELANCERS

We started as a simple, Ronseal-like Desk Space operation in late 2006, albeit with a clear commitment to providing affordable workspace to independent professionals and small teams working in the Creative Industries, particularly Digital. We dd this in response to the fact that over half of the City's economically-active population leave the City each day to earn their living (Brighton & Hove City Council), an astonishing 'brain-drain.'

An intermediate stage in the development of Chapel Studios was a natural progression to coworking. Freelancers with complementary skills, most obviously designers and developers, began working together on projects. This resulted in a great atmosphere thriving on the coworking ethos:

It's a simple philosophy - start with a shared space and add cafe culture, taking the best elements of a coffee shop (social, energetic, creative) & combining them with the best elements of a workspace (productive, functional).

ABOUT THE SPACE

What others have to say:

“Ralf offers a great space for co-working. The environment is friendly, well looked after and in one of the best locations in Brighton. I've had several collaborative projects with others whilst working in Chapel Studios.” Nick Tong, Founder, Talk Web Solutions

"Chapel Mews was not only a very friendly environment to work but a great location to be in Brighton. It was perfect for me as a freelance Graphic Designer. The space provided all the facilities I needed to work comfortably and was a good networking opportunity." Jim Hine, Jim Hine Design

“A fantastic atmosphere and great set up. Having spent years working at home by myself it was fantastic to discover there was life out there...” Duncan Graham-Rowe, Science and Technology Journalist, often published in New Scientist

A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY - NEW DIGITAL CONSULTANCY OWNED & OPERATED BY ITS FREELANCE MEMBERS

A natural extension to the coworking philosophy, which brings us closer to our goal of creating a great community that is financially self-sustaining for the long-term, is our recent creation of a Digital Consultancy owned and operated as a worker cooperative - a cooperative owned and democratically controlled by its member workers. Only the workers own shares of the business.

Are you an experienced Digital freelancer looking for a unique challenge and the ability to partake in ownership of a financially-backed Digital Consultancy with strong growth potential?

Chapel Studios is seeking experienced Digital practitioners across all digital disciplines (broadly Creative, Development, Strategy) to build a collaboratively owned and operated leading-edge consultancy.

We have made available 8 discounted desks at the studio for individuals interested in being the founder co-operators for this new venture.

Co-operators retain their independence and self-employed status and can take on as much responsibility within the co-operative as they wish.

Those taking up discounted cooperative desk space in the studio will be expected to commit to the establishment, growth and management of the cooperative and members will form the first management team. Other freelancers are welcome to join our out-of-house network.

Benefits of joining the in-house cooperative:

When you decide to sign up on one of our flexible licences you’ll be issued your own set of keys and alarm fob giving you unrestricted 24/7 secure access.

Come and be a part of this informal yet professional and highly productive environment today.

James of Futurlab has transcribed his excellent talk from the Creative Catapult evening over on his blog.