According to the “Consumer Internet Barometer” 0,0% of men say they use Twitter for fun. Right. They probably also use their PS3 to do their homework.  http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007193

At the beginning of 2008, smack in the middle of America’s largest recession in over a gazillion years, two young entrepreneurs decided to create a new kind of work environment for the local Miami creative community. Being the digital natives they are, they didn’t just guess what people needed, they polled.

Alison Wadsworth, one of the two founders, created and sent out questionnaires to the members of refresh miami, the leading local tech network. Asking for opinions and suggestions on everything from location, equipment, even to  pricing.

The result: Brikolodge. Miami’s first collaborative workspace. It openend in March 2008 the trendy Wynwood district, and has sinced moved to Miami’s newborn Midtown, after what Eduardo Henriques, the co-founder running the business side of Brikolodge, called a “crazy year”. A year which saw the loft space occupied at time to full capacity, at time half empty – but much more importantly so: by just about every imaginable creative profession from essayist to flash developer.

Which is exactly what Brikolodge sees as it’s raison d’etre. Creating a place where a bricolage of knowledge and skill is always ready to bring about something new.

Still, when I sat down with Fabian Socarras, a web designer and permanent resident of Brikolodge, he was open about the fact that, despite the economic success, Brikolodge is still far from what they would want it to be: ”Miami still does not have the collaborative energy that I saw in other places, especially San Francisco.” The reason for this?  The tech community is not very aware of itself, and much less so than it’s famous cousin in California; Fabian supposes.

VCs and business angels are simply not hounding Miami’s streets for the next tech sensation. “So when someone comes up you and says: ´You guys should do this – and you’ll make billions.´ people here in Miami can’t help but smile.” Because chances are slimmer, people are more careful. Which to Fabian is only natural:  “You always need a certain harmony” between protecting what’s yours and sharing with others.

He just thinks that Miami can do more: “When I went to RefreshMiami for the first time, I almost freaked out. Where did all these people come from!?” A 2007 study of the  Chamber of Commerce of Greater Miami acknowledges that the region’s focus on Tourism and Real Estate is not exactly attracting hordes of creative people. But the amount of jobs in the creative industries is still substandtial. The open question remains: How will the creative/tech community in Miami achieve a new level of self-awareness? And what role does Brikolodge want to play in it?
On the one hand, they offer a very simple, and rather inexpensive way to have access to a professional office. Which has many benefits, increased productivity not being the least of them (thousands of unkempt pyjama wearing homeoffice workers will quietly nod here). On the other hand, Brikolodge could border on an incubator. “Can we attract certain skills in order to add value to this place? We are thinking about that.” says Socarras.
I asked whether the focus on tech is not excluding other important elements of the creative class as Robert Florida describes it. How about collabroration in advertising, design, or music? Is Brikolodge a place for them, too? Absolutely, says the Webdesiger. As a matter of fact, he and Eduardo are running Micstura, a small but rather successful interactive advertising agency. More than they intially thought, Brikolodge has also become a way for people to deal with unemployment, which hit the local advertising industry hard.
Brikolodge has seen people come together to hunt for new business, often quite successfully, because they combine not only available skills, but also personal connections. However, while they also stage jellies at Brikolodge, the founders are no big fans of  “Rolodex socializing”. They are most happy when they see something substantial happening: “when people make each other grow.”
Looking at all the construction around their office in Midtown, where Miami is trying hard to create an urban space that brings people together – it seems they couldn’t have found a better spot.

Great article via RT @talikrakowsky: Smart cities will speak the language of things. Advertisers need to speak it too: http://bit.ly/6c2dAj #
there is something on the posterous tab now. but it should really be on the wall. hmm? http://bit.ly/8ASjc4 #
Meine Vorhersage: Auf Regen folgt Sonnenschein! http://bit.ly/7dCcKi #
"Millionaire attracted by Garbage Patch." Ideaswilltravel.com looks at how eco story is packaged for new media world: http://bit.ly/614ujP #
Hey #Staticbook-Friends. Buckle up, as Facebook might just go & change everything again. I heart new search and inbox: http://bit.ly/918vn0 #
Black Friday also happened on the web. #datavisualization of how much people shopped on ebay: http://www.ebayholiday.com/black-friday #

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Wahnsinn! Part manga insanity part cool board game. The Adidas Microsite for the new German National Team Jerseys.Production value from outer space – or the northern end of Sweden. Agency: North Kingdom. Go check it out. http://bit.ly/8gbxEk Posted via email from Mario’s posterous

Hi there, readers of  ideaswilltravel.com. Most likely you are not reading IWT to make this world a better place. But we’ve all been a part of something big this year ;-) This summer IWT wrote about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, how it was dicovered in 1997, and how knowledge of its existence has only lately travelled into the public realm – via YouTube. Many more people on the web did similar things. And here we are!

As of November 17th 2009, The Garbage Patch has become a cover story in USA Today. It doesn’t get more mainstream than this. (Nov 17th US issue, Life Section). However, since the actual story of the Garbage Patch is a rather a long-winded one, it won’t give good headline for mainstream media. What do you need instead? A celebrity. Or semi-celebritiy. Or someone with a semi-celebrity name.

Enter David de Rothschild, “whose mission is to forever chance the way the world sees… plastic.” Sadly, it isn’t until the seventh paragraph that USA Today finally shifts attention from de Rothschild’s family, residence, air travel habits, height and wealth to the problem at hand: “the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a borderless swath of floating debris that sprawls across much of the Pacific.”

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Traditional Agencies vs. Digital Agencies: Digital to stop preaching and start thinking about clients: http://www.creativesocialblog.com/?p=2133 #
Today is #BlackFriday. What a great day to buy Nothing @ http://bit.ly/8BjStt – Via @BBHLabs #
Was passiert eigentlich mit Großstädten, wenn Augmented Reality funktioniert. Oder: "Jay-Z, der Terminator und Du" http://bit.ly/73FtAZ #
The era of User Generated Content has only just started. But it won't be videos. It won't be text. It will be shared behavior. #

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