CooBric Brainstorm Recap + Android + Coworking

Quick Recap

We had 16 people attend CooBric Brainstorm I, and judging from everyone’s reactions I’d say we all had a good time and some productive discussions.

We went over a handful of sites people were developing and delved into the models and designs. The group helped Matt Cooperrider, our host, clarify his direction for creating a place for employees of his company to communicate with each other and share information.

We also touched on some general topics in tech news– where microblogging is heading, advertising-based versus paid business models, and privacy with regard to mobile platforms, among others.

Android

That last item relates specifically to Android, which was a central topic of discussion. The platform provides a lot of new opportunities to create location- and socially- aware applications in new and exciting ways, but privacy issues abound.

It was clear from the level of discussion that Android merited a discussion of its own, so we’re starting to coordinate a meetup to discuss it. Help out by jumping in the thread to help coordinate.

We also talked extensively (after the meeting, at the always-excellent Swift) about Coworking in New York and the bigger picture- the NY Tech community as a whole, the Coworking community as a whole, and the roles of the various organizations involved.

CooBric and The NY Tech Community

CooperBricolage has been finding its identity since its inception, as has the entire New York tech community in many ways. There are far too many Google Groups and Meetups and Wikis to keep track of– it’s not clear to many people where to go to find a particular piece of information or discussion.

The roles each group and each service play should be more clearly defined. CooBric, for its part, will be focusing in the coming weeks on better defining its role in the community.

This means a few things– revisions and clarifications to the existing Google/Facebook groups, the wiki, the Meetup account, and most likely changing the organization’s name to something that better reflects all of this.

The overall point is that when roles are clearly defined, we can all benefit from public clarity and organizational focus. The more we can all do to organize ourselves to better serve the interests of the community, the better off we all will be.