Station C

Thanks for all your feedback on the draft. Here’s the updated version of our Community Manifesto.

Station C is a work space that fosters collaboration, community, and serendipity. We are a hub for creators and innovators: entrepreneurs, freelancers, geeks, designers, writers, artists, social activists.

Station C is part of an international coworking movement, which brings together the best elements of the office, cafe, salon, business incubator, and city street. We share a common vision and values:

• Community — We are a community that thrives on connections and mutual support. Everyone participates, contributes, and benefits. Station C members take the initiative to care for our collective space, welcome visitors, orient new members, start conversations, and host events. We’re a modern agora, providing a public space for community gatherings and encouraging folks to drop in and work with us for the day.


• Collaboration — We work together, intentionally as part of project teams or in an ad-hoc way when someone needs a hand. We help each other out by sharing ideas, learning, solutions, and resources.


• Openness — We believe that it is beneficial to share and build on each others’ ideas and knowledge. We encourage this in a concrete way by working at shared tables in an open space. But we also understand boundaries — open is not always appropriate and we take care to respect each other’s privacy and the need for client confidentiality.


• Diversity — We want people with different ideas, perspectives, and ways of working. People from different backgrounds. People at different stages in their life and career. Diversity means occasional challenges, misunderstandings, and arguments — but it is key to sparking creativity and avoiding groupthink.


• Sustainability — Financially, Station C was designed to sustain itself and the community of people it gathers around these ideas, not to make a profit. Each of us is responsible for finding our own work. Environmentally, we aim to find ways to lower our impact and promote sustainable practices.

This manifesto was developed by Station C members and influenced by Citizen Space’s philosophy and ground rulez, Alex Hillman and Geoff DiMasi at Philadelphia’s Independents Hall, and Tonya Surman at Toronto’s Centre for Social Innovation (see their Theory of Change). We also benefited from everyone who shares on the Coworking Group. It is available for you to re-mix and re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license.

Bonne nouvelle, un des nos membres, Martin Dufort et sa compagnie WhereCloud ont lancé l’application Twitter pour iPhone Reportage qui est maintenant disponible sur le iTunes App Store. Félicitations à Martin, à son associé et co-développeur Fred Brunel, à la designer Marie-Claude Doyon, à Étienne Després pour le site… et à moi pour un coup de main sur les concepts de fonctionnement. (ben oui, j’me félicite moi-même)

Je mentionne le projet ici non seulement parce qu’un de nos membres et deux “drop ins” réguliers ont produit l’application mais aussi parce que Martin a utilisé Station C comme dans nos idées lors de la fondation. Il travaillais de Station C, y collaborait avec Fred, y a tenu plusieurs meetings de production, de design et d’idéation et a aussi profiter de l’esprit collaboratif et de la proximité des autres membres pour faire quelques sessions de questions et brainstorm avec ceux qui voulaient donner un coup de main. Nous espérons que cette façon de faire se reproduira souvent pour un paquet de projets lancés par et avec nos membres.

(Profitez-en pour aller aussi faire un tour chez Identi.ca, un autre beau projet qui a pris naissance et continue à se développer chez Station C)

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Good news, one of our members, Martin Dufort and his company WhereCloud just launched a Twitter app for the iPhone, Reportage which is now available on the iTunes App Store. Congrats to Martin, to his business partner and co-developer Fred Brunel, to the designer Marie-Claude Doyon, to Étienne Després for the site… and to myself for a hand in the functional concepts. (yes, I’m congratulating myself :-p)

I mention the project not only because one of our members and a couple of regular dropins created the application but because Martin used Station C has we planned when we founded the place. He worked from Station C, collaborated there with Fred, held a number of production, design and ideation meetings and also took advantage of the collaborative spirit and proximity of other members to hold a few questions and brainstorming sessions with those who wanted to pitch in. We hope more members will also use this way of doing things and launch a bunch of new projects.

(At the same time, drop in at Identi.ca, another great project which was born at Station C and continues to be developed at Station C)

Comme plusieurs d’entre-vous le savent probablement, les deux fondateurs de Station C sont présentement hors du pays, nous avons donc pris un peu de retard sur certains détails. Un de ces retard est que je voulais mentionner la conférence Webcom de Mai qui a lieu… la semaine passée. En effet, plusieurs membres et amis proches de Station C y présentaient et je trouvais que cela valait une mention.

• Evan Prodromou, membre depuis la première heure
• Louis-Jacques Darveau, aussi membre dès le début
• Sylvain Carle, conseiller dès les premiers balbutiements du projet et organisateurs de plusieurs de nos événements
• Caroline Allard d’Exvisu, nos voisins de pallier, collaborateurs et co-organisateurs de partys

Félicitations à tous.

[Désolé si cette entrée est en anglais, je n’ai pas eu le temps de traduire et je veux pouvoir partager ce que j’y dit avec les autres coworkings faisant parti de notre communauté donc la première version est en anglais.]

Well we’ve done it, Station C has been open for one year. Quite a ride so far! We adjusted our plans a couple of times, had a few good discussions along the way but it’s been fun and we’re going for another year, at least. Here are some of the things we have been doing in this first year.

• Co-hosted a coworking session at SXSW 2008


• Held a developers saturday with Yahoo and Nurun


• Spoke at Pecha Kucha 4 (nailed it ;) )


• Hosted a talk by Aaron Straup Cope from Flickr


• Creacamp Mai 2008 was in our space


• NetSquared Montréal got its start here and is going strong after a few months


• Montréal NewTech got its start here before moving on


• We held one of each of MobileDevMeetup, TwitYul, Montréal Girl Geek Dinner, Démocratie et technologie, iPhoneDevCamp, Startup Ottawa / Dex.


• Four or five 5@7 and networking events


• A kickass opening party and a even kicker asser Christmas party


• Urler.tv, VisibleGovernment.ca and the Fair Copyright For Canada’s Montréal chapter all held their founding or first meetings at the Station


• Identi.ca, the excellent Open Source microblogging platform was started and is currently being run from Station C


• Montréal Startup, BookOven, Exvisu, Wright Technology Solutions, Perennia and I’m sure a few more have been part of the mix and done some of their startuping mojo in our meeting rooms.


• Members are currently developing new business models, iPhone apps, web apps, Facebook apps, writing a book and worked on movie scripts


• We were featured in the media a number of times. The Gazette, La Presse, En Route, 2-3 Radio-Canada radio stations, interviewed for two documentaries (not yet released/aired), an episode of Ça s’branche où? was taped in our lounge corner

So I might have missed a couple of things but I think that’s our first year. Thanks to all our members and to everyone who dropped by for events, to visit and to work a few hours.

Daniel Mireault, one of Station C’s co-founders along with Patrick Tanguay, is traveling in South-East Asia from January through April. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. This is certainly the “free” side of freelance and coworking — work from where you want (if you can handle spotty Internet) and relax knowing that there’s someone (read: Patrick and other Station C members) at home holding down the fort.

It’s weird not having Dan around. But good thing is that he’s started making videos. This one, made for the latest Urler.tv, gives us a feel for Thailand’s beautiful markets. Enjoy.

Nous célébrons notre 1er anniversaire le 4 février, c’est une réussite assez importante pour un espace de coworking et nous sommes très heureux de comment les choses se déroulent. Il y a toutefois un détail qui nous travail; trop de mecs! Plus sérieusement, nous sommes bien contents de la gang de gars que nous avons ici à Station C et nous avons quelques femmes géniales comme “Résidentes” et “drop ins” mais le ratio n’est pas fameux.

Nous allons donc nous faire un cadeau: du 4 février au 24 Mars (Ada Lovelace Day) les femmes bénéficieront d’une rabais de 100$ à la signature d’un abonnement de six mois de type “Lite” ou “Résident”. Nous tiendrons aussi une journée portes ouvertes le 24 février, tout le monde est invité à venir faire un tour et essayer l’espace, Christine et Aleece organiserons un lunch Open Salad et Station C payera le dessert.

Nous espérons vous voir le 24 et pouvoir trouver plus de fantastiques femmes coworkers.

Patrick et Dan

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We will be celebrating our one year anniversary February 4th, it’s a pretty big accomplishment for a coworking space and we are very pleased with how things are going. Except for this one thing that’s been nagging at us; too many dudes! More seriously, we are very happy about the bunch of guys we have at Station C and we have a few awesome women as Residents and drop ins but we don’t like the ratio, doesn’t feel right.

So we are giving ourselves a present: From February 4th through March 24th (Ada Lovelace Day) we are giving a $100 rebate to all women who sign up for a 6 months Lite or Resident membership. We will also have a special open doors day on February 24th, everyone is free to drop in to try out the space, Christine and Aleece will hold one of our Open Salad lunches and Station C will spring for desert.

We hope to see you on the 24th and are looking forward to signing up more awesome women coworkers!

Patrick and Dan

In February 2009, Station C will be one year old. We’re growing and evolving. So it’s time to better articulate who we are, the role we play in the Mile End and Montreal, and what we want to achieve.

We’ve started gathering the nitty gritty about how we operate into one document to make it easier for folks to pitch in. Knowing how the projector and espresso machine works is important stuff. And we’ve drafted a Community Manifesto. It’s meant to lay the groundwork: explain our vision, tell others what to expect, guide our decision-making, help people decide if they want to join or run screaming in the other direction.

Here it is:

Station C is a space that fosters community, collaboration, innovation. People come here to work and connect. We are a hub for creators and innovators: entrepreneurs, geeks, artists, social activists.

Station C is part of an international coworking movement, which brings together the best elements of the office, cafe, and salon. This movement is built on a set of common values:

• Community — We are a community that thrives on connections and mutual support. Everyone participates, contributes, and benefits. Station C members take the initiative to care for our collective space, welcome visitors, orient new members, start conversations, and host events. We also reach out and contribute to our local community.


• Collaboration — We work together, intentionally as part of project teams or in an ad-hoc way when  someone needs a hand. We help each other out by sharing ideas, learning, solutions, resources.


• Openness — It is beneficial to share and build on each others’ ideas and knowledge. We encourage this in a concrete way by working at shared tables in an open space. We’re a modern agora, providing a public space for informal community gatherings and encouraging folks to drop in and work with us for the day.


• Diversity — We want people with different ideas, perspectives, and ways of working. People from different backgrounds. People at different stages in their life and career. Diversity means occasional misunderstandings, annoyance, and arguments — all of which are a small price to pay for sparking creativity and avoiding groupthink.


• Sustainability — Financially, Station C was designed to sustain itself and the community, not to make a profit. Each of us is responsible for finding our own work. Environmentally, like everyone, we are still learning and finding ways to lower our impact and promote sustainable products and behaviors. We need to do more and welcome help with this.

On the diversity piece. I’d like to get an “Innovation Desk” program started. Local companies or government agencies could sponsor a space at one of our tables so that someone who could not normally afford to work with us can benefit from being here. We’d have a special spot on our website to recognize this and the person would blog about their experiences and learning. I’m still developing the idea and welcome your feedback.

Finally, I’d like to acknowledge that parts of this text were built on Citizen Space’s philosophy and ground rulez. I’ve also been influenced by Alex Hillman at Philadelphia’s Independents Hall and Tonya Surman at Toronto’s Centre for Social Innovation — see their Theory of Change. And (of course!) this content is yours under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License.

So, what do you think? Please leave us your comments below so we can post the final version.

Grosse semaine à Station C avec trois événements :

Mardi on a NetSquared Montréal: Conseil pour le Forum social
québécois.

Jeudi une visite de coworkers d’Ottawa qui font une tournée des
coworking du nord-est de l’amérique pour présenter un nouveau projet
et rencontrer des coworkers. (remarquez la bio des deux gars sous
“event details”, ça devrait être intéressant)

Vendredi le premier iPhoneDevCampMontreal

Les heures sont aussi sur le calendrier des événements Station C.

Nous sommes de nouveau dans la presse, cette fois-ci dans le cahier Carrières et emplois.

Louis Cléroux, un des membres Résident de Station C a organisé une petite soirée réseautage, voici un vidéo résumant bien l’événement.