PCG is the association that represents, supports and promotes freelancers, contractors and consultants in the UK and we recently spoke to them about how collaboration between freelancers can be a benefit for both the individuals working together and businesses hiring them.  The article focuses on the project which launched the agency – BracketLab – bringing 6 freelancers together to collaborate over 2 days to produce a website, promotional images and copy, illustrations, an animation and a documentary film.

Tim Oldham, Editor at Freelancing Matters explains:

“Alison Coward saw the potential for collaborative working while studying for an MA in 2005. A few years on, with wider spread connectivity using social media platforms, and the development of new online project management tools such as Huddle, she recognised that the pieces were in place to launch an agency that uses collaboration to meet client needs.”

The article then describes the collaborative process that we used in BracketLab to make the most of everyone’s skills and expertise.

Read the full article here (pdf).  We’ll also be running a collaboration clinic in association with PCG on 11th May at THECUBE.  Watch this space for more details.

P.S. Freelancers should check out the excellent range of resources available on PCG, including template contracts and tailored advice.

Co-operatives are businesses that are run for and by its members, with the profits shared amongst themselves rather than external shareholders.  The members of the co-operative are its owners and have an equal say in what the business does. So as a co-operative is run by people, for people, there is an overwhelming theme of fairness, shared responsibility and community, with collaboration at the core.

Co-operatives UK have produced a guide specifically for the creative sector, which outlines the steps to take in setting up a co-operative. Here a few of the basics that we picked up from the publication and the event:

• There are various types of co-operatives depending on how a group intends to operate. The types that tend to suit and be used most often in the creative industries are the Worker Cooperative (where those that work for the co-operative own and control it) and the Co-operative Consortia (where separate businesses/sole traders/freelancers work together through joint activities, e.g. sharing studio, buying materials).  There are also other types of co-operatives for different purposes such as those that have their customers primarily as members (think The People’s Supermarket), or are formed from a geographical community/those with common interests.

• There are seven principles that all co-operatives, across the globe, work to.  These ensure that they remain flexible; within the power of their members; and that co-operatives work to support other co-operatives and their communities.

• A co-operative is not a legal structure so you still need to choose one to operate under – either an Industrial and Provident Society, Limited Company, a Limited Liability Partnership or a Community Interest Company.  There are various organisations that can provide free advice to get you set up, such as the Co-operative Enterprise Hub.

• And don’t be mistaken that because of its ethical principles, a co-operative won’t be a viable business.  In fact a business plan is essential, as is ensuring financial feasibility and good market research before you get started.  A good example is Pentagram (whose partner Harry Pearce spoke at the event), the successful global design company set up by five multi-disciplinary creatives in 1972 to work collaboratively.  Pentagram now has 17 partners in 5 cities and works by co-operative principles, sharing risk and reward and operating in an open and transparent manner. There’s more info on Pentagram’s structure in their Wikipedia entry

Co-operatives seem a good match for the creative sector – enabling individuals and small businesses to work together in a networked and supported structure whilst retaining their creative identity.  And even though the movement has been around for years, somehow a choice to work in this way feels innovative and perfectly suited to current times.  The principles of social media work well with the concept – encouraging conversation, transparency and a lack of hierarchy. As stated in The UK co-operative economy: a review of co-operative enterprise 2010:

“Effective co-operation has never been more crucial to success.  Technology is making communication ubiquitous and economical decision-making processes built around collaboration one of the most useful skills of the 21st century”

The Creative Co-operatives event in London had excellent attendance (with more than 100 on the waiting list, and similar events are being held around the country), so it’s clear that there is a great interest in finding mutually supportive ways of working and developing effective methods of collaboration. It’s definitely worth watching the Creative Co-operatives space for more to come…

*Thanks to Nathan Brown from Olmec for the inspiration on the title!

RewireHigh5_SocialMediaAndCollaboration

Slide notes

1. Social Media and Collaboration

2.This presentation was prepared with the ‘juggling entrepreneur’ in mind – the entrepreneur that is juggling different projects and ventures.   Lots of creatives tend to be running their businesses in this way, and it’s being fuelled and supported by online culture.

3. This entrepreneur has their own business and brand, which is the core of what they do, but they also develop ‘micro-ventures’ with others.  This is DIFFERENT to being hired as a freelancer on multiple projects.  These are ventures that are built from scratch, collaboratively with others, and have their own branding and identity.  So social media has a lot to do with this way of working, as it’s making it easier for entrepreneurs to manage these portfolios that they have with their multiple collaborators.  It’s a range of things that they can package up and take around with them.

4. And it’s not about collaboration OR individuality, social media OR face-to-face communication.  To work effectively in this way you need a healthy mix of all four.

5. So to break down the first of those so-called dichotomies.  Individuality is not mutually exclusive from collaboration.  Collaboration starts with the individual.  To be a good collaborator, you’ve got to individually bring something unique to the team, and you need to have built up a good track record.

6. Social media can be used to express your individuality, and enhance the unique skills and expertise that you have.  You can use Twitter and blogging to highlight your areas of interest and make yourself ‘findable’.

7. And this all contributes to your online profile and what ‘the web’ says about you.  Do you know what is out there and what people will see if they search for you?  There is a great book called Me And My Web Shadow by Antony Mayfield, which looks at how you maintain a healthy online presence.

8. Then following closely behind this comes your connections and networks.  At a talk on Collaborative Consumption at NESTA, someone said “if people don’t know you, they judge you by the associations you keep”.  So does your online profile show who are you connected to?

9.  LinkedIn is the best tool for showing your professional networks, and it has that handy feature where you can see your degree of separation between other people.  And they’ve recently experimented with visualising these  networks with LinkedIn Map.  A beautiful way of showing links and broad areas of overlap between contacts.

10.  However, although it looks nice, it’s not very practical, so we probably do need a useful way of visually mapping our networks.  This work is by someone called Ele Carpenter, who works in the crossover between digital and embroidery.  She had a project where participants were asked to ‘embroider’ their connections.  And that act of being engaged in mapping your networks and seeing how you linked to others was insightful.

11.  But regardless of who a new online contact is connected to, you’re unlikely to jump straight into a collaboration with them after that first connection.  Trust needs to be built up, and how do you do that online.  Some sites, such as eBay have mechanisms brought in to enable transactions to take place quickly, but not all do.

12.  So this is where we start to think about face-to-face communication.  It can’t all be done online, or can it?  You might want to meet people in person, but if you’ve made a new contact in another country, you might use something like Skype to try and replicate that.

13.  So now assuming that you’re collaborating…how do you keep the ideas flowing and conversation moving?  Remember these are our micro-ventures, so we might have different things in the mix, be collaborating with different people at the same time.

14.  We’re all probably familiar with images like this – the freelancer in the cafe on their laptop using wifi.  But even though she’s sitting alone, she could be flowing in and out of different conversations to do with her different mini-ventures at the same time.  That’s the great thing about social media.

15.  One thing I do hope is that she’s not managing all of her projects in e-mail.  The worst tool ever for collaboration.  At a recent event, Luis Suarez of IBM was quoted as saying “e-mail is where knowledge goes to die”.  Because there are a lot of great tools out there that are designed specifically for this way of working.

16. But you can do amazing things with some of these tools.  This project was submitted as part of a Google Demo Slam, getting people to show interesting ways that they used Google Tools.  This is an animation created in Google Docs.  Pretty amazing.

17. And it’s clear that if all you’re doing is collaborating online, then you won’t get those impromptu moments and sparks that come from working alongside each other.  So again, you might need to think of when and if it’s possible to get together.  But you can work out ways in which you can work simultaneously to try and simulate that when the situation is right – e.g. using Google Docs and skype together.

18.  And also think about whether some activities can be replicated online.  Like brainstorming.  There are tools out there which support it, but it needs a bit of work and discipline.  The tools don’t work without the people.  The thing is, once you’ve mastered it the benefits are huge, and it can open you up to the new ways of working that I’ve been describing

19. So what should be in your online collaboration toolkit?  Well you have the tools, but that’s only the start.  You need a willingness to collaborate and share, communicate with others. Other things such as how you choose your collaborators, and an ability to turn ideas into action.  Not things that an online tool can bring you but things you can learn and develop.

The aim of Bracket is to help creative micro-businesses (such as artists, illustrators, designers, photographers) take advantage of and utilise the collaborative possibilities provided by social media – specifically around finding opportunities and collaborators, getting projects up and running, and through to completion/delivery, and demonstrating how sharing and working together can enable individual creative businesses to grow and develop.  There are also bigger social issues to address – such as sustainability – where creativity plays an important part, and more impact could be achieved if individuals harness their collective knowledge and skills to begin to develop solutions.

Whatever the final outcome might be, Bracket wants to help identify and challenge the barriers, and facilitate new ways of working for creative micro-businesses.  Therefore this website will bring inspiration, examples, case studies, advice, news and upcoming events from the wider sector for creative practitioners hoping to work collaboratively using the web.

2008 was a busy year for Bracket – researching, networking, making contacts and asking questions (and this will continue into 2009 and beyond!) so we thought we’d start by sharing some of the stuff that we’ve already discovered.

We also want to use this space to start a conversation and build a community too, so please feel free to comment where you can.

Bracket aims to ensure that creative practitioners are making the most of collaborative technologies.  More to be revealed soon!