Month: November 2012

ShareDesk, a company that usually charges to connect people with available office space, placed people all over the city for free. Their site was getting flooded with startups looking for a place to work but most offices on their site were already at capacity. Rather than sit idle, they began manually making calls to anyone they could think of, even companies who weren’t members. Slowly they began finding available places, but rather than post them on their own site, they posted them on Noel’s SandyCoworkingMap. As CEO Kia Rahmani said, “It’s not about profit, it’s about helping other people out, and pooling resources is the fastest way to do that.”

How Hurricane Sandy Reminded Me Why I Love the Tech Industry | Patrick Ambron

Bicycles are part of all this. In the early days after the storm, when the trains and buses stopped running, bikes were one of the few reliable ways of moving people, objects, and information around streets choked with debris. They don’t require the gasoline that people are still lining up for hours to get. They don’t need to be charged up – just add some basic food to a human being, and you can power the legs that turn the cranks.

The Power of Bicycles in Disaster Recovery – Neighborhoods – The Atlantic Cities

One of the most amazing things is seeing the community saying ‘I have an open door. Please come in. We understand that you’ve been affected by this. We understand that your business may not survive a week or two weeks without power, without internet. So come back, get back to work, reconnect with your community, recharge and be prosperous again,’

Tech Community Helps Sandy Victims By Offering Expertise – NY1.com

A man of color is president for the second time, and this happened despite a struggling economic climate and a national spirit of general discontent. He has been returned to office over the specific objections of the mass of white men. He has instead been re-elected by women, by people of color, by homosexuals, by people of varying religions or no religion whatsoever. Behold the New Jerusalem. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a white man, of course. There’s nothing wrong with being anything. That’s the point.

David Simon | Barack Obama And The Death Of Normal

Perhaps the most visible manifestation of the post-hurricane outpouring of good feeling has been Sandy Coworking, an effort to make desks and Wifi available for anyone who need a place to be productive. Almost as soon as the clouds parted, anyone with a working office was offering to host the displaced. Staffers from Buzzfeed took up residence in Heart’s cafeteria. Kickstarter moved in with Boxee. Venture capitalist Charlie O’Donnell suggested the hashtag #sandycoworking for those seeking and offering space; as the offers began flying fast and furious on Twitter, Mr. Hidalgo hacked out a platform for anyone to list what they had.

An Inside Look at How New York’s Masters of Disruptions Stepped Up to Help with Hurricane Relief | Betabeat

The Yard: Brooklyn Coworking: Dear Members and Friends,I write on behalf of everyone at The Yard to…

The Yard: Brooklyn Coworking: Dear Members and Friends,I write on behalf of everyone at The Yard to…

theyardblog:

Here at The Yard, we have been working very hard to keep our doors open and our Interent up both for our members and those who have been displaced by the storm.  While Verizon is still underwater, we have installed a proxy wifi server and propped up local and visiting businesses alike.  A group with the Sid Lee agency from Montreal is set up here now and The Union Beer Distributors have moved into our Library room after their offices were flooded.  We’ve also offered complimentary coworking space to displaced locals through Greenpointers.com.  And we’re not the only ones!  Check out #SandyCoworking on Twitter or the SandyCoworking Map.