"The move to co-working is a move from a culture of me to a culture of we"...

...says Rachel Botsman, author of "What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption."

An example of collaboration at Libraries@Cambridge 2011.
Photo: Annie Johnson

In my last post, I was looking at how increased awareness and use of social media and electronic resources is a vital aspect of collaborative working in academia today. But I was heartened to find, later the same day, an article which flagged up how, no matter how tech-savvy you are, sometimes you just need the personal touch.

There are an increasing number of motivated, interested and interesting people who make their livelihoods online and independently via Twitter, blogs and other resources such as Teuxdeux.com, and in fact it is the founders of this latter site who felt that their lonely working style was beginning to hamper the very thing at the core of their business: creativity. The solution? 26 unconnected, unrelated people hiring a shared office space and continuing their independent projects; surrounded by like-minded people in the physical world just as they are in the virtual world.

I recommend reading the article itself for a bit more detail and some very interesting comments from the people involved, but this struck a chord with me personally on a number of levels. As a languages student I always valued a really encouraging and stimulating atmosphere within my classes, as there's very little point in learning a language if you can't find anyone to converse with. I also engaged in many more group projects in my final undergraduate year than in previous years: although we were all working towards a shared goal, I feel that I personally got a lot more out of my studies that year in terms of theory and interpretation as well as sheer pleasure in learning. This year too, I know I would not have benefited from my Cambridge experience half as much without my excellent colleagues (who encouraged inquiry, new ways of thinking and my own personal development) or my fellow trainees (LibrariesAtCambridge 2011, anyone?)

I recognise that being able to connect quickly and efficiently with people at a distance is important, as is the capacity that the internet has for allowing you to make connections that you may never have dreamt of and which may not have been possible through any other medium. However, we must never lose sight of the fact that we were designed for face-to-face communication, that, as human beings, we are meant to communicate on levels which go deeper than the words we produce. This is reflected not only in a white office space in Brooklyn, but in new libraries and research spaces across the academic spectrum, which are increasingly incorporating group spaces and a variety of working environments within their walls.

John Donne noted in 1624 that "No man is an island" and finally, in 2011, we're once more realising that a screen is a facilitator of, but not a substitute for, face to face interaction with our peers.

And in the news today...
--The British Government announce plans to fine dangerous drivers with
on-the-spot penalties.
--Ticket prices for the London Paralympic Games are announced (they're much
cheaper than the Olympic ones, a bargain price for a good show!)
--Discussions over Syria's entry onto the UN Human Rights Council continue
despite persistent violence in the region.

P.S. I'll be getting some real face-to-face feedback in just over a week, when I'll be talking at the Classics Faculty Graduate Interdisciplinary Seminar about "New theories in Psycholinguistics and their application to the study of classical Linguistics". Or something along those lines. Wish me luck!