Author Archives: robpatrob

From Viagra to Kombucha – the rise of the artisanal economy

Posted on February 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

The artisanal economy rises from the ashes of the old – I like this idea of a Culinary Incubator – Don’t you?

Three well-known tenants have already signed leases on production space.

Three well-known tenants have already signed leases on production space.Photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Good-bye, Viagra; hello, kombucha: The old Pfizer plant on Flushing Avenue will soon become a booming culinary production facility. In fact, Grub Street has learned that Kombucha Brooklyn, Brooklyn Soda Works, and Steve’s Ice Cream have already signed the leases and taken up shop.

The eight-story, 660,000-square-foot Williamsburg plant was originally eighty-sixed in 2008. Acumen Capital Partners — a real estate investment firm whose other projects includes the Brooklyn Grange — took the property over last year. The building’s unique (FDA-approved) facilities are ideal for food production. For example, KBBK will be able to brew tea and store live cultures for its kombucha at a specific, controlled range of temperatures.

The plan has at least one well-known supporter, Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz. His office e-mailed the following statement to us:

Losing Pfizer was a big blow to Brooklyn but I was determined to make sure that this building continued to provide high quality jobs to Brooklynites. I want to commend Acumen Partners for their commitment and creativity and for bringing in great companies like Kombucha Brooklyn, Brooklyn Soda Works and others. Like Pfizer, these companies are starting small, but one day they may be as big or even bigger than Pfizer and they will never turn their back on their place of birth, Brooklyn, U.S.A.

Between this and the just-announced 3rd Ward culinary incubator, Brooklyn’s powers-that-be are doing quite a bit to support the borough’s thriving food scene.

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Posted in Artisans, Change, Co Working, Employment, Food Systems, Maker Economy, Micro Entrepreneurs, Networks, Transformation

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To be an artisan is to be truly human

Posted on February 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

We are designed to be artisans not “workers”. To make things makes us truly human and happy – don’t believe me? Read this

We live in a society enamored by passive entertainment and increasingly invested in the virtual experience. Fewer of us have jobs that show us the tangible results of our efforts. Rarer still are full claim on a project or creative license in our work. It leaves a gap, I think, in how we live – in how we exercise the innate physical and creative abilities that make us human.

Although we tend to think of our pre-Neolithic ancestors as living a life stuck in the dirt with no sense of the arts or any other “refinement,” we’re far off course in that assumption. Artistry is indeed an anthropological indicator of modern behavior, but evidence of these inclinations date back tens of thousands of years before the Agricultural Revolution. Our Paleolithic ancestors were creating jewelry from eggshells and bone fragments. They were sewing clothes with animal sinew. They formed vessels and wove baskets. They created paints and dyes. They chiseled spear heads from metal so brittle few of us can even imagine the deftness required. They meticulously whittled shafts for the most aerodynamic, accurate spears. They designed vast stretches of nuanced cave art.

As anthropologists suggest, these inclinations toward craft and artistry were selected for. They increased the survival chances of individuals and their communities. A skilled spear maker added obvious value. Yet those who could design jewelry or other adornment introduced “material metaphors” and “social technologies” that enhanced kinship relationships and community identity as well as expanded the terms of inter-band negotiation.

Artistry then was usable if not practical. Today, Western society has largely segregated art to an aesthetic corner. It may represent life but doesn’t intersect much with it. However, individuals still practice crafts handed down to them by family or community members. Likewise, many traditional societies continue to pass down the art forms and crafts as “collective wisdom” that help define their distinctive cultures.

A recent study (PDF) conducted by the University of California Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities recently highlighted “the link between traditional artistic practices and mental and physical health.” Although examining such an association isn’t a simple or clear cut task with the methods of standard research, interviews suggested traditional handicraft bears positive impact on measures like “interconnected mind-body awareness,” “spiritual and emotional growth; physical vigor; strengthening of personal and community identity; and mitigation of historical trauma” as well as therapeutic “distraction from illness” and “enhanced respect for elders.”

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Artisanal Food Processing

Posted on February 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

On the day that Kelloggs buys Pringles for $2.7 billion - it nice to know that a new Artisanal Food Processing world is emerging.

Below is an excerpt from Adam Davidson’s latest New York Times Magazine column, “Don’t Mock the Artisanal-Pickle Makers“ Read all of Davidson’s Times Magazine columns here.

A couple of years ago, Chris Woehrle grew sick of corporate life and decided to become an artisanal food craftsman — any kind of artisanal food craftsman. “I spent a month making every item I could think of: kimchi, harissa, salsa, every kind of pickle imaginable, a bunch of different herb mustards,” says Woehrle, who worked for a music conglomerate. And every time, he quickly discovered, “there were eight companies already doing it well.”

This is because Woehrle lives in Brooklyn, ground zero of the artisanal-food universe, where competition is intense. Eventually, though, he and his partner stumbled upon a hole in the market: handcrafted, all-natural beef jerky. And so Kings County Jerky was born….

It’s tempting to look at craft businesses as simply a rejection of modern industrial capitalism. But the craft approach is actually something new — a happy refinement of the excesses of our industrial era…

As other countries move into mass production, the United States, even in the depths of economic doldrums, has a level of wealth that translates to fewer people willing to do dreary, assembly-line work at extremely low wages. More significant, we’re entering an era of hyperspecialization. Huge numbers of middle-class people are now able to make a living specializing in something they enjoy, including creating niche products for other middle-class people who have enough money to indulge in buying things like high-end beef jerky.

Read the full column here.

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The Maker Economy – Where we all make what we need at Home – Including Energy

Posted on February 10, 2012 | 1 Comment

The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek οἰκονομία (oikonomia, ”management of a household, administration”) from οἶκος(oikos, ”house”) + νόμος (nomos, ”custom” or “law”), hence “rules of the house(hold)”.

The “Maker Economy” tales us back to this perspective – not only will we make things that we need at home but also we will make our energy.

It’s only a matter of time when much of our demand for electricity will be met locally and even at home – an entirely different approach to the high capital and centralized system we think is normal now.

Sites like this can help us now.

 

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Posted in Change, energy, Maker Economy, Networks

A Vision for a “Maker Economy” on PEI

Posted on February 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

I am part of a new national network called StartUp Canada that will launch in March. The objective if to create a powerful supportive national network that will help shift us from a bureaucratic to an entrepreneural culture.

I am the PEI blogger for this. I was asked to do a video about why I am involved and how I see things on PEI. Here it is.

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Posted in Employment, Micro Entrepreneurs, Networks, Change, Freelancing, Artisans, Maker Economy

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3D Printing is here on PEI and Your Kid can learn about it from Tom

Posted on February 3, 2012 | 2 Comments

20 years ago I spent $2,000 on Tandy Computer for my son James. It was a lot of money then. It’s a lot now! But it was the best thing I ever did for him. Aged 11 then James dived in and mastered what was going on. His life was transformed.

Those who are “naturals” in the use of computers now are in a favoured place in our economy.

This process is repeating itself with 3D Printers. Here is Tom Haan and Mauren Kerr who are working in our schools now to help your kids. I hope that we can get behind them and this so that most kids on PEI can learn how to use this exciting technology – where we can make things the make way that we can design 2D today.

So here is Tom and Mo – see how excited the kids are!!!!

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Co Working is not just for Nerds but Crafts as well

Posted on February 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

My daughter in law is part of a new movement of self employed sewers – she makes children’s toys. This in turn is part of an even larger movement where people look to buy things and food that are “Real”. After all what are you saying when you give your new niece or grand daughter a plastic toy from China?

But making things on your own by yourself is not how we in the past have made things. For all of time, crafts people have made things in the company of  others. Co-Working is moving out of the Nerd World and Tech to the full range of artisanal work. Here is a story on Sewing _:

Coworking spaces can benefit just about any kind of work, allowing for increased productivity, inspiration, and a sense of community. Unsurprisingly, we are beginning to see more spaces that apply the principles of coworking to a number of different fields that reach beyond traditional office work.

Since September 2011, a former apartment in Neukölln’s trendy Reuterkiez has housed a co-sewing space – Nadelwald. This new space offers sewing equipment, patterns, workshops, and other facilities for designers and hobbyists alike to be inspired, create projects, and share their ideas and creations with others. We asked founder Swantje Wendt a few questions about her charming new space.

How did you come up with the concept of co-sewing – the idea of applying the principles of co-working to sewing?

I originally wanted to start a fashion label, specializing in scarves and accessories, and had been searching for a place where I could work on that. Since I couldn’t find a space where I could leave my patterns and materials, I simply created my own space, and began offering it to others.

What kinds of people normally use this space – professional designers, or simply hobbyists?

At the moment, the space is used mostly by people who sew as a hobby and who like to do their own alterations. Only one of our customers is a professional designer who comes here whenever she needs equipment she does not already own.

There seems to be a growing interest in sewing these days, particularly among younger people. Why do you think that is?

I think that, in the case of younger people, sewing and other forms of handiwork can be seen as an alternative to daily work, as many people these days spend most of their time at their computers. They enjoy being able to create something with their hands, something they can be proud of in the end.

You hold a lot of workshops. Do your workshops mainly focus on sewing, or do you branch out into other forms of visual art and handicrafts as well?

Our workshops focus on any skills related to fashion. We offer workshops on different sewing techniques, and even knitting, which is taught by a guest instructor, as knitting is not my area of expertise. I plan to offer a workshop on pattern-making, as that is my specialty.

More here

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Free Books = High Paid Sales – A Case Study

Posted on January 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

Some of us are looking very closely at the use of Kindle and self publishing – Here is a must read case study of how a book that had stopped selling became a best seller in a week.  100% not the old text book but maybe the new?

How Amazon’s KDP Select Saved My Book

Gather round, my fellow writers.

I have a tale to tell.As I write this blog post, The Jackpot is No. 68 on Amazon’s Paid Bestseller list.

CUE FLASHBACK SOUND FROM LOST

One week ago, my book was dead in the water. And I mean dead. After a promising start last summer, sales crashed, completely, totally and spectacularly, despite wonderful reviews (from people who didn’t even know me!). From December 1 through January 24, I sold 21 copies on Amazon. One on BN.com. And that was it. Barely enough to fund a lunch date for me and my wife. The previous couple months hadn’t been much better. To be honest, I was trying to forget the book even existed as I worked on my new manuscript, my internal doomsayer wondering how badly I’d effed my career with a self-publishing disaster.

Now, I’d first heard about Amazon’s KDP Select Program during the holidays. Here was the deal: In exchange for providing Amazon a 90-day exclusive, authors get their book(s) listed with the Lending Library, which allows Prime members to borrow books electronically. Second, authors would be able to run free promos — for each 90-day period I enroll in Select, I could make the book available for free for up to five days, divided however I liked.

At first, I wasn’t sure what to think about it, especially given the exclusivity requirement. Part of me was aghast — how dare they ask me to pull my book from the other retailers! And then something occurred to me. Between October 1 and December 31, I had sold a grand total of …. ONE book on all the non-Amazon platforms — that one sale on Barnes & Noble.
Now I had heard anecdotal evidence that running a free promo later translated into real sales. There seemed to be no real explanation for this, other than the fact that a ton of free downloads gave a book good exposure on Amazon. So with nothing left to lose, I decided to give it a shot.
I pulled the book down from all the other e-retailers (Number of People Who’ve Since Asked Me Why My Book Isn’t Available on the Other Retailers = 0), and in the wee hours of January 25, The Jackpot went free for a two-day run. At that moment, the book had logged nine sales in January. I woke up at 6 a.m. and was surprised to see that the book had already been downloaded nearly 100 times. I knew these were downloads and not sales, but still, it was exciting to see a number other than 1 or 2 under the monthly sales tab on my Amazon report.
The download rate increased steadily during the course of the morning, and by lunchtime, it was being downloaded more than 1,000 times per hour, occasionally pushing 2,000 per hour. And it was rapidly climbing the Free bestseller list. It got featured on a number of the big Kindle reader blogs that showcase free books each day (this was easily my luckiest break, especially since I didn’t know that people often submit their books to these sites in advance of their scheduled free dates). By Wednesday night, the book had hit the top 10, with about 14,000 downloads. Thursday proved to be nearly as successful, with another 11,000 downloads, and the book spent much of the day ranked No. 5.

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Have a Start Up? 6 reasons why co working will help you

Posted on January 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

More and more people do not endure the costs of their own space in a start up – here are 6 good reasons why you would do well to think of co-working.

In the very early days of your company, it might make sense to call your garage (or basement or kitchen table) headquarters. But at a certain point, it doesn’t suffice. There are only so many times you can bring clients to the same Starbucks for a meeting. And even the most passionate entrepreneur is bound to see productivity wane when spouses, kids, dogs, or all of the above inevitably hover near your workspace.

This is precisely why coworking spaces were invented—and why they’re increasingly popping up in more cities.

While coworking spaces aren’t new, what they offer to bootstrapped tech start-ups for the price keeps getting better. CoCo, for example, is a 16,000-square-foot, sunlit space that makes use of the architecturally-interesting and historic trading floor once used by the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. Membership starts around $50 a month.

Now instead of traders yelling bids and waving arms around, the place is serene—khaki or jeans-clad entrepreneurs working quietly at their laptops while Pandora plays softly in the background. There’s a concierge who makes sure coffee and pastries are well-stocked and will order you lunch and introduce new members to others.

And the people working there look weirdly content. Some are wearing headphones, which, I learned, is code for “I’m head-down at the moment.” Others are chatting quietly with a neighbor. No one has that glazed-over I’m-bored-to-death look you sometimes see in regular workplaces. If you’re starting to think you might need a change of scenery, consider the advantages of coworking:

The rest follows here

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How “Less is More” will beat “Bigger is Better”

Posted on January 30, 2012 | 1 Comment

15 years ago if you had a band, to be recorded meant that you had to buy time at a million dollar studio. 10 Years ago if you wanted to make a feature film, you needed millions.

Today any band can do a good job with a mac and Garage Band and you can shoot and edit a feature film on $10,000 of kit.

This transformation will apply to all sectors of the economy – we will not need the Big Studio, Big Factory or large amounts of capital and so need huge sales.

Less is more will beat Bigger is Better. Here Richard Gayle offers more information in support.

Two years ago, Joss Whedon produced Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog for about $200,000 and made over twice that back. It could be more today.

And as shown in this example, it is a nice business model. And it is a business model totally disruptive to the sorts of business models used by Hollywood, whose bloated budgets support an ecosystem which permits them to use arcane accounting schemes resulting in movies that never make a ‘profit.’

The same technologies that can produce this disruptive system also happen to be pretty much the same ones that are also used by the ‘pirate’ they claim to hunt. It is very possible that the regulations they get in place to save their own business model will also be used to prevent market entry to the very same disruptors that threaten them.

A win-win for them and a huge loss for us. And for the creative talent that creates the material for the studios to begin with.

This is how money corrupts so much of our system.The only way to stop this is to make it a crime to do what Whedon and Burns are doing. And a first step along this path is to hamper the use of digital technologies and restrict the innovations they drive from bearing fruit.

Industrial Age approaches created business models that need billion dollar movies in order to sustain them. Or billion dollar drugs. Or 10 million albums sold. Or a million books sold.

Information Age approaches create business models needing 1000-fold lower revenues to sustain them. Instead of fighting this disruption, a healthy system would be working with them, co-pting their disruption to further their own business lives.

Not likely to happen as we watch Kodak – who collaborating with Apple sold one of the first personal digital cameras – file for bankruptcy, completely missing the digital revolution it was actually first poised to take advantage of.

Now the studios stand at the same spot Kodak did 15 years ago. WIll they make the same mistake?

But as with all disruptive technologies, the studios can just not see how making a movie for $100,000 and getting back say $300,000 is sustainable. I expect there are huge numbers of creative talent who would disagree.

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