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January 12, 2007

Community kids

Cool towns: Emotion - Do people even care?

Part five in looking at Made to Stick's Six Principles of Sticky Ideas on how to build cool places...

The fifth principle is Emotion. Why should people even care? Perhaps it may help to first state what tends to trigger people into not caring: Too many statistics, abstract explanations (90% of what's out there), not enough emphasis on self-interest, and surprisingly, not enough emphasis on self-interest as it relates to group-interest.

Why do people care about cool town beta communities? It's in the name itself - community, as in a sense of community, “a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together.”

Why would beta communities work? Because you're establishing that belonging, shared faith and commitment to be together with a common vision of building a physical place to manifest that. No marketing stats, no abstract strategic plans, it just happens, and most importantly, needs to be allowed to just happen. Participants will also invite people who feel they share that sense of community with, such as friends and family*. The 'magic' of it all is that they begin to establish a sense of community before the actual physical community is built, in the process of doing so.

*Family that you want to live near that is.

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January 11, 2007

Kathy Sierra

Cool towns: Credibility - do people believe you?

Part four in looking at Made to Stick's Six Principles of Sticky Ideas on how to build cool places...

The fourth principle is Credibility. Why should people believe you? How do you handle the skeptics? Are you providing the details, vivid statistics, a proven example or a testable credential (try before you buy) that help people accept your ideas as truthful?

How is the cool town beta community program credible, believable, legitimate? Sure, there are telling statistics from Dr. Richard Florida; nearly 1000 entries on this website alone detailing examples and trends; and countless examples of sustaining success tied to co-design (Wikipedia, Lego, Staples) and walkable, mixed-use communities (Manhattan, London, Paris, Madison WI).

However, the most credible characteristic is showing that you're listening to beta community members throughout the program, and it's hard to be more credible to a customer than when you're producing what they want. If you're building your own custom home or growing your own business, that's as credible to yourself as you can get. It's not often that you hear of someone being skeptical of their own business. Now just apply to a city block, and as the image shows, provide increasingly detailed evidence that you're indeed co-developing the product with the beta community (graphic from software engineer and best-selling author Kathy Sierra".)

The credibility of the beta community itself is further enhanced by those who have experienced such communities first-hand, which is related to why so many supporters of cool towns have either lived or traveled abroad.

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January 10, 2007

Takamatsu, Osaka, Japan

Cool towns: Concrete-ness - do you understand and remember it?

Continuing a review of Made to Stick's Six Principles of Sticky Ideas on how to build cool places...

The third principle is Concreteness. That is, not abstract, but in terms that relate to our five senses. This is where analogies, vignettes, proverbs and first-hand experiences. YouTube became a billion dollar company within a year because both its business model (upload and watch videos for free) and content (first-hand experiences) were refreshingly concrete.

How does one describe a benchmark beta community process and cool town vision in a concrete way?...

It's like allowing the most creative people of Greenwich Village to co-design their own block in Venice.*

That could look something like a piazza filled with outdoor diners, surrounded by local, independent, pubs where everybody knows your name, cafes serving organic brick-oven pizza with fresh mozzarella, and shabby chic coffeehouses with wi-fi, couches and the best chai tea in town... above that would be light-filled offices with large windowed doors that provide a panoramic view, hardwood floors, and an open floor plan bustling with entrepreneurs and the employees of fast-growing businesses... above that would be lofts with expansive windows, high ceilings, and configurable walls to transform it between work and live mode... and above that would be the green roof patio where residents have spontaneous BBQs and holiday parties.

*Greenwich Village is known as one of the most creative neighborhoods in the U.S.; Venice has a reputation for its beautiful urban fabric; and co-design is fast becoming an economy standard.

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January 9, 2007

Urban center in Los Angeles

Cool towns: Unexpect-edness - does it get and hold your interest?

Continuing our look at Made to Stick's Six Principles of Sticky Ideas on how to build cool places...

The second principle is Unexpectedness. This is the first principle in Step Two: Telling Others, with Step One presented in the previous entry. This is the principle that compels us to watch a movie or game from beginning to end.

How do you get and maintain people's interest in building cool places? It's about taking what people don't know they don't know (ie the hundreds of hidden places dispersed throughout the world that one wishes were in their own neighborhood) and letting them know they exist. It's about presenting an ever clearer vision of what their next home, workplace or hangout looks like, but only if they participate.

It's about knowing that in the end there will be a built place that captures many of the characteristics they dreamed of, but they won't get to touch, taste, smell or truly see it unless they're engaged in the process all the way through.

It's the excitement of asking 'what if' while knowing someone's listening, and the mystery of not knowing how the story will end. In the image above, the local L.A. community wanted the first full-service market downtown, as well as convenience stores and loft housing. Can it all be achieved in one building? What will it look like? Which businesses will be chosen?...

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January 8, 2007

Memphis Manifesto group

Cool towns: Simplicity - the core message

As introduced in the last entry, this week we'll be communicating how to build cool places based on Made to Stick's Six Principles of Sticky Ideas.

The first principle is Simplicity. This is the core idea and the most difficult of the six principles to achieve. In fact, this one principle is considered Step One: The Answer, while the other five are considered Step Two: Telling Others.

So what is the core idea of building cool places? That is indeed simple to answer. The beta community. The beta community is a group of future tenants that co-design and co-develop their own building or neighborhood. Everything centers around this single entity. Think Linux, YouTube and Wikipedia applied to real estate. 'Have it your way'. 'Purely You.' Who better to make decisions on what a building or neighborhood should have and look like than the people ultimately investing in it - its tenants. In fact, it's such a standard means of business in other industries that there are multiple terms for it.

But what about a focus on the creative class and ? You will find those are common traits and values among those naturally motivated to participate in a beta community.

100 of the most creative people in Memphis (image) got together a few years ago to establish a manifesto for a cool city. It had the makings of a beta community, the most potential of any group yet formed, but dispersed before it could become so and thus nothing was built. So close! It was missing an implementation plan, and that's what the beta community provides. The good news is that it's not too late to establish as one.

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