Open source, non-networking networking

The latest underground non-networking networking trend just got a little less underground. That’s something you can pretty much bet on when the New York Times uncovers a scene and gives it the nod. Not such a bad thing in the case of likemind, the all-lower-case brainchild of Noah Brier, head strategic planner for the internet marketing company Barbarian Group.

As reported by Alex Williams in That Business Card Won’t Fly Here, likemind is happening in cities all over the world. What, exactly is likemind? Williams describes it like this:

“…a monthly kaffeeklatsch for creative professionals, held in 55 cities around the world, including Mumbai, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Malmo, Sweden. likemind gatherings have no formal structure, no fees and typically no agenda. But participants exchange ideas, job tips and useful contacts, while also batting around ideas about technology, art, business and culture.”

Sounds like a sort of coworking answer to those Friday afternoon happy hours startups used to host back during the boom. Only, at least in the case of the likemind the NYT reporter attended, this non-meeting started at 8am in a coffee shop with caffeinated beverages, not microbrew, being the favored beverage.

Likened to nonconferences like BarCamp, likemind is a newer, chiller way to network. Any business card swapping is, apparently, done on the down low. Resumes in hand are a dead giveaway that a participant doesn’t get it. And under no circumstances should you use the actual word network.

That doesn’t mean attendees can’t, won’t or shouldn’t pick up job leads or sniff out potential business partners. You just need to not go barreling in there over eager for some hookup that is about a financial bottom line. Community — that’s the real idea.

The article also suggests that, as with coworking spaces, likemind is filling a need by helping keep people connected and lending an assist in staving off that old digital nomad drawback: isolation. Ethan Waters, author of the book Urban Tribes: Are Friends the New Family? is quoted noting that a lot of urban workers have more fluid work lives than in days gone by. As a result, they don’t have that same long-term connection to office mates. He says “They have no old family, no new family, so there’s a vacuum there, and since we’re social creatures, the vacuum gets filled with things like [likemind].”

The map of likemind cities at the website shows a likemind meeting happening at Dominican Joe at 515 S. Congress on Friday, December 5th, 8am.

Here’s hoping we can host some likemind gatherings at LaunchPad Coworking, too :)