The Importance of Time Value

Time Value is a concept Japanese Futurist Yoneji Masuda developed.

“The development of information productivity through computer communications technology has given rise to a new concept of TIME-VALUE to replace material values” “Time is an intangible, abstract concept, by which we mean the measurement of the passage of time…”

“But if conceived of as a person’s lifetime, time used fo the satisfaction of wants, time itself creates value” (Masuda, 71 [The Information Society as Post Industrial Society]).

A blog visitor commented that time-value could better be defined as ‘now-value’ in today’s terms. Value is realized relative to other constructions of value. Each time you are doing anything, especially using the Internet, ask yourself, “is what I am doing an optimum use of my now-value?”

I used to use a program called 8aweek to track my time usage on programs like flickr, digg, and facebook. Eventually, I realized that a better use of my now-value would be to write, and that anything I wrote might be better than simply wading rather unconstructively through photos.

A recent article on unhealthy bloggers shows the sped up now-value of being able to post, but this now-value forces the blogger to work on Internet time instead of his own. Now-value and time-value on the net is different because all time is flowing at once, in all time zones. Twenty four instances of 5 Pm at the same time is twenty four times more 5 o’clocks than can be accessed in real-life time.

Coworking – Methods and Success

Coworking

If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito. – African proverb

What is Coworking? It is simply working side-by-side with more than one person. No one has to be working on the same project or talk to each other. Simply being there with someone else negates the lonliness of working from home, or working in a hostile corporate environment.

Coworking is successful in corporate environments, especially startups, and is also ideal for entrepreneurs who need a support group while they develop independently.

It’s also useful to have others to bounce ideas off of.

Ingredients for Coworking. Shared working. Time sharing. Think sharing:

1. Large wooden table.
2. Large room with high ceilings.
3. Next room and kitchen with access to food and coffee.
4. Bathroom.
5. Powerstrips.
6. Computers on swivels (for screen sharing).
7. Good lighting.
8. Good window.

Shared working 2.0:

Costs: Space, and a projector to put computer screens onto wall.

Benefits:

• Others can watch media.
• Others can choose to show others media.
• Processes can be shown in motion.

Image below shows shared working space during the day and at night. This is what the dining room of the Woods house in N. Portland looks like. We set it up like this, and it works.

The same concept was written about in the NYTimes. Here.