Resources to Build Your City

As you may know from reading our Digital Homesteading blog, 9 Clouds believes that you can build your business and community best when you know how to use digital resources.

We thought it would be helpful to put all of the city building resources we could think of in one place.

To identify the best resources, a group of 20 social catalysts working to build their city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem gathered at a special “unconference” called Social Tilt. For over an hour we went around the room and shared the books, blogs, podcasts, TED Talks, events, speakers, documentaries and tools that have helped us in our work.

After much linking, these city-building resources are now available to you. I am sure we have left some off, so please leave a comment and let us know what to add. We will keep updating this as the resources are provided.

(A quick note on these resources. They have the title, author and a brief description as given by the “Social Tilters” who recommended them. For that reason the formatting is not always consistent. Our apologies.

Additionally, the Amazon links are affiliate links which means if you end up buying the book, this blog gets a tiny percentage of the sale. Feel free to search it on your own if you don’t like that.)

Books

On community and cities

• Startup Communities – Brad Feld
• Startup Communities II – coming soon! More about the feeders in startup communities
• The Rainforest: The secret to building the next Silicon Valley – Victor Hwang
• Community – Peter Block – definitive writer on community
• For the Love of Cities – Peter Kagayama – if we can create more people who love their cities, we can create better cities
• The Rise of the Creative Class – Richard Florida – how artists bring economic value to cities, backed by data
  • He also writes the Cities Blog for The Atlantic
• Walkable City – Jeff Speck
• Happy City  – how social interaction in a city makes and entire community happier
• Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World – built fully sustainable city 6 hours outside of Bogota
• Sandman – Neil Gaiman – about dreaming, mythology, hero’s journey; what happens when a city dreams
• The New American Splendor Anthology: From Off the Streets of Cleveland – Harvey Peker – look at Cleveland, OH, stories that are happening in the hallways and on the sidewalks, the tapestry that creates our communities
• Who are the People in Your Neighborhood – Sesame Street – honest look at who are the people in your neighborhood!
• Better Together: Restoring the American Community – Robert Putnam
• Healing the Heart of Democracy – Parker Palmer – how do we engage people?
• Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier – Edward Glaeser

On neuroscience and habits

• Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic  – why people respond to some things and not others, more directed at managing employees
• The Power of Habit – gets into how habits are formed in institutions and cultures
• Irrationality – learning how the mind works and doesn’t work
• Blink – Malcom Gladwell
• Subliminal: How your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior
• The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brain -Nicholas Carr – thinking about disconnectedness sitting behind computer screens
• Switch: How to Make Change when Change is Hard
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft – Stephen King
• Daily Rituals: How Artists Work – highlights daily rituals of famous people

On creativity, marketing, management and personal health

• Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us – Seth Godin
• Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action – Simon Sinek
• Poke the Box – Seth Godin – If I could buy an entrepreneur one book it would be this
• Medicine for the Earth: How to Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins – the overlap of how we take care of ourselves personally and how we take care of our community
• The Power of Vulnerability – Brene Brown – About human connection
• The Four Agreements: A practical guide to personal freedom – Don Miguel Ruiz
• Abundance: The future is better than you think (this is also a good blog) – gives a new perspective on what’s possible
• Thinking Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
• The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary – Eric Raymond – how open source projects work
• The Four Steps to the Epiphany – Steve Blank – The book that inspired the lean startup revolution

Fiction

• The Go Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea – Bob Burg, John David Mann
• The Man Who Planted Trees – Jean Giono
• The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

On relationships, leadership and business

• Five Love Languages – Gary Chapman
• Anything by John Gottman – if there’s not a sense of mutual reciprocity and power, it won’t work
• Leadership and Self Deception: Getting out of the Box – Arbinger Institute – on leadership
• Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World – community centric v. ego centric
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things – what happens after you’ve had a major success; an entrepreneurial approach to VC
• Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success – Adam Grant
• The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It - Joshua Cooper Ramo
• Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business – John Mackey, Rajendra Sisodia
• The Experience Economy – B. Joseph Pine II
• Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace – Ricardo Semler

Finding passion and skills

• Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation – Parker Palmer
• The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling – Stephen Cope – Changing the world is not possible in a sustainable manner if you’re not doing internal work as well, an explanation of the Bhagavad Gita, what it is to live your dharma; about struggle of what am I really meant to do
• Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work – Matthew B. Crawford – For anyone working with hands; a lot of former work was with our hands
• Choose Yourself  – James Altucher
• The Maker Movement Manifesto: Rules for Innovation in the New World of Crafters, Hackers and Tinkerers – Mark Hatch
• Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It – Amy Cortese
• Metaskills: Five Talents for the Robotics Age – Marty Neumeier

Blogs

• Seth Godin’s Blog
• James Altucher – if you’re looking to develop daily practices. E.g. everyday come up with 30 new business ideas
• Buffer Blog – about human development, how to think differently about building a transparent company
• City Lab – From The Atlantic
• Better City and Towns – benefit of good urban design for tax payers
• Streets.mn – Discussions public transportation in Minneapolis
• Brad Feld – VC and community building thoughts
• Muftah – creative arts, entrepreneurship, innovation in Middle East and North Africa
• Brain Pickings – What matters in the world and why
• Both Sides of the Table – Mark Suster – On giving and taking money for start-ups
• First Ways – Urban Forage Blog/Map
• Derek Sivers Blog – Finding meaning and meaningful work
• TheViewInside.Me – How to change the world
• Digital Homesteading (this blog) – Building community and business from anywhere

Audio/Podcasts

• 99% Invisible – design in everyday life
• The Urbanist – 60 minutes on everything from lobbyists in cities to are public restrooms right?
• Global Business Daily – deep dives in developing economies & what’s shaping in various places in the world
• The Unmistakable Creative – Conversations with creative entrepreneurs
• The Startup Podcast – transparent look about starting a podcast business by doing a podcast about a podcast business

Videos and Ted Talks

• How to know your life purpose in 5 minutes – Adam Leipzig
• How to Build a Better Block – Jason Roberts
• How We Can Eat our Landscapes – Pam Warhurst
• Why Are Indians so Filthy? – The Ugly Indian – Anamik Nagrik
• A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA – Ron Finley
• How to Start a Movement – Derek Sivers
• Weird or Just Different? – Derek Sivers
• Taking Back the Streets – Jennifer So Godzeno – transportation networks in NY
• How to use one paper towel – Joe Smith
• How to tie your shoes – Terry Moore
• TEDCity 2.0 – More talks around city building
• Before I Die I Want to… – Candy Chang – bringing creative spaces back to cities
• Greening the Ghetto – Majora Carter – Reclaiming the South Bronx to make more livable
• Wisdom 2.0 – Tony Hsieh
  • Powerpoint on slideshare – interesting framework of language about how to measure growth of a community above GDP and more about connection
• Social Tilters with TED talks:
  • The Dandelion Project – Marc Winn
  • Fargo? It’s pretty awesome – Greg Tehven
  • Ask Better Questions – Joe Burgum
  • Stay Home, Save Your community – Scott Meyer
• The Puzzle of Motivation – Daniel Pink
• Simplifying Complexity – Eric Barlowe
• Ricardo Semler
• Cradle to Cradle Design – William McDonough

Events to Host and Attend

• Misfit Con
• 50 Hours at the Edge
• Singularity University – best investment you will ever make
• Oslo Freedom Forum – brings together activists doing large scale social change; gathering of community builders working in some of the darkest spaces needing a community of support, in May
• Anything put on by Marc Winn!
  • Adventure – given instructions to show up at a location at a time and no other information
  • Burning Man Camp
• Burning Man – understanding the edge of community – a pilgrimage!
  • Eric – recommends do it at an intentional camp, otherwise easy to get lost
  • Maslowtopia
  • Regional burns around the world
• Singularity Summit – intimate experience within a large experience
• Do Lectures
  • 30-40 participants and 60 volunteers
  • Felt like anyone there as a participant could have been a speaker
• Big Omaha – Tech and entrepreneur conference
• World Fix – bringing together people who are trying to decentralize humanity, mischievous unlocking of hierarchies
• MBAdventures – Outdoor adventure meets learning
• Fringe Festival in Edinburgh – Great example of building event in unorthodox spaces
• Startup Weeks – great way to go into a community for a few days and see how they open their doors
• MetaBridge – Kelowna, Canada – rent out hotel on lake and interact – little structure
• TEDx – easy way to get a diverse group of people together
• Hatch – Inspiring creativity in Montana
• 1 Million Cups – attend in new cities, great point of entry for visitors
• Midnight Brunches – dinner at midnight, 3 hour gathering on Thursday night
• Design thinking workshops and bootcamps
• Bread KC – Artists doing work to fund arts in KC; host $10 dinner with 50-100 people, money funds the micro arts in community
• Talk Shop – storefront space in KC as place to have community conversations, host weekly conversations about the city
• CampGrounded – check your cell phone at the door, given experience of disconnect to connect with people
• House of Genius – monthly event bringing in roomful of people as a panel, provide insight to 3 entrepreneurs, on first name basis and can’t talk about what you do
• Catapulta Fest – Oaxaca, music, film & social innovation
• FuckUp Nights – Stories about failure in Mexico City
• Ignite – PechaKucha style event with 5 minute talks
• Art of Leadership – Robert Gass
• StartingBloc  – day on design thinking, leadership, polarity mapping on managing paradox
• TEDxBeaconStreet – most chaotic and creative TEDx event – all about adventures throughout Boston
• AlleyFair – will give different perspective on intimacy
• EntreFest – positioning as largest event for entrepreneurs in Iowa, May 22
• Creativity Week  – open source event where you invite anyone in town to add their event to the lineup
• Southland – Nashville – aiming to be SXSW focused on the Southeast
• Costarters Summit – bringing together community leaders for non-tech startups (creators, makers, artisans); sharing models i.e. 1MC, Ignite, KC Bread
• THINK – Goa, India – Thought-provoking ideas for the globe

Speakers

• Jonathan Fields – Mindful creation
• Scott Sherman
• Robert Egger – founder of DC Central Kitchen, LA Kitchen
• Scott Harris – founder of Charity Water
• Peter Kageyama – Building love for a city
• Dr. Warny – spoke at TedXFargo – on evolution of medicine
• Tony Hsieh – founder of Zappos, very understated & humble
• Gayle – around vulnerability & how to live a full life
• Greg Tehven – Building pride in your city
• Andy Stoll – How to Foster a More Entrepreneurial City
• Cesar Gonzalez – Co-living and building community
• Scott Meyer – Using technology to build community and business

Documentaries

• The Human Scale – urban planning
• Happy – what makes communities and cultures happy?

Tools/Activities

• Clarity.fm can pay by minute to speak with experts (Scott)
• Activity: The Left Hand Column Exercise
• Startup Community Alchemy – on slideshare, 1 pager how to build a startup community

Other Resources?

Leave a comment and tell us what other resources will help inspire, educate and provide the blueprint for city builders to truly change their communities for the better.

The post 183 Resources for City Builders appeared first on 9 Clouds.