[[TheBetween/books and tools, hubs and connections|books and tools, hubs and connections]] ## people We see ourselves as hosts, building the urgently essential spaces we ourselves need. We’ve built and run companies, research institutes, and art organizations, and we’re both leaders in our respective fields. [Fotini](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fotini_Markopoulou-Kalamara) is a quantum gravity physicist and industrial designer. With over two decades in academia, she was founding faculty of [Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics](http://perimeterinstitute.ca), followed by cofounding a tech company that applied research in neuroscience to mental health, and advisory roles in organizations that support science. Stefanie is a long-time company builder and author, steeped in the cultural history of both inner and outer technologies. She’s the cofounder of pioneering web media company [FEED Magazine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_Magazine) and author of [The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374532840/thesubtlebody/). We came to this plan from our different perspectives, carefully crafting a common language over several years. In truth, we are many. Our immediate networks, spanning media to science, contain both experts and participants, contributors and audience. Organizations we already work with need what **the between** offers. This is why we think of ourselves as hosts. **The between** is at once highly ambitious and intimate. Because our contributors and participants overlap and we aim to forge long-term relationships, we see membership as core to our revenue model and a co-op as the appropriate organizational structure. The concentric circles of contributors, participants, and partners expand out from our networks. The natural next circle contains urban professionals/knowledge workers who are now directly confronting AI’s devaluation of their expertise. Many are already exiled from the work they love (particularly scientists) and grappling with the way forward, often in isolation. Others are leaders, and their value shifts have the potential to ripple through their organizations and communities. We’re very intentionally not an ivory tower. We’re keen to create a sustainable enterprise by being truly useful and deeply embedded in our Red Hook and Mitsu communities. The “open door” and manual labor ethos of the café are direct ways to identify how we can best contribute to our local communities (e.g. services such as teaching, or local partnerships for tool making). [[TheBetween/roadmap for evolution|roadmap for evolution]]