Kindergarten classrooms – you must share everything
In fact, the age-old philosophy once relegated to kindergarten classrooms – you must share! – has become a veritable disruptor to the way we think about services, possessions and even our homes. If social media has taught us anything, it’s that people love to share information online, everything from inane Buzzfeed lists to important life events. Not surprisingly, that tendency is true offline as well, and trends toward “sharing” technologies have taken off in recent years.
Standout successes – such as vacation-rental site Airbnb, ridesharing apps Lyft and Sidecar, online-teaching site Skillshare, errand-outsourcing site TaskRabbit and peer-to-peer leading sites like Lending Club, Prosper Marketplace, Zopa etc. – have helped drive a wave of interest from developers, entrepreneurs, investors and media.
Meanwhile, the growth of community gardens, food coops, babysitting coops and housing coops has highlighted the central role of local communities and the social sector.
New online trust and transaction systems are enabling major cultural and behavioral shifts. From Seoul to San Francisco, millions of people now collaborate and share assets such as cars and homes with people they’ve never met before.
A site for borrowing stuff
If Airbnb revealed the value of spare rooms and Lyft did the same for car passenger seats, Dutch start-up Peerby – a site for borrowing stuff – is mapping out a new frontier for the share economy: the toolshed.
On Peerby, users post requests for items that they need from their surrounding community, rather than just offering up a list of available “inventory” based on what they owned and are willing to share, the way it works on other networks that have attempted similar things in the past like Neighborgoods and StreetLend.
Crucial to success will be to get people used to borrowing and lending more frequently than they do now. Convenience will be a huge factor for success.
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In kindergarten you must share – Share everything — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/wna
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About The Author
Torben Rick
Experienced senior executive, both at a strategic and operational level, with strong track record in developing, driving and managing business improvement, development and change management. International experience from management positions in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and United Kingdom