23 december 2010, collaborative consumerism

Thursday 23rd December 2010

I’m very happy to admit that sometimes I’m a magpie, in that I swoop down and pick up other people’s ideas; but knowledge is something that can be infinitely shared without losing value. Indeed sharing often develops and strengthens. So it may be with collaborative consumption. Rachel botsman, seen here on the excellent ted site, may have cornered the 2010 market, but swapping, trading and barter are as old as the hills. The internet of course means that your reach is no longer just the village, or even the national tv audience swap shop (an old uk tv programme) had, but the world. You can even swap money: a loan matching a borrower. “Social lending” websites like zopa have been around for years now, but haven’t taken a significant cut of the action. Internet shopping though is certainly beginning to bite into western high streets, and this season’s snow-in will nudge those figures north. Rachel’s point though is that swapping is not consumerism, but the recycling of goods and the renewal of trust within social networks where people do not know each other, the “big shift” that makes the market for swapping big enough to be viable. Need that drill you have in the garage ? Actually you need the hole it makes, and could very easily rent the drill for the ten minutes a year you need it if the transaction costs were sufficiently low. She also highlights the growth of co-working, people – potentially on the other side of the world - sharing a job. I’d certainly add car sharing – if only I could easily connect to the 5, 000 people that drive past my front door into manchester every morning. I don’t really want the car. Access is better than ownership. We’re waking up, says Rachel, from a humungous hangover of emptiness and waste.