In kindergarten one of the values most emphasized (or at least when I had regularly scheduled naps and snack breaks…although that’s a few decades back at the least) is to share. Share your play toy. Share your snack. Share the computer.
However, up until recently the real world market models were designed with little consideration for sharing, and have been very lucrative for it. How many people would choose the comfort of their car over public transportation? How many of us would buy a CD only to sell it back when we were done? And why would a company want you to? Thanks to the Internet and the emerging “sharing economy” we have entirely new questions to ask. Read along for examples of the companies that are leading this collaborative economy.
Although we have been introduced to new technologies at an exponential rate, we are still discovering how to use them to their full potential. However, sharing has emerged as a trend companies are beginning to incorporate into their business model thanks to our ability to share and collaborate through technology.
There are two key components merging in order for this sharing economy to take off: our quick ability to determine buyers' needs and geolocation. We can now determine supply and demand of products/services within a matter of milliseconds. Any customer’s needs can be found and met through online interaction. Geolocation, or the ability to locate people, places, and things (also within in a matter of milliseconds) is the other piece of the puzzle that will help continue to revolutionize the way we buy. The combination of the two has allowed us to enter into a new paradigm of the market economy that takes advantage of sharing in order to save resources and cash.
We see a variety of different examples as to how we are utilizing this new, interconnected, collaborative reality. For more from our speakers who discuss this subject, see our following speakers’ sites: Lisa Gansky, Lawrence Lessig, Leah Busque, Anthony Marinos
The following are a list of companies and recent articles that demonstrate how this change is affecting various industries, from music to art to recycling.
- Office Space: https://www.loosecubes.com/
- Recycling: http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679867/is-a-zero-waste-society-possible
- Music and art: http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/23/matt-pinfield-explains-how-skype-spotify-kickstarter-are-changing-the-music-industy/
- Clothing: http://www.thredup.com/
