Shareable Conference Explores the Emerging Share Economy

Event review contributed by Maura Dilley.

What is hyper-local and far reaching, saves you money, is good for the environment, provides shelter from the recession’s storm by wrapping you up in a community web with the coolest people in town? It’s the emerging Share Economy.

In early May, Shareable.net hosted its first SHARE conference in San Francisco, CA. In attendance were Share Economy successes, like TechShop and Relay Rides, Share Economy guru Lisa Gansky, as well as share enthusiasts, like me.

The Share Economy is familiar and new. We’re comfortable sharing books through the library system, many of us use ZipCar and Groupon and if these trend watchers are correct, we will soon be experiencing a further shift in how we meet our daily needs from food to information through sharing.  The Share Economy will cause us to strike a new relationship with money and our neighbors. In the future, the walls that limit access to goods, services and information will be erected along a different route – opening up fallow ground for exploration. What’s it going to be like?

Look to the past. Before money was invented – money is a social invention, lest we forget? – all human need was met by barter and exchange. The invention of money allowed people to meet their needs without trust. Admittedly, if I had lived back then, I would have cheered. I could have explored beyond my community’s safety net, held on to my assets longer and saved for large purchases. Nowadays, barter and exchange for goods is largely extinct and I’m cheering the return of sharing; hoping that as the pendulum swings back, we can strike a better balance.  The Share Economy recognizes, structures and supports approaches to exchange that transcend and perhaps improve a linear money relationship.

Here’s an example in the form of a question: if you spend two hours of your day commuting, what is your car doing for remaining twenty-two? Nothing. American cars are idle 92% of their functional lives. Renting out your car to qualified members of groups like Relay Rides, Get Around and Just Share It, could earn an estimated $250/month extra household income and enable an individual who only needs a vehicle occasionally off the carlot. It is a victory for the owner earning income, the renter buzzing around town and the coughing environment.

The recession is still with us and until the economy shifts to more secure and sustainable means of generating energy and measuring productivity, in my opinion, its revival is a fallacy. The Sharing Economy, on the other hand, is a adapting the market model for resilience.

The Shared Economy has many faces. Some companies like Groupon have leveraged sharing to earn jaw-dropping profits, some companies like Facebook and Twitter enabled information sharing that toppled dictators in the Middle East. Community activists see Sharing as a way to building interdependence and strengthen our social fabric, the frugal see it as a way to save money, and environmentalists hope it will limit the junk in our lives.  However you see it, Sharing will be a growing part of our future together and help us live together as the world gets smaller.

Learn more about Share SF