What's mine is yours

Earlier this week I discovered TED Talks (yea I know I'm like a million light years behind), for those of you who haven't heard of it please go check it out, you wont be disappointed.

I decided to watch my first Talk: Rachel Botsman: The currency of the new economy is trust. In this 19 minute speech she discusses her image of the developing consumer marketplace. A marketplace fueled by what she calls Collaborative Consumption. The overhaul of the consumer landscape is due to the boom of internet sharing websites (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest). This has paved the way to build beyond social networking and into the new realm of Service Networking. Service Networking simply means using online resources to get things done in the real world. This frontier is full of new start-ups that have been thriving on this phenomenon of sharing. An example: Lets say I need a car twice a week to get to an office on the other side of town. Using the traditional model I would go buy a car and use it twice a week. Now enter in the Collaborative Consumption model and you find a platform like Zipcar. Lets say Karen posts her car as available for rent except on weekends. I can now rent her car on two days of the week because she doesn't need it. Peer-to-peer trading platforms have redefined how we consume and who the buyers/sellers are. The idea has far reaching possibilities that allow us to open our doors to market places we didn't even know existed prior to the Sharing Boom. In this time of economic hardship this new launch of business will put money in the people's pocket's and at the same time forever transform how we live.

The second part of her TED Talk focuses on trust. Without trust there would be no successful internet platforms that enable people to share. Ebay is the great example, they use paypal to generate trust. There is a guarantee that you will receive the product you pay for or visa-verse you will get the money for your product. On many of the websites that involve money, there is a third party involved to make sure everyone gets what they are due. However many platforms don't deal with the money themselves so how do you develop trust. Botsman's example is the start-up Taskrabbit. On Taskrabbit you can post an errand or task that you don't have time or don't want to do (laundry, grocery,cleaning or assembling IKEA furniture haha). Then people bid to do your task and you choose someone to complete your errand. Reputation is key for this and many other sites. As people bid you can see their profile which has ratings and  comments/reviews from previous users that either had a positive or negative experience with that person. This allows you to know that "Bob" the guys who has bid to walk your dog every morning is a reliable and trustworthy person.

To me this concept of internet built trust and the new marketplaces available though the internet age is fascinating. I decided to pick up a copy of Rachel Botsman's and Roo Roger's book "What's Mine is Yours: the Rise of Collaborative Consumption". I'm very excited to see what I can learn from this insightful book on the future of goods and services.