What's Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption is the name of a new thought-provoking book by Sydney-based consultant Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers, a US-based serial entrepreneur with five start-ups currently in the marketplace.
I was recently sent a copy to review, here are my thoughts:
What's Mine is Yours is a bit of a slog...but please, don't take that as a negative!
The book is so jam-packed with insights, mind-blowing statistics and cases in point that I found myself stopping to take notes every few pages, not to mention rushing to the web all the time to check out in greater detail the examples given.
I am being flippant, of course - the book isn't a 'slog' at all. In my mind, the more notes you take while reading...the more a book can get you thinking about all sorts of possibilities...the better, yeah?
And that's what this book does - it gets you thinking.
Firstly, about the rampant consumerism that has increasingly engulfed the planet in recent decades. It saddened me to see how we are just buying shit that we never use, to be slapped in the face with the fact there's a 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' out in the ocean, potentially double the size of Texas.
We also learn how the emergence of 'throwaway living' started in 1915 with a campaign that promoted Dixie Cups - and that today, a "staggering 220 billion paper and plastic cups are used worldwide per year".
But...
On the flip-side, I'm also heartened by the fact that we - the human race - is starting to do something about it on a global scale.
The 'Collaborative Consumption' movement - as coined by Botsman and Rogers - is growing and evolving.
Social technologies have given this movement scale and momentum - no doubt - but attitudinally we're also shifting: we are sharing more, using less and becoming more and more community-minded. Environmental concerns and cost-consciousness are increasingly influencing our actions.
According to the authors, Collaborative Consumption consists of three 'systems':
- REDISTRIBUTION MARKETS: used or pre-owned goods are redistributed from where they are needed to somewhere or someone where they are e.g. eBay.
- COLLABORATIVE LIFESTYLES: sharing and exchange of resources and assets sich as time, food, space, skills and money e.g. peer-to-peer social lending (LendingClub).
- PRODUCT SERVICE SYSTEM: based on a 'usage mindset' whereby you pay to share a product so you can use it without needing to own the product outright e.g. car sharing.
WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS from rachel botsman on Vimeo.
But the 'glue' that holds everything together is a growing sense of trust in each other (whether we know them or not), which in turn is a cornerstone of any growing community.
"New online and offline marketplaces are forming where people can once again 'meet' in a global village and form nonlocal trust. We have returned to a time when if you do something wrong or embarrassing, the whole community will know", the authors write.
What Botsman and Rogers have done is document a major societal shift that is occurring before our very eyes.
They've joined the dots of a number of trends and neatly packaged it up for us, complete with dozens of examples that bring their theories to life e.g. here are just some of them:
- Etsy
- Zipcar
- Streetcar
- Zimride
- Urban Gardenshare
- London Liftshare
- Airbnb
- irent2you
- RentMineOnline
- Bag Borrow or Steal
- Freecycle
- UsedCardboardBoxes.com
This book is important for a number of reasons.
As a PR practitioner or marketer, if you are able to somehow tap into the 'collaborative' zeitgist, then more power to you. There are some fabulous opportunities but only if you respect the community aspect of Collaborative Consumption.
On the flip-side, if you ignore the rumblings of this trend - or, if you try and intrude on 'the community' in half-cocked fashion - the results might not be that great.
For the broader business community --
The Collaborative Consumption movement is growing: Botsman and Rogers predict it will become a "fully fledged economy" within the next five years.
That spells O.P.P.O.R.T.U.N.I.T.Y. for far-sighted companies that understand this developing space. After all, some of the businesses mentioned above grew incredibly quickly (mainly through word-of-mouth) and have become multi-million dollar enterprises.
The Rise of Collaborative Consumption - MELBOURNE EVENT
Note to Melbourne readers: On this Thursday, November 18 Rachel Botsman will be sharing stories and research from around the world to illustrate the cultural and economic force known as Collaborative Consumption — organized sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping redefined through technology and peer communities (presented by HUB Melbourne) - book here.
The event will also feature a panel consisting of:
- Steve Sammartino - founder of Rentoid, Australia’s largest online hire and rental marketplace
- Daniel Noble - founder of DriveMyCar Rentals, Australia’s first peer-to-peer car rental platform, connecting private car owners and drivers.
- Juliette Anich - director of The Clothing Exchange, Australia’s leading social swapping network.
