What technology makes possible and a question

I’m reading an inspiring book called What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers. It explains all the ways that technology has enabled us to return to “the sharing and exchange of all kinds of assets from spaces to skills to cars in ways and on a scale never possible before.”

At collaborativecomsumption.com there are dozens of examples of websites where you can share, exchange, swap, barter or, sell collaboratively. The list is a gold mine.

Here’s a video explaining what collaborative comsumption is all about.

One thing I searched for on the site and couldn’t find was a recommendation of helpful open source software that might let me build something for my own little neighborhood such as a tool borrowing resource or a ride exchange. Do you know of such a pre-built but modifiable software package? I found a few on Sourceforge, but nothing that looks exactly like what I want.

I’m working on a much more in depth post about the notion of collaborative consumption that will be published tomorrow on BlogHer.com. If you are interested in learning more, check there tomorrow afternoon.

2 thoughts on “What technology makes possible and a question”

  1. First of all I would like to say awesome blog! I had a quick question in which I’d like to ask if you don’t mind. I was interested to know how you center yourself and clear your head prior to writing. I’ve had difficulty clearing my mind in getting my thoughts out there. I do take pleasure in writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually lost just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or hints? Cheers!

    1. My advice would be to start writing and keep going until you finish. Then look back and find the place where you really began, and delete everything that came before. I use writing practice daily to warm up my writing mind – see my other blog at http://first50.wordpress.com.

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