Good Morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.
I’ve just finished reading this book – What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of collaborative consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers. I also saw Rachel speak on collaborative consumption at a conference in Sydney.
I really enjoyed this book because it opened my eyes as to how you don’t need to own items outright, you can share and use them when needed. Which I do already with friends, but with strangers, well no, but that is what this book is all about. Collaborative consumption is sharing items rather than owning.
Some of my favourite parts of the book are below (all quotes):
- People may throw an “out of necessity” brick at Collaborative Consumption, claiming that it will slow down or crumble when the economy fully recovers and prosperity returns. But not only is Collaborative Consumption driven by consumer motivations that extend far deeper than cost savings, the habits started to stick and spread before the financial collapse of 2008.
- the convergence of social networks, a renewed belief in the importance of community, pressing environmental concerns, and cost consciousness are moving us away from the old top-heavy, centralised, and controlled forms of consumerism toward one of sharing, aggregation, openness and cooperation.
- Collaborative Consumption is rooted int eh technologies and behaviors of online social networks
- A big part of the problem is that many of our consumer behaviours have become so habitual that we are unaware of our impact. Psychologists call this consumer “lock in”, as it can be difficult to make deliberate choices about what to buy and what not to buy because habits, routines, social norms and cultural values lock us into unsustainable behaviours.
- Not only do the things we own fill up our closets and our lives, but they also fill our minds.
- Our challenge [in reference to hyper consumption] is not the fundamental consumer principle in itself but the blurred line between necessity and convenience; the intoxicating addiction of defining so much of our lives through ownership; and the never-ending list of things we “have to have”
- There are four big forces that have played a critical role in manipulating and feeding hyper-consumption: the power of persuasion; the buy now, pay later culture; the law of life cycles; and the “just one more” factor
- We are addicted to new products
- Perceivedobsolesce, making products feel out-of-date, less desirable, and in need of replacement, was a strategy mastered by the automakers, but it was not enough.
- product designers in the fifties started to “design for the dump”
- a new consumer mindset. The first is simplicity…. The second is traceability and transparency…. the last is participation
- Sharing has always depended on a network – but now we have one that is redefining its scope, meaning and possibility. That network is, of course, the internet.
- The system will be successful if users are satisfied by the choice and the convenience available to them. If not, the system will probably be poorly utilised and short-lived.
- the more users who participate in programs such as Landshare, Airbnb, or bike sharing, the better the system works for everyone – there is a “network effect.” Every single person who joins or uses Collaborative Consumption creates value for another persona, even if this was not the intention.
- Green guru Joel Makower commented in a recent article, ” can you imagine when we reach a point where not owning a car become the ultimate luxury and its own kind of status symbol?” This transition has started.
- These systems require a new kind of trust and reciprocity, a behavioural dynamic that in turn reinforces sharing, collaboration, honour, sociability and loyalty.
- the reusing or passing on of stuff is becoming a vehicle for forming trust between strangers
- Our inner ledger of fairness is critical to why eBay works so well.
- why do people behave so well? It’s simple. Users know their behaviour today will affect their ability to transact in the future.
- Collaborative Consumption is by no means antibusiness, anitproduct, or anticonsumer. People will still “shop” and companies will still “sell”. But the way we consumer and what we consumer are changing. As we move away from a hyper-individualist culture that defines our identity and happiness based on ownership and stuff toward a society based on shared resources and a collaborative mind-set, fundamental pillars of consumerism – design, brand, and consumer mind-set – will change for the better.
What I found really interesting about this book is that is goes deeper than just telling me what Collaborative Consumption is, it explores why it works, as in why people don’t just rip each other off. Plus throughout it there are examples of different businesses based on the model. The big one you will have heard of is eBay, but there are also others…
- AirBnB
- Netflix
- Landshare
- Kickstarter
- If we ran the world
- Couchsurfing
- Zopa
- We commune
- Goget
- Neighbor
- Neighbor goods
- Blockchalk
- Relayrides
plus lots, lots more…..
In the spirit of collaborative consumption, I’d like to swap my copy of the book with one of you guys, I’m addicted to business books, so lets swap it for another business book. If you want to swap, tell me in the comments what you have 
Note: The book links in this article are affiliate links to my favourite and cheapest book buying site
