Issue 9
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE
ALL PUMPED UP The spectacular growth of spare room rental platform Airbnbcom
COME WORK WITH METhe pros and cons of shared offices
CROWDFUNDING10 lsquomust dorsquo projects
IN THE NEWSFrench frackers smart cars climate chaos missing dawns and other key news from the world of sustainability
And so much more insidehellip
The rise and rise of sharing economies
PAGE 2
Many years ago I used to publish a comedy magazine in Singapore Yeah I know half way to funny in itself but true It was actually very popular and paid for itself by selling ads which generally speaking people paid for with money Until that is one of our regular customers a wholesale beer importer phoned me up to say that he wouldnrsquot be able to pay his bill on time that month On account of having used up his cashflow buying a huge amount of beer that hersquod been offered at les than half the normal price It was an opportunity of a lifetime and just on the off-chance how would I feel about being paid in beer instead
What the heck I thought He was offering me nearly twice the value of the bill in beer in terms of what it would cost me to buy it at the supermarket he had some really interesting brands from all over the world and Irsquove always been a sucker for beer True to his word the
following morning one of his trucks turned up and offloaded a huge stack of beer at our office and I can honestly say it was way way more exciting than receiving a cheque
Over the next few weeks we gradually sold the beer at half price to our readers who like
us were rather thrilled At the end of the day the ad cost the beer man about a quarter of the cash price our readers got half price beer and we ended up with our money Everyone a winner as 70s disco band Hot Chocolate once so aptly put it
It was my first experience of what is formally known as barter but it wasnrsquot my last Sharing our spare capacity which is what we were actually doing is coming back into fashion in a big way thanks to the internet Spare beds spare seats in
cars seldomly used golf clubs spare working hours you name it theyrsquore sharing it For more see our main story about the growth of sharing economies on page 20 entitled lsquoShare and Share Alikersquo
Plus our normal round up of news from the world of
sustainability (page 6) an in-depth look at the phenomenal growth of spare room rental site Airbnb (page 42) and a selection of worthy crowdfunding
projects and gadgets in our regular closing section lsquoThe Crowdrsquo on page 60
Itrsquos been a pleasure sharing our thoughts this month on the subject of sharing and wersquod love to hear from you if yo have any thoughts yoursquod like to share right back with us
Enough using the word sharing Yeah I agree Until next time
Joe Swain
WELCOME
Spare beds spare seats in cars seldomly used golf clubs spare
working hours you name it theyrsquore sharing it
PAGE 3
ABOUT US2050 Magazine is all about renewable ener-gy and our journey towards the day when the whole world will have access to cheap clean sustainable sources of energy Some-thing which we think will happen by 2050 As long as we all pull together and do our bit This is our bit
EDITORIALWe are very fortunate to have constant access to an incredibly talented pool of people some of them with decades of experience in the field of sustainability They tell us things and we write it down and add pretty pictures Then we send it all wrapped up in tinsel to the world at large Thatrsquos it in a nutshell really
DISTRIBUTION2050 is a free publication which is distributed around the world through a variety of lsquofriendrsquo networks We are currently connected to more than 1 million supporters A number which is growing on a daily basis Please feel free to pass us on to your own networks if you think they might be interested in keeping in touch with whatrsquos going on in the world of sustainable energy
PUBLISHERS 2050 Magazine is a joint effort by Planet B Ventures and Spinning Plate Media Ltd and is partly funded by crowdfunding on impactcrowdcom
CONTACTEditorial infoplanetbventurescomAdvertising adsplanetbventurescom
PAGE 4
CONTENTS 6 Sustainability News
20 Share and Share Alike
40 Using is the New Having
42 The Airbnb Story
48 A Matter of Trust
50 Come Work With Me
60 The Crowd
PAGE 5
20-40
14
12
1839
PAGE 6
Depth of support for peer-centred sharing economies on show in car sharing test case
PEERSORG MEMBERSFLEX MUSCLES IN SEATTLE RIDE SHARING FIGHT
Being billed the lsquoLast Stand in Seattlersquo the fight between Seattle City Council and its burgeoning ride sharing movement has stepped up a gear as Peersorg a member-driven organization that supports the sharing economy movement rallied in support
The Council is currently considering passing new regulatory legislationwhich will make car sharing illegal but has been caught off-guard by the depth of opposition to their plans from the general public
Hundreds of Peers members from the area joined forces with other ride-sharing advocates on the steps of Seattle City Hall to make the council aware that they want to see more sharing ndash not less ndash in their city
Peers members ChrisTiana Obey and Ben Nimmons spoke at the rally along with John Zimmer co-founder and president of Lyft and Alex Lofton a committed Peers leader
The message at the rally was clear Seattle should save ridesharing If the current rules on the table pass many people
will be unable to continue mdash a big setback for the thousands who have come to depend on the sharing economy to get around
ldquoWe believe in smart regulationsrdquo said Lofton ldquoPeers members are fighting for rules that are fair safe and will allow innovation and transportation options to flourish In cities everywhere as we transition to a society that owns less and shares more we need more transportation options not lessrdquo
PAGE 7
After tough debate between member states the EC has proposed binding targets for reductions in CO2 emissions by 40 compared to 1990 levels
This will be achieved by ldquodomestic measures alonerdquo and not offsetting with credits from other countries
Also included is a 27 target for renewable energy production some countries such as the UK and Poland had argued for more flexibility and while this is binding at an EU level no individual state targets are set
Pressure groups were disappointed that the energy efficiency target for 2030 of
a 25 improvement is only indicative and that targets for emissions from fuels will be dropped
The proposals will need to be approved by member states and European Parliament before implementationSource theguardian bbccouk
European Commission targets40 emissions reduction and27 Renewables production by 2030
EU 2030 CLIMATE GOALS PROPOSED
PAGE 8
El Nintildeo is the warm phase of a natural climate cycle in the pacific the shift in distribution of warmer water influences rain and storms around the world
Global warming will cause the sea temperatures to rise making it easier for an extreme el Nintildeo event to occur
Historically the researchers focussed on modelling potential sea temperature rises but this work was inconclusive However a new study from CSIRO an Australian government body defined an
extreme el Nintildeo by its associated effects an increase in rainfall by a factor of 10 The results showed a likely increase of extreme events to every 10 years (from 20)
Whilst in some areas an increase in rainfall may be welcomed previous extreme el Nintildeo events have brought devastating droughts wildfires and flooding to nations on the Pacific RimSource csmonitorcom
THERE MAY BE TROUBLE AHEADNew research predicts extreme weather events every 10 years instead of every 20
PAGE 9
Image February 8th 1983 a massive reddish-brown cloud advanced on the city of Melbourne The dust storm was a consequence of devastating droughts induced by the extreme El Nino of 198283 The frequency of such extreme El Nino events occurring in the future as the Earthrsquos climate warms further is predicted to double[Credit Australia Bureau of MeteorologyTrevor Farrar]
PAGE 10
CLEAN COALDIRTY WATER
Chemical spill leaves 300000 without water in West VirginiaUp to 5000 gallons of the chemical used in the washing of coal was released into the Elk River from a facility 1 mile upsteam from the stateacutes biggest water processing plant
The governor declared a disaster banned tap water use and the National Guard arranged to hand out bottled water
The ban affected not only residential use but restaurants hospitals and nursing homes Clean
water was flushed through the system but it wasnacutet until 10 days later that the ban was fully lifted
The responsible site had not been inspected since 1991 after the spill its owner filed for bankruptcy protectionSource nbcnewscom foxnewscom chicagotribunecom
short
PAGE 11
Negative comment around electric cars has feared that the electric grid will not be able to cope with the increased levels of demand and would require restructuring and upgrade
A report from Navigant Research shows that this is a misconception stemming from a misunderstanding of the actual energy consumption of electric cars
12000 miles a year usage would add about a third to home electricity demand requiring only minor grid upgrades this has already happened to much of the grid due to demand from air-conditioning
Furthermore as cars are not charged during peak times the increase in load is small
Data from current levels of electric car use has confirmed their limited impact on the grid
Source csmonitorcom
Study shows electric carsrsquo compatibility with electric grids
ALREADYSMART
short
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 2
Many years ago I used to publish a comedy magazine in Singapore Yeah I know half way to funny in itself but true It was actually very popular and paid for itself by selling ads which generally speaking people paid for with money Until that is one of our regular customers a wholesale beer importer phoned me up to say that he wouldnrsquot be able to pay his bill on time that month On account of having used up his cashflow buying a huge amount of beer that hersquod been offered at les than half the normal price It was an opportunity of a lifetime and just on the off-chance how would I feel about being paid in beer instead
What the heck I thought He was offering me nearly twice the value of the bill in beer in terms of what it would cost me to buy it at the supermarket he had some really interesting brands from all over the world and Irsquove always been a sucker for beer True to his word the
following morning one of his trucks turned up and offloaded a huge stack of beer at our office and I can honestly say it was way way more exciting than receiving a cheque
Over the next few weeks we gradually sold the beer at half price to our readers who like
us were rather thrilled At the end of the day the ad cost the beer man about a quarter of the cash price our readers got half price beer and we ended up with our money Everyone a winner as 70s disco band Hot Chocolate once so aptly put it
It was my first experience of what is formally known as barter but it wasnrsquot my last Sharing our spare capacity which is what we were actually doing is coming back into fashion in a big way thanks to the internet Spare beds spare seats in
cars seldomly used golf clubs spare working hours you name it theyrsquore sharing it For more see our main story about the growth of sharing economies on page 20 entitled lsquoShare and Share Alikersquo
Plus our normal round up of news from the world of
sustainability (page 6) an in-depth look at the phenomenal growth of spare room rental site Airbnb (page 42) and a selection of worthy crowdfunding
projects and gadgets in our regular closing section lsquoThe Crowdrsquo on page 60
Itrsquos been a pleasure sharing our thoughts this month on the subject of sharing and wersquod love to hear from you if yo have any thoughts yoursquod like to share right back with us
Enough using the word sharing Yeah I agree Until next time
Joe Swain
WELCOME
Spare beds spare seats in cars seldomly used golf clubs spare
working hours you name it theyrsquore sharing it
PAGE 3
ABOUT US2050 Magazine is all about renewable ener-gy and our journey towards the day when the whole world will have access to cheap clean sustainable sources of energy Some-thing which we think will happen by 2050 As long as we all pull together and do our bit This is our bit
EDITORIALWe are very fortunate to have constant access to an incredibly talented pool of people some of them with decades of experience in the field of sustainability They tell us things and we write it down and add pretty pictures Then we send it all wrapped up in tinsel to the world at large Thatrsquos it in a nutshell really
DISTRIBUTION2050 is a free publication which is distributed around the world through a variety of lsquofriendrsquo networks We are currently connected to more than 1 million supporters A number which is growing on a daily basis Please feel free to pass us on to your own networks if you think they might be interested in keeping in touch with whatrsquos going on in the world of sustainable energy
PUBLISHERS 2050 Magazine is a joint effort by Planet B Ventures and Spinning Plate Media Ltd and is partly funded by crowdfunding on impactcrowdcom
CONTACTEditorial infoplanetbventurescomAdvertising adsplanetbventurescom
PAGE 4
CONTENTS 6 Sustainability News
20 Share and Share Alike
40 Using is the New Having
42 The Airbnb Story
48 A Matter of Trust
50 Come Work With Me
60 The Crowd
PAGE 5
20-40
14
12
1839
PAGE 6
Depth of support for peer-centred sharing economies on show in car sharing test case
PEERSORG MEMBERSFLEX MUSCLES IN SEATTLE RIDE SHARING FIGHT
Being billed the lsquoLast Stand in Seattlersquo the fight between Seattle City Council and its burgeoning ride sharing movement has stepped up a gear as Peersorg a member-driven organization that supports the sharing economy movement rallied in support
The Council is currently considering passing new regulatory legislationwhich will make car sharing illegal but has been caught off-guard by the depth of opposition to their plans from the general public
Hundreds of Peers members from the area joined forces with other ride-sharing advocates on the steps of Seattle City Hall to make the council aware that they want to see more sharing ndash not less ndash in their city
Peers members ChrisTiana Obey and Ben Nimmons spoke at the rally along with John Zimmer co-founder and president of Lyft and Alex Lofton a committed Peers leader
The message at the rally was clear Seattle should save ridesharing If the current rules on the table pass many people
will be unable to continue mdash a big setback for the thousands who have come to depend on the sharing economy to get around
ldquoWe believe in smart regulationsrdquo said Lofton ldquoPeers members are fighting for rules that are fair safe and will allow innovation and transportation options to flourish In cities everywhere as we transition to a society that owns less and shares more we need more transportation options not lessrdquo
PAGE 7
After tough debate between member states the EC has proposed binding targets for reductions in CO2 emissions by 40 compared to 1990 levels
This will be achieved by ldquodomestic measures alonerdquo and not offsetting with credits from other countries
Also included is a 27 target for renewable energy production some countries such as the UK and Poland had argued for more flexibility and while this is binding at an EU level no individual state targets are set
Pressure groups were disappointed that the energy efficiency target for 2030 of
a 25 improvement is only indicative and that targets for emissions from fuels will be dropped
The proposals will need to be approved by member states and European Parliament before implementationSource theguardian bbccouk
European Commission targets40 emissions reduction and27 Renewables production by 2030
EU 2030 CLIMATE GOALS PROPOSED
PAGE 8
El Nintildeo is the warm phase of a natural climate cycle in the pacific the shift in distribution of warmer water influences rain and storms around the world
Global warming will cause the sea temperatures to rise making it easier for an extreme el Nintildeo event to occur
Historically the researchers focussed on modelling potential sea temperature rises but this work was inconclusive However a new study from CSIRO an Australian government body defined an
extreme el Nintildeo by its associated effects an increase in rainfall by a factor of 10 The results showed a likely increase of extreme events to every 10 years (from 20)
Whilst in some areas an increase in rainfall may be welcomed previous extreme el Nintildeo events have brought devastating droughts wildfires and flooding to nations on the Pacific RimSource csmonitorcom
THERE MAY BE TROUBLE AHEADNew research predicts extreme weather events every 10 years instead of every 20
PAGE 9
Image February 8th 1983 a massive reddish-brown cloud advanced on the city of Melbourne The dust storm was a consequence of devastating droughts induced by the extreme El Nino of 198283 The frequency of such extreme El Nino events occurring in the future as the Earthrsquos climate warms further is predicted to double[Credit Australia Bureau of MeteorologyTrevor Farrar]
PAGE 10
CLEAN COALDIRTY WATER
Chemical spill leaves 300000 without water in West VirginiaUp to 5000 gallons of the chemical used in the washing of coal was released into the Elk River from a facility 1 mile upsteam from the stateacutes biggest water processing plant
The governor declared a disaster banned tap water use and the National Guard arranged to hand out bottled water
The ban affected not only residential use but restaurants hospitals and nursing homes Clean
water was flushed through the system but it wasnacutet until 10 days later that the ban was fully lifted
The responsible site had not been inspected since 1991 after the spill its owner filed for bankruptcy protectionSource nbcnewscom foxnewscom chicagotribunecom
short
PAGE 11
Negative comment around electric cars has feared that the electric grid will not be able to cope with the increased levels of demand and would require restructuring and upgrade
A report from Navigant Research shows that this is a misconception stemming from a misunderstanding of the actual energy consumption of electric cars
12000 miles a year usage would add about a third to home electricity demand requiring only minor grid upgrades this has already happened to much of the grid due to demand from air-conditioning
Furthermore as cars are not charged during peak times the increase in load is small
Data from current levels of electric car use has confirmed their limited impact on the grid
Source csmonitorcom
Study shows electric carsrsquo compatibility with electric grids
ALREADYSMART
short
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 3
ABOUT US2050 Magazine is all about renewable ener-gy and our journey towards the day when the whole world will have access to cheap clean sustainable sources of energy Some-thing which we think will happen by 2050 As long as we all pull together and do our bit This is our bit
EDITORIALWe are very fortunate to have constant access to an incredibly talented pool of people some of them with decades of experience in the field of sustainability They tell us things and we write it down and add pretty pictures Then we send it all wrapped up in tinsel to the world at large Thatrsquos it in a nutshell really
DISTRIBUTION2050 is a free publication which is distributed around the world through a variety of lsquofriendrsquo networks We are currently connected to more than 1 million supporters A number which is growing on a daily basis Please feel free to pass us on to your own networks if you think they might be interested in keeping in touch with whatrsquos going on in the world of sustainable energy
PUBLISHERS 2050 Magazine is a joint effort by Planet B Ventures and Spinning Plate Media Ltd and is partly funded by crowdfunding on impactcrowdcom
CONTACTEditorial infoplanetbventurescomAdvertising adsplanetbventurescom
PAGE 4
CONTENTS 6 Sustainability News
20 Share and Share Alike
40 Using is the New Having
42 The Airbnb Story
48 A Matter of Trust
50 Come Work With Me
60 The Crowd
PAGE 5
20-40
14
12
1839
PAGE 6
Depth of support for peer-centred sharing economies on show in car sharing test case
PEERSORG MEMBERSFLEX MUSCLES IN SEATTLE RIDE SHARING FIGHT
Being billed the lsquoLast Stand in Seattlersquo the fight between Seattle City Council and its burgeoning ride sharing movement has stepped up a gear as Peersorg a member-driven organization that supports the sharing economy movement rallied in support
The Council is currently considering passing new regulatory legislationwhich will make car sharing illegal but has been caught off-guard by the depth of opposition to their plans from the general public
Hundreds of Peers members from the area joined forces with other ride-sharing advocates on the steps of Seattle City Hall to make the council aware that they want to see more sharing ndash not less ndash in their city
Peers members ChrisTiana Obey and Ben Nimmons spoke at the rally along with John Zimmer co-founder and president of Lyft and Alex Lofton a committed Peers leader
The message at the rally was clear Seattle should save ridesharing If the current rules on the table pass many people
will be unable to continue mdash a big setback for the thousands who have come to depend on the sharing economy to get around
ldquoWe believe in smart regulationsrdquo said Lofton ldquoPeers members are fighting for rules that are fair safe and will allow innovation and transportation options to flourish In cities everywhere as we transition to a society that owns less and shares more we need more transportation options not lessrdquo
PAGE 7
After tough debate between member states the EC has proposed binding targets for reductions in CO2 emissions by 40 compared to 1990 levels
This will be achieved by ldquodomestic measures alonerdquo and not offsetting with credits from other countries
Also included is a 27 target for renewable energy production some countries such as the UK and Poland had argued for more flexibility and while this is binding at an EU level no individual state targets are set
Pressure groups were disappointed that the energy efficiency target for 2030 of
a 25 improvement is only indicative and that targets for emissions from fuels will be dropped
The proposals will need to be approved by member states and European Parliament before implementationSource theguardian bbccouk
European Commission targets40 emissions reduction and27 Renewables production by 2030
EU 2030 CLIMATE GOALS PROPOSED
PAGE 8
El Nintildeo is the warm phase of a natural climate cycle in the pacific the shift in distribution of warmer water influences rain and storms around the world
Global warming will cause the sea temperatures to rise making it easier for an extreme el Nintildeo event to occur
Historically the researchers focussed on modelling potential sea temperature rises but this work was inconclusive However a new study from CSIRO an Australian government body defined an
extreme el Nintildeo by its associated effects an increase in rainfall by a factor of 10 The results showed a likely increase of extreme events to every 10 years (from 20)
Whilst in some areas an increase in rainfall may be welcomed previous extreme el Nintildeo events have brought devastating droughts wildfires and flooding to nations on the Pacific RimSource csmonitorcom
THERE MAY BE TROUBLE AHEADNew research predicts extreme weather events every 10 years instead of every 20
PAGE 9
Image February 8th 1983 a massive reddish-brown cloud advanced on the city of Melbourne The dust storm was a consequence of devastating droughts induced by the extreme El Nino of 198283 The frequency of such extreme El Nino events occurring in the future as the Earthrsquos climate warms further is predicted to double[Credit Australia Bureau of MeteorologyTrevor Farrar]
PAGE 10
CLEAN COALDIRTY WATER
Chemical spill leaves 300000 without water in West VirginiaUp to 5000 gallons of the chemical used in the washing of coal was released into the Elk River from a facility 1 mile upsteam from the stateacutes biggest water processing plant
The governor declared a disaster banned tap water use and the National Guard arranged to hand out bottled water
The ban affected not only residential use but restaurants hospitals and nursing homes Clean
water was flushed through the system but it wasnacutet until 10 days later that the ban was fully lifted
The responsible site had not been inspected since 1991 after the spill its owner filed for bankruptcy protectionSource nbcnewscom foxnewscom chicagotribunecom
short
PAGE 11
Negative comment around electric cars has feared that the electric grid will not be able to cope with the increased levels of demand and would require restructuring and upgrade
A report from Navigant Research shows that this is a misconception stemming from a misunderstanding of the actual energy consumption of electric cars
12000 miles a year usage would add about a third to home electricity demand requiring only minor grid upgrades this has already happened to much of the grid due to demand from air-conditioning
Furthermore as cars are not charged during peak times the increase in load is small
Data from current levels of electric car use has confirmed their limited impact on the grid
Source csmonitorcom
Study shows electric carsrsquo compatibility with electric grids
ALREADYSMART
short
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 4
CONTENTS 6 Sustainability News
20 Share and Share Alike
40 Using is the New Having
42 The Airbnb Story
48 A Matter of Trust
50 Come Work With Me
60 The Crowd
PAGE 5
20-40
14
12
1839
PAGE 6
Depth of support for peer-centred sharing economies on show in car sharing test case
PEERSORG MEMBERSFLEX MUSCLES IN SEATTLE RIDE SHARING FIGHT
Being billed the lsquoLast Stand in Seattlersquo the fight between Seattle City Council and its burgeoning ride sharing movement has stepped up a gear as Peersorg a member-driven organization that supports the sharing economy movement rallied in support
The Council is currently considering passing new regulatory legislationwhich will make car sharing illegal but has been caught off-guard by the depth of opposition to their plans from the general public
Hundreds of Peers members from the area joined forces with other ride-sharing advocates on the steps of Seattle City Hall to make the council aware that they want to see more sharing ndash not less ndash in their city
Peers members ChrisTiana Obey and Ben Nimmons spoke at the rally along with John Zimmer co-founder and president of Lyft and Alex Lofton a committed Peers leader
The message at the rally was clear Seattle should save ridesharing If the current rules on the table pass many people
will be unable to continue mdash a big setback for the thousands who have come to depend on the sharing economy to get around
ldquoWe believe in smart regulationsrdquo said Lofton ldquoPeers members are fighting for rules that are fair safe and will allow innovation and transportation options to flourish In cities everywhere as we transition to a society that owns less and shares more we need more transportation options not lessrdquo
PAGE 7
After tough debate between member states the EC has proposed binding targets for reductions in CO2 emissions by 40 compared to 1990 levels
This will be achieved by ldquodomestic measures alonerdquo and not offsetting with credits from other countries
Also included is a 27 target for renewable energy production some countries such as the UK and Poland had argued for more flexibility and while this is binding at an EU level no individual state targets are set
Pressure groups were disappointed that the energy efficiency target for 2030 of
a 25 improvement is only indicative and that targets for emissions from fuels will be dropped
The proposals will need to be approved by member states and European Parliament before implementationSource theguardian bbccouk
European Commission targets40 emissions reduction and27 Renewables production by 2030
EU 2030 CLIMATE GOALS PROPOSED
PAGE 8
El Nintildeo is the warm phase of a natural climate cycle in the pacific the shift in distribution of warmer water influences rain and storms around the world
Global warming will cause the sea temperatures to rise making it easier for an extreme el Nintildeo event to occur
Historically the researchers focussed on modelling potential sea temperature rises but this work was inconclusive However a new study from CSIRO an Australian government body defined an
extreme el Nintildeo by its associated effects an increase in rainfall by a factor of 10 The results showed a likely increase of extreme events to every 10 years (from 20)
Whilst in some areas an increase in rainfall may be welcomed previous extreme el Nintildeo events have brought devastating droughts wildfires and flooding to nations on the Pacific RimSource csmonitorcom
THERE MAY BE TROUBLE AHEADNew research predicts extreme weather events every 10 years instead of every 20
PAGE 9
Image February 8th 1983 a massive reddish-brown cloud advanced on the city of Melbourne The dust storm was a consequence of devastating droughts induced by the extreme El Nino of 198283 The frequency of such extreme El Nino events occurring in the future as the Earthrsquos climate warms further is predicted to double[Credit Australia Bureau of MeteorologyTrevor Farrar]
PAGE 10
CLEAN COALDIRTY WATER
Chemical spill leaves 300000 without water in West VirginiaUp to 5000 gallons of the chemical used in the washing of coal was released into the Elk River from a facility 1 mile upsteam from the stateacutes biggest water processing plant
The governor declared a disaster banned tap water use and the National Guard arranged to hand out bottled water
The ban affected not only residential use but restaurants hospitals and nursing homes Clean
water was flushed through the system but it wasnacutet until 10 days later that the ban was fully lifted
The responsible site had not been inspected since 1991 after the spill its owner filed for bankruptcy protectionSource nbcnewscom foxnewscom chicagotribunecom
short
PAGE 11
Negative comment around electric cars has feared that the electric grid will not be able to cope with the increased levels of demand and would require restructuring and upgrade
A report from Navigant Research shows that this is a misconception stemming from a misunderstanding of the actual energy consumption of electric cars
12000 miles a year usage would add about a third to home electricity demand requiring only minor grid upgrades this has already happened to much of the grid due to demand from air-conditioning
Furthermore as cars are not charged during peak times the increase in load is small
Data from current levels of electric car use has confirmed their limited impact on the grid
Source csmonitorcom
Study shows electric carsrsquo compatibility with electric grids
ALREADYSMART
short
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 5
20-40
14
12
1839
PAGE 6
Depth of support for peer-centred sharing economies on show in car sharing test case
PEERSORG MEMBERSFLEX MUSCLES IN SEATTLE RIDE SHARING FIGHT
Being billed the lsquoLast Stand in Seattlersquo the fight between Seattle City Council and its burgeoning ride sharing movement has stepped up a gear as Peersorg a member-driven organization that supports the sharing economy movement rallied in support
The Council is currently considering passing new regulatory legislationwhich will make car sharing illegal but has been caught off-guard by the depth of opposition to their plans from the general public
Hundreds of Peers members from the area joined forces with other ride-sharing advocates on the steps of Seattle City Hall to make the council aware that they want to see more sharing ndash not less ndash in their city
Peers members ChrisTiana Obey and Ben Nimmons spoke at the rally along with John Zimmer co-founder and president of Lyft and Alex Lofton a committed Peers leader
The message at the rally was clear Seattle should save ridesharing If the current rules on the table pass many people
will be unable to continue mdash a big setback for the thousands who have come to depend on the sharing economy to get around
ldquoWe believe in smart regulationsrdquo said Lofton ldquoPeers members are fighting for rules that are fair safe and will allow innovation and transportation options to flourish In cities everywhere as we transition to a society that owns less and shares more we need more transportation options not lessrdquo
PAGE 7
After tough debate between member states the EC has proposed binding targets for reductions in CO2 emissions by 40 compared to 1990 levels
This will be achieved by ldquodomestic measures alonerdquo and not offsetting with credits from other countries
Also included is a 27 target for renewable energy production some countries such as the UK and Poland had argued for more flexibility and while this is binding at an EU level no individual state targets are set
Pressure groups were disappointed that the energy efficiency target for 2030 of
a 25 improvement is only indicative and that targets for emissions from fuels will be dropped
The proposals will need to be approved by member states and European Parliament before implementationSource theguardian bbccouk
European Commission targets40 emissions reduction and27 Renewables production by 2030
EU 2030 CLIMATE GOALS PROPOSED
PAGE 8
El Nintildeo is the warm phase of a natural climate cycle in the pacific the shift in distribution of warmer water influences rain and storms around the world
Global warming will cause the sea temperatures to rise making it easier for an extreme el Nintildeo event to occur
Historically the researchers focussed on modelling potential sea temperature rises but this work was inconclusive However a new study from CSIRO an Australian government body defined an
extreme el Nintildeo by its associated effects an increase in rainfall by a factor of 10 The results showed a likely increase of extreme events to every 10 years (from 20)
Whilst in some areas an increase in rainfall may be welcomed previous extreme el Nintildeo events have brought devastating droughts wildfires and flooding to nations on the Pacific RimSource csmonitorcom
THERE MAY BE TROUBLE AHEADNew research predicts extreme weather events every 10 years instead of every 20
PAGE 9
Image February 8th 1983 a massive reddish-brown cloud advanced on the city of Melbourne The dust storm was a consequence of devastating droughts induced by the extreme El Nino of 198283 The frequency of such extreme El Nino events occurring in the future as the Earthrsquos climate warms further is predicted to double[Credit Australia Bureau of MeteorologyTrevor Farrar]
PAGE 10
CLEAN COALDIRTY WATER
Chemical spill leaves 300000 without water in West VirginiaUp to 5000 gallons of the chemical used in the washing of coal was released into the Elk River from a facility 1 mile upsteam from the stateacutes biggest water processing plant
The governor declared a disaster banned tap water use and the National Guard arranged to hand out bottled water
The ban affected not only residential use but restaurants hospitals and nursing homes Clean
water was flushed through the system but it wasnacutet until 10 days later that the ban was fully lifted
The responsible site had not been inspected since 1991 after the spill its owner filed for bankruptcy protectionSource nbcnewscom foxnewscom chicagotribunecom
short
PAGE 11
Negative comment around electric cars has feared that the electric grid will not be able to cope with the increased levels of demand and would require restructuring and upgrade
A report from Navigant Research shows that this is a misconception stemming from a misunderstanding of the actual energy consumption of electric cars
12000 miles a year usage would add about a third to home electricity demand requiring only minor grid upgrades this has already happened to much of the grid due to demand from air-conditioning
Furthermore as cars are not charged during peak times the increase in load is small
Data from current levels of electric car use has confirmed their limited impact on the grid
Source csmonitorcom
Study shows electric carsrsquo compatibility with electric grids
ALREADYSMART
short
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 6
Depth of support for peer-centred sharing economies on show in car sharing test case
PEERSORG MEMBERSFLEX MUSCLES IN SEATTLE RIDE SHARING FIGHT
Being billed the lsquoLast Stand in Seattlersquo the fight between Seattle City Council and its burgeoning ride sharing movement has stepped up a gear as Peersorg a member-driven organization that supports the sharing economy movement rallied in support
The Council is currently considering passing new regulatory legislationwhich will make car sharing illegal but has been caught off-guard by the depth of opposition to their plans from the general public
Hundreds of Peers members from the area joined forces with other ride-sharing advocates on the steps of Seattle City Hall to make the council aware that they want to see more sharing ndash not less ndash in their city
Peers members ChrisTiana Obey and Ben Nimmons spoke at the rally along with John Zimmer co-founder and president of Lyft and Alex Lofton a committed Peers leader
The message at the rally was clear Seattle should save ridesharing If the current rules on the table pass many people
will be unable to continue mdash a big setback for the thousands who have come to depend on the sharing economy to get around
ldquoWe believe in smart regulationsrdquo said Lofton ldquoPeers members are fighting for rules that are fair safe and will allow innovation and transportation options to flourish In cities everywhere as we transition to a society that owns less and shares more we need more transportation options not lessrdquo
PAGE 7
After tough debate between member states the EC has proposed binding targets for reductions in CO2 emissions by 40 compared to 1990 levels
This will be achieved by ldquodomestic measures alonerdquo and not offsetting with credits from other countries
Also included is a 27 target for renewable energy production some countries such as the UK and Poland had argued for more flexibility and while this is binding at an EU level no individual state targets are set
Pressure groups were disappointed that the energy efficiency target for 2030 of
a 25 improvement is only indicative and that targets for emissions from fuels will be dropped
The proposals will need to be approved by member states and European Parliament before implementationSource theguardian bbccouk
European Commission targets40 emissions reduction and27 Renewables production by 2030
EU 2030 CLIMATE GOALS PROPOSED
PAGE 8
El Nintildeo is the warm phase of a natural climate cycle in the pacific the shift in distribution of warmer water influences rain and storms around the world
Global warming will cause the sea temperatures to rise making it easier for an extreme el Nintildeo event to occur
Historically the researchers focussed on modelling potential sea temperature rises but this work was inconclusive However a new study from CSIRO an Australian government body defined an
extreme el Nintildeo by its associated effects an increase in rainfall by a factor of 10 The results showed a likely increase of extreme events to every 10 years (from 20)
Whilst in some areas an increase in rainfall may be welcomed previous extreme el Nintildeo events have brought devastating droughts wildfires and flooding to nations on the Pacific RimSource csmonitorcom
THERE MAY BE TROUBLE AHEADNew research predicts extreme weather events every 10 years instead of every 20
PAGE 9
Image February 8th 1983 a massive reddish-brown cloud advanced on the city of Melbourne The dust storm was a consequence of devastating droughts induced by the extreme El Nino of 198283 The frequency of such extreme El Nino events occurring in the future as the Earthrsquos climate warms further is predicted to double[Credit Australia Bureau of MeteorologyTrevor Farrar]
PAGE 10
CLEAN COALDIRTY WATER
Chemical spill leaves 300000 without water in West VirginiaUp to 5000 gallons of the chemical used in the washing of coal was released into the Elk River from a facility 1 mile upsteam from the stateacutes biggest water processing plant
The governor declared a disaster banned tap water use and the National Guard arranged to hand out bottled water
The ban affected not only residential use but restaurants hospitals and nursing homes Clean
water was flushed through the system but it wasnacutet until 10 days later that the ban was fully lifted
The responsible site had not been inspected since 1991 after the spill its owner filed for bankruptcy protectionSource nbcnewscom foxnewscom chicagotribunecom
short
PAGE 11
Negative comment around electric cars has feared that the electric grid will not be able to cope with the increased levels of demand and would require restructuring and upgrade
A report from Navigant Research shows that this is a misconception stemming from a misunderstanding of the actual energy consumption of electric cars
12000 miles a year usage would add about a third to home electricity demand requiring only minor grid upgrades this has already happened to much of the grid due to demand from air-conditioning
Furthermore as cars are not charged during peak times the increase in load is small
Data from current levels of electric car use has confirmed their limited impact on the grid
Source csmonitorcom
Study shows electric carsrsquo compatibility with electric grids
ALREADYSMART
short
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 7
After tough debate between member states the EC has proposed binding targets for reductions in CO2 emissions by 40 compared to 1990 levels
This will be achieved by ldquodomestic measures alonerdquo and not offsetting with credits from other countries
Also included is a 27 target for renewable energy production some countries such as the UK and Poland had argued for more flexibility and while this is binding at an EU level no individual state targets are set
Pressure groups were disappointed that the energy efficiency target for 2030 of
a 25 improvement is only indicative and that targets for emissions from fuels will be dropped
The proposals will need to be approved by member states and European Parliament before implementationSource theguardian bbccouk
European Commission targets40 emissions reduction and27 Renewables production by 2030
EU 2030 CLIMATE GOALS PROPOSED
PAGE 8
El Nintildeo is the warm phase of a natural climate cycle in the pacific the shift in distribution of warmer water influences rain and storms around the world
Global warming will cause the sea temperatures to rise making it easier for an extreme el Nintildeo event to occur
Historically the researchers focussed on modelling potential sea temperature rises but this work was inconclusive However a new study from CSIRO an Australian government body defined an
extreme el Nintildeo by its associated effects an increase in rainfall by a factor of 10 The results showed a likely increase of extreme events to every 10 years (from 20)
Whilst in some areas an increase in rainfall may be welcomed previous extreme el Nintildeo events have brought devastating droughts wildfires and flooding to nations on the Pacific RimSource csmonitorcom
THERE MAY BE TROUBLE AHEADNew research predicts extreme weather events every 10 years instead of every 20
PAGE 9
Image February 8th 1983 a massive reddish-brown cloud advanced on the city of Melbourne The dust storm was a consequence of devastating droughts induced by the extreme El Nino of 198283 The frequency of such extreme El Nino events occurring in the future as the Earthrsquos climate warms further is predicted to double[Credit Australia Bureau of MeteorologyTrevor Farrar]
PAGE 10
CLEAN COALDIRTY WATER
Chemical spill leaves 300000 without water in West VirginiaUp to 5000 gallons of the chemical used in the washing of coal was released into the Elk River from a facility 1 mile upsteam from the stateacutes biggest water processing plant
The governor declared a disaster banned tap water use and the National Guard arranged to hand out bottled water
The ban affected not only residential use but restaurants hospitals and nursing homes Clean
water was flushed through the system but it wasnacutet until 10 days later that the ban was fully lifted
The responsible site had not been inspected since 1991 after the spill its owner filed for bankruptcy protectionSource nbcnewscom foxnewscom chicagotribunecom
short
PAGE 11
Negative comment around electric cars has feared that the electric grid will not be able to cope with the increased levels of demand and would require restructuring and upgrade
A report from Navigant Research shows that this is a misconception stemming from a misunderstanding of the actual energy consumption of electric cars
12000 miles a year usage would add about a third to home electricity demand requiring only minor grid upgrades this has already happened to much of the grid due to demand from air-conditioning
Furthermore as cars are not charged during peak times the increase in load is small
Data from current levels of electric car use has confirmed their limited impact on the grid
Source csmonitorcom
Study shows electric carsrsquo compatibility with electric grids
ALREADYSMART
short
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 8
El Nintildeo is the warm phase of a natural climate cycle in the pacific the shift in distribution of warmer water influences rain and storms around the world
Global warming will cause the sea temperatures to rise making it easier for an extreme el Nintildeo event to occur
Historically the researchers focussed on modelling potential sea temperature rises but this work was inconclusive However a new study from CSIRO an Australian government body defined an
extreme el Nintildeo by its associated effects an increase in rainfall by a factor of 10 The results showed a likely increase of extreme events to every 10 years (from 20)
Whilst in some areas an increase in rainfall may be welcomed previous extreme el Nintildeo events have brought devastating droughts wildfires and flooding to nations on the Pacific RimSource csmonitorcom
THERE MAY BE TROUBLE AHEADNew research predicts extreme weather events every 10 years instead of every 20
PAGE 9
Image February 8th 1983 a massive reddish-brown cloud advanced on the city of Melbourne The dust storm was a consequence of devastating droughts induced by the extreme El Nino of 198283 The frequency of such extreme El Nino events occurring in the future as the Earthrsquos climate warms further is predicted to double[Credit Australia Bureau of MeteorologyTrevor Farrar]
PAGE 10
CLEAN COALDIRTY WATER
Chemical spill leaves 300000 without water in West VirginiaUp to 5000 gallons of the chemical used in the washing of coal was released into the Elk River from a facility 1 mile upsteam from the stateacutes biggest water processing plant
The governor declared a disaster banned tap water use and the National Guard arranged to hand out bottled water
The ban affected not only residential use but restaurants hospitals and nursing homes Clean
water was flushed through the system but it wasnacutet until 10 days later that the ban was fully lifted
The responsible site had not been inspected since 1991 after the spill its owner filed for bankruptcy protectionSource nbcnewscom foxnewscom chicagotribunecom
short
PAGE 11
Negative comment around electric cars has feared that the electric grid will not be able to cope with the increased levels of demand and would require restructuring and upgrade
A report from Navigant Research shows that this is a misconception stemming from a misunderstanding of the actual energy consumption of electric cars
12000 miles a year usage would add about a third to home electricity demand requiring only minor grid upgrades this has already happened to much of the grid due to demand from air-conditioning
Furthermore as cars are not charged during peak times the increase in load is small
Data from current levels of electric car use has confirmed their limited impact on the grid
Source csmonitorcom
Study shows electric carsrsquo compatibility with electric grids
ALREADYSMART
short
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 9
Image February 8th 1983 a massive reddish-brown cloud advanced on the city of Melbourne The dust storm was a consequence of devastating droughts induced by the extreme El Nino of 198283 The frequency of such extreme El Nino events occurring in the future as the Earthrsquos climate warms further is predicted to double[Credit Australia Bureau of MeteorologyTrevor Farrar]
PAGE 10
CLEAN COALDIRTY WATER
Chemical spill leaves 300000 without water in West VirginiaUp to 5000 gallons of the chemical used in the washing of coal was released into the Elk River from a facility 1 mile upsteam from the stateacutes biggest water processing plant
The governor declared a disaster banned tap water use and the National Guard arranged to hand out bottled water
The ban affected not only residential use but restaurants hospitals and nursing homes Clean
water was flushed through the system but it wasnacutet until 10 days later that the ban was fully lifted
The responsible site had not been inspected since 1991 after the spill its owner filed for bankruptcy protectionSource nbcnewscom foxnewscom chicagotribunecom
short
PAGE 11
Negative comment around electric cars has feared that the electric grid will not be able to cope with the increased levels of demand and would require restructuring and upgrade
A report from Navigant Research shows that this is a misconception stemming from a misunderstanding of the actual energy consumption of electric cars
12000 miles a year usage would add about a third to home electricity demand requiring only minor grid upgrades this has already happened to much of the grid due to demand from air-conditioning
Furthermore as cars are not charged during peak times the increase in load is small
Data from current levels of electric car use has confirmed their limited impact on the grid
Source csmonitorcom
Study shows electric carsrsquo compatibility with electric grids
ALREADYSMART
short
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 10
CLEAN COALDIRTY WATER
Chemical spill leaves 300000 without water in West VirginiaUp to 5000 gallons of the chemical used in the washing of coal was released into the Elk River from a facility 1 mile upsteam from the stateacutes biggest water processing plant
The governor declared a disaster banned tap water use and the National Guard arranged to hand out bottled water
The ban affected not only residential use but restaurants hospitals and nursing homes Clean
water was flushed through the system but it wasnacutet until 10 days later that the ban was fully lifted
The responsible site had not been inspected since 1991 after the spill its owner filed for bankruptcy protectionSource nbcnewscom foxnewscom chicagotribunecom
short
PAGE 11
Negative comment around electric cars has feared that the electric grid will not be able to cope with the increased levels of demand and would require restructuring and upgrade
A report from Navigant Research shows that this is a misconception stemming from a misunderstanding of the actual energy consumption of electric cars
12000 miles a year usage would add about a third to home electricity demand requiring only minor grid upgrades this has already happened to much of the grid due to demand from air-conditioning
Furthermore as cars are not charged during peak times the increase in load is small
Data from current levels of electric car use has confirmed their limited impact on the grid
Source csmonitorcom
Study shows electric carsrsquo compatibility with electric grids
ALREADYSMART
short
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 11
Negative comment around electric cars has feared that the electric grid will not be able to cope with the increased levels of demand and would require restructuring and upgrade
A report from Navigant Research shows that this is a misconception stemming from a misunderstanding of the actual energy consumption of electric cars
12000 miles a year usage would add about a third to home electricity demand requiring only minor grid upgrades this has already happened to much of the grid due to demand from air-conditioning
Furthermore as cars are not charged during peak times the increase in load is small
Data from current levels of electric car use has confirmed their limited impact on the grid
Source csmonitorcom
Study shows electric carsrsquo compatibility with electric grids
ALREADYSMART
short
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 12
PLANTING THE FUTUREAfrican plant breeding academy established in KenyaA new centre in Nairobi will first train 250 scientists and then sequence the genomes of ldquoorphan cropsrdquo native African plant varieties historically ignored by science
101 food crops have been identified with the goal of improving pest-resistance nutrition and yield They will then be offered to smallholder farmers across the continent
Advanced genomic techniques will be used for selection but genetic modification will not The data will be freely available and no intellectual property protection will be taken
The Academy is an initiative of the African Orphan Crops Consortium ndash a broad grouping of government agencies companies NGOs scientists from the US Africa Europe and ChinaSource theecologistorg
short
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 13
GET A REAL TASTE OF SPAIN
wwweatwithcom
EATWITH A LOCAL
Discover the most deliciousfoodie community in the world
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 14
SHARKS AND RAYS lsquoRED-LISTEDrsquoFirst ever global analysis shows a quarter of the worldrsquos rays and sharks at risk of extinctionAn update to the International Union of Conservation and Natureacutes ldquoRed Listrdquo shows that rays sharks and chimera (another type of cartilaginous fish) face a higher risk of extinction than other animals only 23 of species can be categorised as safe
A great part of the threat is unintentional (eg in shallow waters where they are entangled in fishing nets) however sharks and rays are increasingly targeted for commerce (particularly for shark fin soup but also for medicinal products) and where they are seen as a threat to humans and fishing activities
The threat of depletion is particularly elevated in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Thailand with the Red Sea also home to a number of endangered speciesSource nbcnewscom
short
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 15
wwwrockstartcom
accelerator - academy - answers - impact - campus - spaces
Entrepreneurship leads to
endless opportunities for those ready
to grasp them
Step forward Start
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 16
With smog recently reducing visibility in the capital to a few hundred metres the only way Biejing residents had to see the sun rise was on a huge LED screen
The New Year brought increased pollution levels Beijing partille levels were measured at 26 times World Heath Authority safe levels while in the Nothern city of Harbin these touched 50 times
In China environmental concerns have long been sacrificed for economic growth and air quality in cities is frequently poor particularly in winter when stagnant air patterns combine with increased winter coal burning
Source weathercom
LAND OF THEMISSING SUN
Sunrise screened
inTianamen
Square
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 17
French oil company Total has announced a deal with an existing player to spend up to USD50m in developing existing and new shale gas exploration licences in England
The news is seen as a starting gun for accelerated development of the industry with the UKrsquos Energy Minster expecting 20-40 shale gas exploration sites to be drilled in England in the next two years
Greenpeace accused the central government of ldquobriberyrdquo as it was expected to allow local authorities to keep all business rates (taxes) incentives of GBP100000 and 1 of revenues were previously announced
The success of the fracking industry is not certain but proponents claim that if 10 of estimated reserves can be extracted they would cover UK demand for the next 50 years
Source bbccouk
FRENCH FRACKERSFirst oil major enters UK shale gas market
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 18
COLONIAL COLLAPSE
Chemical cocktail causes bee colony collapse
In the last 6 years an estimated 10million beehives have been wiped out in the US by Colony Collapse Disorder where the entire hive dies at once
Bees are vital to agricultural production and in the US the problem has become extreme For example it now takes 60 of the surviving colonies to pollinate Californiarsquos almonds
A new study by the University of Maryland and the US
Department of Agriculture did not identify the root cause of CCD but found that a combination of certain pesticides and fungicides that are not individually harmful to bees reduced their resistance to a parasite that causes the problem
This makes the problem more complex as attention will need to be given to how bees are exposed to pesticides and fungicides outside of their
home site and balancing this with the benefits to agricultural production that these chemicals bring Source treehuggercom
short
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 20
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKEThe rise and rise of sharing economies
The old story goes that a recently deceased man is being accompanied to Heaven by an angel The angel surprises the man by asking him if he would like to have a quick look at Hell before they hop into the gilded swan chariot for the final leg of their celestial journey
The man agrees and is surprised to be shown to an enormous banqueting hall where the tables are heavy with delicious food and large bottles of the house wine a cheeky little Spanish rioja
More surprisingly is that despite all the food the people of Hell are thin and hungry and with the possible exception of a table of super-models desperately unhappy
The angel explains that while they are allowed to eat as much food as they want they can only do so with a six-foot long fork A limitation which sees most of them spending
the remainder of eternity a little on the bony side
When the man finally gets to Heaven the angel shows him into another banqueting hall which turns out to be exactly the same as the one in Hell its tables also heavy under the weight of a sumptuous feast But the people in Heaven look well fed healthy and happy
ldquoShorter forksrdquo The man enquires To which the angel replies ldquoActually no Theyrsquore six feet long just like the ones in Hell The only difference here is that people feed each other rather than themselvesrdquo
Old ways new methods
Which only goes to show that sharing isnrsquot a brand new concept despite what you hear these days about the prolific growth of lsquosharing economiesrsquo Indeed you donrsquot even need to be dead to take part
But it does help if you have something to share like a spare room a seat in your car to work a set of golf clubs you rarely use a desk in your office room in your house to look after someone elsersquos dog for the holidays a car to rent (that might otherwise spend your holidays in an expensive airport car park) a wi-fi network an inflatable bouncy castle or god forbid an expensive wedding dress
Everyonersquos doing it and not just with things People are running errands for their neighbours sharing intellectual copyrights swapping work hours and even insuring each other against ill-healthAll of which has been made so much easier by the internet in terms of its ability to match supply with demand (using smartphones GPS and maps) handle payments (where applicable) and utilize social networks and recommendation systems to solve trust issuesBut is all this sharing of spare
Improvements in technology egged on by the effervescent antics of the information revolution is making it easier than ever for people to rent things to each other A trend which because of its integral peer-to-peer characteristics has given birth (or more accurately perhaps lsquobreathed life intorsquo) the term lsquosharing economiesrsquo But is all this lsquosharingrsquo just a short-term reaction to the global financial crisis or the beginning of a whole new way of doing things Joe Swain investigates
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 21
capacity and under utilised assets just a flash in the pan reaction to the global economic crisis Is it here to stay or will it all just fizzle away once people have more money in their pockets again Will it be battered down by the inevitable regulatory backlash (ldquoDo you have a permit to rent out that skateboard sirrdquo)
or will people power force the rules to be changed to accommodate what many people are heralding as a far more resource-efficient way of lsquodoing businessrsquo
State of the market
The rapid growth over the last five years of internet
companies offering platforms to facilitate all this sharing and the millions of people who have signed up to use them are certainly evidence of a fairly good start
The most often cited examples perhaps being Airbnb through whom you can rent out your spare room and Snappcar or
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel
Have these people never watched Psychordquo (Thomas Friedman New York Times)
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 22
Wheelz who will help you find people to rent your car to These are no Mickey Mouse operations They boast the sort of opt-in customer networks many larger more established companies can only dream about
One of the reasons theyrsquove grown so quickly is that all theyrsquove really done is tap into resources that already exist Theyrsquore not buying fleets of cars or building hotels Theyrsquore
simply encouraging ordinary people like you and me to use their network to rent out our spare stuff and taking a small percentage of the deal for their trouble
And therersquos certainly a lot of spare stuff around when you consider that the average car spends 93 of its time parked outside either your house or place of work or that the average amount of time a power drill is used in a year is
just 13 minutes or that 75 of all exercise bikes like mine would be more aptly described as lsquoexpensive clothes racksrsquo Okay I made that last one up but I bet itrsquos not far off the mark
The point being that all that spare stuff has a value Rachel Botsman author of lsquoWhatrsquos Mine Is Yoursrsquo and an authroity on collaborative consumption generally has calculated that the peer-to-peer rental market
ldquoWe couldnrsquot have existed ten years ago before Facebook because people werenrsquot
really into sharingrdquo says Nate Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos founders
Airbnbrsquos lsquoanyone can do itrsquo approach has been particularly popular with tech-savvy members
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 23
alone is worth $26 billion One can only assume that when you add in the cars the golf clubs and the wedding dresses that value would double or even treble Again Irsquom no economist but go with me here
Call it what you will
A wider definition of the sharing economy could also comprise peer-to-peer lending (although not everyone would view cash as a spare fixed asset) or house owners putting solar panels on their roofs and selling the excess power back to the grid or barter exchanges in which people directly swap one good or service for another
The one term they all seem to have in common perhaps is lsquosparersquo Spare capacity spare time spare parts
Other terms used to describe this process include lsquocollaborative consumptionrsquo lsquoasset-light lifestyles lsquocollaborative economiesrsquo lsquopeer economiesrsquo and lsquoaccess economiesrsquo The overall mantra perhaps being that access not ownership is now king
All of which is encouraging people to dust off their lsquothingsrsquo sign them up with the appropriate platforms and make a little money back on them when theyrsquore not using them And whatrsquos wrong with that
There are those who might argue that this is little different from taking in lodgers running a bed-and-breakfast owning a timeshare or getting involved in a car pool But that would be to ignore the powerful effect technology has had in reducing both the hassle factor for participants and their transaction costs Thereby making everything so much more scalable
Another massive difference is the availability now of so much more data about people and things which effectively
There are several factors behind the growth of sharing economies1 Peer-to peer rental systems are often cheaper and easier for renters
2 Lenders can earn useful extra cash from assets they already own
3 Paying for access to things that we only want to use occasionally or temporarily is nearly always cheaper than buying them
4 The rise of the internet has made it ever easier for the exchange platforms to play matchmaker between supply and demand
5 Smartphones with GPS capability and mapping systems are helping us find those things ndash be it a cheap room to rent or a set of golf clubs to borrow - when we need them and where we need them
6 Social networking groups and self-policing recommendation systems are helping to promote the vital ingredient of trust within the systems
7 The payment side of things is being neatly taken care of by established internet payment routes such as Paypal
8 Being seen by many as a more lsquosociablersquo way of doing business
9 Being seen by most as environmentally friendly ndash letrsquos use what we already have before we start building new ones
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 24
disaggregates physical assets and allows them to be consumed as services (whatever that means I read it in the Economist)
Is it because wersquore poor
For those who believe that all this sharing has sprung from austerity therersquos no denying the fact that a large proportion of peer-to-peer
rental firms were formed between 2008 and 2010 When getting your hands on cash for investment was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone and people in general their savings dwindling were scraping around for inventive new ways to pay the gas bill that didnrsquot involve taking in laundry (Although now you come to mention ithellip)
Indeed a recent article in the Economist described the growth of sharing economies as ldquoa post-crisis antidote to materialism and overconsumptionrdquo
A position supported by Airbnb which claims that its members in San Francisco (where the company started) rent out their homes for an average of 58 nights a year making
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
Bike sharing schemes are nowcommonplace in most major cities
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 25
AirbnbcomAn online service allowing individuals to rent out their spare room or whole flat to other site members on an occasional andor temporary basis
Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco Airbnb povides a platform for individuals referred to as ldquohostsrdquo generally private parties to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests
As of September 2013 the company had over 500000 listings in 33000 cities and 192 countries Listings include private rooms entire apartments castles boats manors tree houses tipis igloos private islands and other properties
Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users reviews by previous guests as well as a response rating and private messaging system
As of July 2011 the company has raised $1198 million in venture funding
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 26
$9300 RelayCar similarly claims that their car owners make an average of $250 a month with some making as much as $1000
All of which makes me start thinking ldquoHey thatrsquos not bad $1000 a month Might be worth buying a car just to rent it out Or maybe a few followed by a fleet and we can call it something catchy like lsquoBertzrsquo and maybe hire space for them at airportshelliphang onrdquo (If you get my drift)
But thatrsquos getting into the realm of asset creation - a collaborative possibility through crowdfunding sites perhaps ndash but a different
business model to genuine sharing which generally assumes that the assets are lsquosparersquo rather than created for the purpose
ldquoThe market will probably go that way a bitrdquo says James Wilpole a UK-based market analyst ldquoWe saw the same thing happen with E-bay which when it started was dominated by ordinary people taking advantage of the new technology to buy and sell spare things But now a few years later there are far more lsquopower sellersrsquo people who buy in bulk and then use E-bay to sell to the general public or to other traders Itrsquos a natural progression and one which
we will likely see affecting the new sharing networks as the big boys realize that while they are competitors to their businesses they can also be used as part of itrdquo
An observation supported by the $13m investment by GM Ventures (the investment arm of Americarsquos biggest carmaker) into Relay Rides in 2011 and Avisrsquos purchase of Zipcar for $491m in January 2013
Good for the planet
Perhaps the second greatest driver after economic incentive is the fact that in almost all cases sharing existing assets more efficiently rather than creating more partly used ones is infinitely more sensible in terms of resources Or more precisely our planetrsquos dwindling resources A fact most people involved in sharing economies both as renters and rentees are aware of
A recent survey revealed that the majority of people who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because they think it is an environmentally sound thing to do
As Thomas Friedman put it recently in the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 27
PeerbycomA Community lending site
Yoursquove got stuff but not all the stuff you need Dutch startup (and TechStars Londonrsquos first cohort member) Peerby is hoping to unlock the value of that stuff with a collaborative consumption model that allows users to post requests for items they need - a power drill or a lawnmower - from their surrounding community
Peerby claims that 80 of its requests are fulfilled by other Peerby members within 30 minutes of being posted They maintain that this is because on Peerby you arenrsquot dependent on having to find what yoursquore looking for before you request it
So how do you make money from something that is more successful the more it can encourage people to act somewhat altruistically and spend less money rather than more via sharing with their neighbours Peerby sees multiple routes to revenue including premium subscription plans for members who want more possible rental mechanisms for high-value items offering insurance
coverage on things like cars and group buying mechanics that can enable a whole community to go in together on something everyone in the neighbourhood needs
ldquoWersquore going to look at renting because for a power drill sure it just lies around and you might as well lend it outrdquo says Peerby co-founder and CTO Eelke Boezeman ldquoBut if itrsquos your racing bike thatrsquos a different story Wersquore also maybe looking at subscription But the key thing is that when I joined Peerby I never thought this would work Now every day we have 25 exchanges and thatrsquos for a system that people still definitely arenrsquot used tordquo
(Original source techcrunchcom)
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 28
Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
Rules and regulations
But itrsquos not all been plain sailing for the new sharing platforms Airbnb for example are already being forced to fight their corner against those who are suggesting that they are effectively hotels in nature and that they should be subject to all the same rules regulations and taxes as other hotel operators
And while Airbnb is not responsible for its members tax affairs (if you rent out your spare room the income
is taxable) they are arguing that its members shouldnrsquot be regulated in the same way as a Holiday Inn That the rules need to be changed to take into account the different nature of the business model involved in peer-to-peer rentals In the same way that a small bed and breakfast establishment is governed by a lesser set of rules than hotel chains
ldquoThe sharing economy can create winners and losers and property owners are winners and hotel owners are losers [in this case]rdquo says Martiacuten Varsavsky founder of the highly successful wi-fi sharing platform foncom
ldquoSometimes those who gain are atomised and gain little individually while those who hurt hurt a lot and then organise very well Those are the forces against sharingrdquo The response of sharing economy companies encountering obstacles of this sort should be to rally the forces that stand to gain while making the case wherever possible that the forces of disruption can be good for lsquotraditionalrsquo businesses toordquo he says
ldquoIn the case of hotel stays versus apartment stays there have been studies done that have shown therersquos a market that hotels donrsquot address very well And that is the market
Office sharing is now one of the biggest growth industries around the world
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 29
Snappcarcom
An online platform for renting out your own car or renting somebody elsersquos
The site links up lender and borrower offering everything between the small Smart to the spacious Mercedes Sprinter
SnappCar ensures that the whole procedure runs smoothly This above all means payment and insurance The latter is an important point as the insurance covers all costs in the event of damage or theft and automatically covers all vehicles rented out via SnappCar Along with comprehensive vehicle insurance liability cover and Europe-wide breakdown assistance are also included
SnappCar also guarantees all due payments This not only includes the rental charge but also any surcharges for dirt delayed return or late cancellation whether incurred by lender or borrower
Car owners can set their own day prices as well as the charge per kilometer driven Interestingly many owners prefer not to bill for the latter The rental price includes the SnappCar fee of 10 euros out of which the company can provide the above-mentioned comprehensive insurance cover
(Source motorblogcom)
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 30
of families with children for whom hotel stays can be very expensive So Airbnb fills a niche of families who travel and their presence is actually accretive to the city For example the city of Paris studied this and concluded that Airbnb was a good thing because itrsquos bringing even more people to Paris overall and the economy was doing better while hotels were not really getting hurtrdquo
Sharing economy companies who fail to convince the established players that they add value are likely to become unstuck adds Varavsky
ldquoWith [P2P file-sharing services] Napster and Kazaa when people started sharing songs in a way where there was no value for the record labels or copyright holders they fought them like crazy and closed them down The sharing of music had to come up with a concept more like Spotify which makes use of the same P2P technology that Kazaa used to use but it left money aside to pay the record labels ndash so the model became legal and now itrsquos a successrdquo
Taxi operations based on sharing principles are also encountering a regulatory backlash from established competitors (ldquoMiss miss they havenrsquot washed their hands or done their homework or got their permits in place or paid you a small fortune for the privilege of owning a licence
which if I remember rightly from our conversation on the golf course was meant to be a bit more exclusive than this) Persistent lobbying from whom has already resulted in peer-to-peer operations being banned in several US cities And under current rules you can sort of see their point
Insurance requirements
Then of course there is the whole issue of insurance After an lsquoincidentrsquo in 2011 in which an Airbnb memberrsquos apartment was trashed by a visitor and her valuables stolen the company not only decided to compensate her for damages but to also introduce a blanket $1m cover for all future rentals
Peer-to-peer car-rental services are also keen to provide insurance as part of their deals RelayRides for example spent 18 months finding an underwriter for the $1m policy that now backs each driver during rentals although the effectiveness of that cover remains untested
ldquoA recent survey revealed that the majority of people
who would be prepared to use a sharing website do so because
they think it is an environmentally sound thing to
dordquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 31
CouchsurfingorgA service which allows traveling members to stay at other guestrsquos homes on the couch perhaps
Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011 The website provides a platform for members to ldquosurfrdquo on couches by staying as a guest at a hostrsquos home host travelers or join an event
As of January 2012 the website had 36
million members In March 2013 the website had 6 million members in 100000 cities worldwide
In August 2012 Couchsurfing closed $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners with participation by Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network The additional funding brings the companyrsquos total funds raised to $226 million
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 32
at law
ldquoFor many service providers insurance is a considerable expense and one which the general public expectsrdquo says Wimpole ldquoSharing platforms who provide a similar service even on a peer-to-peer basis should expect to have to provide something similar and to absorb that cost into their overall business models None of which will be a death knell for the sector just a bit of a reminder that rules and regulations arenrsquot there purely to stifle entrepreneurial enterpriserdquo
Nuisance factor
As I can also sympathise with the growing number of residents in cities around the world like Barcelona Dublin and Amsterdam to name but a few who are complaining about rowdy bunches of short term renters (or lsquostag partiesrsquo as we used to call them) suddenly gaining access to their previously sedate apartment block partying all night and vomiting in the lift All thanks to a pennywise apartment owner on another floor renting his place out for 50 bucks a throw every time he goes away for the weekend
The danger being that while
some regulations need to be amended to protect both consumers and the general public incumbents in a capitalist market place do have a tendency to try and destroy their competition To be fair the way most companies are set up these days they almost have a legal obligation to their shareholders to attack the opposition in whatever form it comes
ldquoThere are going to be battles thatrsquos for surerdquo says Wimpole ldquoThose most likely to be damaged by the rise of sharing and renting markets are bound to fight back where they can and the easiest way
ldquoCollaborative consumption is a natural phenomenon made so much easier to achieve by recent quantum leaps forward in communications technologyrdquo (James Wimpole)
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 33
BlablacarcomA car-sharing portal
ldquoWhat we do is connect cities by creating a new transport network based on empty seats in carsrdquo says co-founder Nicolas Brusson Drivers post on the website that they have for example three empty seats for their journey from London to Manchester on Friday evening They set a fee of pound15-pound20 Passengers get in touch and pay in the car or via the BlaBlaCar site
ldquoThe reason itrsquos taking off right now is the macroeconomic factors around us Petrol prices going up the cost of owning a car has gone up dramatically all over Europe ndash especially in the UK when you include petrol insurance depreciation MOT tax and so on ndash at a time when disposable income hasnrsquot
ldquoOn the driver side we have an equation where the problem isnrsquot buying a car any more itrsquos owning one ndash and thatrsquos helping us to convince drivers to share their ride On the other side you see the same dynamic Train prices especially have gone up dramatically in the past five to 10 years If you want to book a train from London to Manchester for Friday evening yoursquore going to pay pound50-pound70 one way when BlaBlaCar is going to cost you pound15 So we offer a last-minute flexible super-low-cost transport networkrdquo
BlaBlaCar which received $10m in a venture round led by Accel Partners in January 2012 is free at first allowing users to discover the service be introduced to one another online and pay in person thereby building up a level of familiarity and trust says Brusson ldquoThen as soon as we have enough people in the service we introduce an online booking service where essentially the passenger will pay online and we manage not only the interaction but also the transaction The company holds on to the money until the driver and passenger ride together and rate each other Once we have the feedback that it worked we transfer the money to the driver and take a commission feerdquo For tax and insurance reasons drivers arenrsquot allowed to make a profit on the journey merely to cover costs
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 34
to do that is to turn to the rule book But I think this is too big a phenomenom to be strangled so easily and much like the music industry was forced to change when digital music sharing became pandemic so other industries will find themselves being forced to
change as wellrdquo
The trust issue
Another obstacle to the growth of sharing economies and one which is nearly always cited in an incredulous tone by those reporting on the success of Airbnb and other similar set ups such as Roomorama Wimdu and BedyCasa is that
of trust
ldquoWhy on Earth would you want to stay in a strangerrsquos house instead of a perfectly good hotel Have these people never watched Psychordquo Which ignoring the fact that Norman Bates was actually running
a very bad motel is often accompanied by a single story about a woman somewhere in America who had her Airbnb apartment apartment trashed in 2011
ldquoI first heard Brian Chesky (one of Airbnbrsquos founders) describe his company two years ago and thought it was a quaint idea that would find limited
traction with niche travelersrdquo wrote Thomas Friedman in the New York Times last year ldquoI mean how many people in Paris really want to rent out their kidrsquos bedroom down the hall to a perfect stranger who comes to them via the Internet And how many
strangers want to be down the hall Wrong Turns out there is an innkeeper residing in all of usrdquo
All such models rely heavily on ratings and reciprocal reviews to establish trust between users Renting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less scary when you can read
ldquoPeople are looking to buy services discretely when they need them instead of owning an assetrdquo says Jeff Miller the boss of Wheelz a peer-to-peer car-
rental service that operates in California
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 35
FoncomA world-wide wi-fi sharing network
Founded in Madrid in 2006 by Martiacuten Varsavsky with the objective of ldquocloaking the world in free Wi-Fi by encouraging people to share their home connectionsrdquo Now the largest Wi-Fi network in the world with almost 12m hot spots in more than 100 countries
ldquoMy general thinking at the time was that we live in a world in which benefits are only accrued through economic growth and the endless consumption of resources and that there have to be other ways that are of more benefit to peoplerdquo he says ldquoWhy should everyone have their own car when most of the time they are not using them Think of a marina full of boats How frequently do those boats go outrdquo
When Varsavsky launched Fon it ran into determined opposition from telecoms businesses which said that the companyrsquos vision of shared Wi-Fi was against their terms of service ldquoWhat we showed with Fon was that you would only share with those who share backrdquo he says ldquoWe actually created a new incentive for people to sign up for DSL or broadband connections which was to sign up at home to roam the world This became so true that T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom and BT all became shareholders in Fonrdquo
Another area set to boom he predicts is the sharing of expensive equipment for gardening DIY and even farming ldquoThese are all things that are bought used extremely little and are likely to be shared Social platforms will play a big role in this and open up all these categories because people can just say lsquoI need thisrsquo and therersquos an instant audience All these [sharing economy] sites have log-ins with Facebook Twitter and Google+ which removes the friction enabling us to make more rational use of our assets [like these] Thatrsquos one of the reasons why the sharing economy is here to stayrdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 36
positive reviews from previous guests And visa versa opening your doors to a stranger doesnrsquot seem nearly as mental when you have access to reviews from other hosts they have stayed with
Some platforms will even go so far as to carry out background checks on their members to assess their
driving credentials credit histories and criminal records while others are now using social networks such as Facebook to allow potential renters or rentees to see if they have any connections in common
RelayRides admits to relying heavily on user reviews when it comes to assessing the level
of care its members exert in terms of cleanliness ldquoSuch systems tend to create norms that keep owners and renters in line because they fear the repercussions of bad reviewsrdquo says founder Shelby Clark ldquoOther people on the site will be less willing to do business with them and they may be kicked out altogether ldquo
ldquoThe idea of renting from a person rather
than a faceless company will survive even if the early
idealism of the sharing economy does notrdquo Nate
Blecharczyk one of Airbnbrsquos
founders
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 37
TaskRabbitcomAn online and mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for neighbourhood errands and small jobs
The story goes that one blustery February Boston night in February 2008 Leah Busque and her husband were about to go out for dinner when they realised theyrsquod run out of dog food and didnrsquot have time to get any Later that night the conversation turned to a business idea an online marketplace where people could outsource little jobs (such as running to the corner shop) by connecting with others nearby
With headquarters in San Francisco the company has received funding totalling $377m to date and now has over 13000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities
Particularly popular for small businesses seeking vetted temporary staff particularly in events office
administration and customer service a demand which now accounts for 30 of TaskRabbitrsquos monthly revenues
ldquoWe are a much lighter-weight model thatrsquos easier for a small business to utilise and much cheaperrdquo says Busque ldquoWe only take a 20 cut of every transaction whereas a lot of the staffing industry can take far morerdquo For tax purposes Task Rabbits are considered independent contractors responsible for their own tax returns but how a fee say for assembling Ikea furniture (one of the sitersquos popular tasks) relates to minimum wage legislation is so far untested
Busquersquos vision is to revolutionise the way we work ldquoBy providing people with the tools and resources to set their own schedules be their own bosses and say how much they want to get paid is incredibly empowering It has huge implications for the global labour forcerdquo
(Source guardiancouk)
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 38
The majority of platforms in which trust and feedback is important ensure that there is a confirmation delay when one member enquires about the availability of another memberrsquos rentable item allowing the latter to make a decision on whether to proceed or not based on applicants peer reviews and ratings
While being rejected in this way might not be what the applicant wants to hear they
arenrsquot afforded a platform to voice any grumpiness as only those who are party to an actual transaction are usually allowed to post a reviewThe review system also has the effect of rewarding members with good credentials while quickly weeding out members with bad track records
As Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo It created
a framework of trust that has made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
What next
Ultimately the world is full of spare resources and has been for a long time The difference now is that thanks to the internet itrsquos become increasingly easy for people to put those resources to use
ldquoRenting a room in a relative strangerrsquos apartment in a foreign city seems far less
scary when you can read positive reviews from previous guestsrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 39
ParkatmyHousecomAn online peer-to-peer marketplace that permits drivers to book parking spots situated predominantly at private properties rather than in parking lots or on-street
At the same time as generating revenue for property owners ParkatmyHouse aims to realise savings for drivers by allowing them to park on parking spots that are otherwise poorly utilized ParkatmyHouse claims to be the worldrsquos largest marketplace for parking with over a quarter of a million customers
The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006 after he experienced parking difficulties while attending a baseball game in San Francisco
In July 2011 ParkatmyHouse raised venture capital from BWW i Ventures the venture capital arm of BMW
In late 2012 ParkatmyHouse formed a partnership with Transport for London SSE plc and chargepoint manufacturer Chargemaster to install free electric vehicle charge points on the driveways of property owners currently renting out their driveways using the website Once installed the charge points can be reserved online by third parties using the ParkatmyHouse website
(source Wikipediacom)
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 40
relatively easily
There are obstacles to the growth of the sharing sector overall not least statutory regulation but the shear size of the sector and the speed at
which it has grown suggests that it is very much here to stay As somebody said when I explained the concept to them recently ldquoIt just makes sense so much senserdquo
ldquoAs Thomas Friedman put it in the context of Airbnb ldquoTheir real innovation is not online rentals
Itrsquos ldquotrustrdquo
lsquoShare and share alikersquo (cont)
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 41
RentoidcomA peer-to-peer lending and rental site
At Rentoid you can rent anything from a beach buggy to baby gear You can search for things to rent using the search engine where you can enter your location and the object you wish to rent You can search by category The category list is very extensive including listings such as toys motorbikes art collectibles DVDs airplanes party supplies etc
You can also browse for stuff for rent by choosing to search through the random stuff rockstar stuff and quirky stuff When you search you can see a photo of the item along with the category it belongs in the suburb it is located in the cost for a day week and month and its availability If you have rented from someone and have enjoyed your experience you can click on the user and see what else they have to rent It is easy to post the things you want to rent as well If you have an item that you barely use rent it make some extra money and let someone else enjoy using it
(Source killerstartupscom)
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 42
ldquoUSING IS THE NEW HAVINGrdquoSay experts at the Franhofer InstitutAs the momentum of the shared sector gathers experts at a top german university are helping businesses new and old to get to grips with the keys challenges to success
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 43
It is too early to tell what impact changing consumer patterns will have on mainstream industry and how this in turn will affect the demand for products and services but the Fraunhofer Institutrsquos newly formed Shared Systems Design competence team is helping companies tackle the challenges posed by the sharing economy
More and more of us are seeing the virtues of ldquousingrdquo rather than ldquobuyingrdquo While individuals are taking advantage above all of the chance to share such things as cars holiday homes or consumer goods the attraction for companies lies in sharing infrastructure facilities or high-end equipment
Not only do these sharing trends make sense as an efficient use of resources they also open up a vast array of new operator and business models There is already a wide range of offers out there borne out of greater awareness for sustainable development and based on information and communication technology systems with advanced functions
Whereas to begin with most ideas were worked up by end users now a raft of new companies is offering sharing as a service Chief among them are newly formed companies such as accommodation portal Airbnb and lending community whyownit as well as offshoots of established companies such as Car2Go
Even though the bulk of sharing opportunities available today are still improvised and aimed at a very specific audience the market for sharing already boasts significant turnover
Recent studies are predicting not only strong growth but also that sharing will spread to new areas of application
To tap this potential Fraunhofer IAO (Fraunhofer-Institut fuumlr Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation) has formed the Shared Systems Design competence team The team brings together experts in technology and innovation management and pools their know-how to work with companies to develop concepts and solutions for the sharing economy
The business-to-business (B2B) segment is taking center stage with B2B infrastructure in particular offering plenty of opportunity to make more efficient and effective use of resources
Strategic development of technological and organizational solutions for the sharing of resources is one key aspect of this work But before established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to share products in the first place
The new Fraunhofer IAO team engages in trend analyses works up scenarios and creates sharing systems with a focus on their organization business models and platforms The experts also determine which products are suitable for sharing and the technologies required to make sharing them a success
wwwiaofraunhoferde
ldquoBefore established industry companies can successfully position themselves amid changing consumer patterns they have to understand what is motivating people to
share products in the first placerdquo
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 44
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 45
THE AIRBNB STORYHow 3 blow-up airbeds inspired a multimillion dollar business in just 6 years
ldquoAccording to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night)
complete with customized street signs and temporary currencyrdquo
Most stories you read these days about the growth of lsquosharingrsquo economies start by mentioning Airbnbcom a six-year old internet platform that connects people looking for a place to stay to people with spare rooms to rent A simple idea that not many commentators at the time thought would grow to boast the quarter of a million global listings it now has
Many of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris where they have a similar number Cities where hotel rooms are not only expensive but often hard to find Not so if yoursquore prepared to stay in someone elsersquos spare room though
As Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told the New York Times
ldquoTonight we have 140000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms Hilton has around 600000 rooms We will get up to 200000 people per night by peak this summer We have listings in 34000 cities and 192 countriesrdquo he added ldquoWe are the largest short-term rental site of its kind in China today and we have no office thererdquo
Apparently it all started with a few blow-up air beds
Bored of his course at the Rhode Island School of Design Chesky drove to San Francisco and crashed on the floor of his friend Joe Gebbiarsquos apartment with whom he had agreed to split the rental costs
ldquoUnfortunately my share came to $1150 and I only had $1000 in the bank so I had
a math problem mdash and I was unemployedrdquo said Chesky
But as fortune would have it the very same week Chesky arrived in San Francisco in October 2007 the city was playing host to the Industrial Designers Society of America and getting a hotel room of any kind had become an impossible task Which is when they dreamed up the idea of turning their own apartment into an impromptu bed and breakfast for all those room-less conference goers
ldquoThe problem was we had no beds but Gebbia did have three air mattresses So we inflated them and called ourselves lsquoAirbed and Breakfastrsquo rdquo Chesky 31 told the New York Times
ldquoThree people stayed with us and we charged them $80 a
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 46
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 47
night We also made breakfast for them and became their local guidesrdquo
The additional income enabled them to cover the rent that month and in the process gave birth to an idea that has since grown into a multimillion dollar company and helped more than a few other people to make additional money from their apartments too
The idea was simple to create a global network through which anyone anywhere could rent a spare room in their home to earn cash
ldquoIn homage to its roots they called the company Airbnbrdquo wrote Friedman last July ldquo(a company) which has grown so large so fast that it is now the equivalent of a major global hotel chain mdash even though unlike Hilton it doesnrsquot own a single bed And the new trend it set off is the lsquosharing economyrsquordquo
ldquoWe have over 600 castlesrdquo
Chesky continues ldquoWe have dozens of yurts caves tepees with TVs in them water towers motor homes private islands glass houses lighthouses igloos with Wi-Fi we have a home that Jim Morrison used to live in we have treehouses mdash hundreds of treehouses mdash which are the most profitable listings on our Web site per square footage The treehouse in Lincoln Vt is more valuable than the main
house We have treehouses in Vermont that have had six-month waiting lists People plan their vacation now around treehouse availabilityrdquo
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK Prince Hans-Adam II offered his entire principality of Liechtenstein for rent on Airbnb ($70000 a night) complete with customized street signs and temporary currency You can rent any number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes mdash and even a one-square-meter house in Berlin that goes for $13 a nightrdquo
A quite phenomenal growth rate for a company which is essentially encouraging ordinary people to invite strangers into their homes As Friedman explained it ldquoWhile it sounds like Chesky is just a global rental agent with more scale there is something much bigger going on here Airbnbrsquos real innovation is not online rentals Itrsquos lsquotrustrsquo It created a framework of trust that has
made tens of thousands of people comfortable renting rooms in their homes to strangersrdquo
To rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a credit card Airbnb then takes between 6 and 12 of the fee from the rentee and a 3 fee from the renter The host receives payment from Airbnb after the first night All parties to the arrangement can check each other out by asking for driving licence details passports e-mail addresses
Top left to bottom right
London Athens Barcelona Amsterdam Berlin Paris
ldquoMany of the listings are in cities such as New York where they have 23000 rooms available and Paris
where they have a similar numberrdquo
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 48
and phone numbers and even their Facebook profiles As Friedman put it ldquoNo one is anonymousrdquo They then work out their own exchange of keys
The real beauty of the system though and the single thing that will probably make the idea sustainable is that after the rental both the guest and the host rate each other creating a massive incentive to deliver a good experience As most people who are familiar with the basics of service ratings on the internet will know if you manage to accrue too many bad reviews from different independent sources your chances of success will be severely hampered Reputation is as they say everything
Airbnb provides an automatic blanket insurance against damage or theft to the tune of $1 million in most of the countries in which it operates but claims to only rarely receive any claims
This unique approach to utilizing the vast resource of spare rooms and underpinning it all with a simple raft of trust has created considerable economic activity at grass roots level ldquoIn the last 12 months in Paris wersquove generated $240 million in economic activityrdquo Chesky said last year
Activity which Friedman reckons has also spawned
its own ecosystem ldquoOrdinary people who will now come clean your home coordinate key exchanges cook dinner for you and your guests photograph rooms for rent and through the ride-sharing business Lyft turn their cars into taxis to drive you aroundrdquo
ldquoIt used to be that corporations and brands had all the trustrdquo added Chesky ldquoBut now a total stranger can be trusted like a company and provide the services of a company And
once you unlock that idea it is so much bigger than homes There is a whole generation of people that donrsquot want everything mass produced They want things that are unique and personalrdquo
Friedman sees this as the beginning of a world in which there is no longer any room for average ldquoIn a world where
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky
lsquoThe Airbnb Story (cont)
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 49
as Irsquove argued average is over mdash the skills required for any good job keep rising mdash a lot of people who might not be able to acquire those skills can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations whether it is to rent their kidsrsquo rooms their cars or their power toolsrdquo
As Chesky poins out ldquoThere are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes Does everyone really need their own drillrdquo
Earning an income from renting out your spare room can become addictive says Chesky ldquoMore than 50 percent of Airbnb hosts depend on it to pay their rent or mortgage today ldquoOrdinary people can now be micro-entrepreneursrdquo
Most importantly perhaps the economics apart is that utilizing spare assets rather than creating new ones is so much better for the environment As Friedman concluded for the New York Times ldquoJust think how much better all this is for the environment mdash for people to be renting their spare bedrooms rather than building another Holiday Inn and another and another The sharing economy mdash watch this space This is powerfulrdquo
(With reference to lsquoWelcome to the lsquoSharing Economyrsquo by Thomas L Friedman first published in the New York Times in July 2013)
ldquoTo rent an apartment a yurt a barge or even a castle through
Airbnb you are required to sign up on their website and pay using a
credit cardrdquo
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 50
BREAD FUNDSDisability insurance can be prohibitively expensive especially for self-employed people which is partly why so many like sustainability consultant Freerk Bisschop are turning to self-insurance schemes based entirely on inclusion and trust
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 51
Sharing things is something I do quite easily My DYI equipment is fully available through Peerby (as long as people are within 500 meters of my house) I share office space in Amsterdam and Delft ndash and the kitchen table at home The only exception is probably my vintage Citroen DS Break from 1971 but hey
A few months ago I started sharing something less tangible
A friend of mine invited me to share risk We are both entrepreneurs She works as a copywriter and event organiser while also running a meeting accommodation and bed amp breakfast operation with her husband So just like me she canrsquot run the risk of being unable to work Which is why in the past we have both forked out staggeringly large sums of money every year for insurance But not any more
Because now we are both
members of a lsquobread fundrsquo a group of 50 independents who have agreed to share that risk The mechanism was developed in Utrecht by a collective of social and creative entrepreneurs called lsquoDe Broodfondsmakers (makers of bread funds) and it works as follows
Every month I put 90euro into a separate personal savings account (at Triodos Bank) ndash with a standard interest rate Nothing shared ndash yet Money in the bank until I find a job or retire
But then only a week after joining the fund tragedy struck when my friend suffered a stroke So now me and the other members of the bread fund donate 40euro per month to her from our savings account Such donations are small enough to be exempt of income tax but add up to euro2000 monthly This is keeping my friend afloat while she is recovering for a
previously agreed maximum duration of 2 years A cheap insurance would take care of her after that
No insurance company involved I save 70 on my normal annual insurance premiums and that money remains mine if no one gets too ill for too long I might get most of it back some day I meet with my fellow members at least twice a year and new members always come introduced to maintain mutual trust
The people at Broodfondsmakers Bibi Schoenmaker Andre Jonkers and Haiko Liefmann develop local breadfunds and service them administratively More than 80 already exist with 20 or more in the pipeline Thatrsquos 5000 independent professionals sharing risk with people they know
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 52
COME WORK WITH ME As the global workforce becomes ever more flexible co-working spaces and shared offices are on the rise But are they for everyone
Above the Impact Hub Westminster London
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 53
While working from home has lots of advantages many people miss the good bits of working in an office Like chatting with colleagues over a coffee eating a slice of birthday cake courtesy of somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of and going for a lsquoquickrsquo one after work to bitch about your boss
Which is why (assuming a return to a traditional office is no longer an option) so many home-based freelancers these days are turning to co-working spaces in an attempt to inject some of those vital ingredients back into their daily work schedules
According to an annual survey conducted by Deskmag entitled
lsquoGlobal Co-working Surveyrsquo the number of shared office locations has increased by 83 globally over the last year while the number of users has increased by 117
The survey also discovered that half of all co-workers go to their shared workspace at all hours with less than a third opting to
stick to lsquonormalrsquo working hours
ldquoThe future of work should not be dictated by space or place but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliverrdquo Regus CEO Mark Dixon recently told lsquoFast Companyrsquo magazine ldquoMany employees are now measured by output and productivity and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 54
Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is and where and when it should happenrdquo
Other interesting statistics thrown up by the survey included
71 of respondents claimed to have become more creative since opting to join a co-working space
62 reported an improvement in the general standard of their work
90 felt more self-confident
70 felt healthier
33 ndash 50 described their hours as lsquoflexiblersquo or lsquomobilersquo
64 felt they were completing their work tasks in a more timely manner
Co-working provides many of the benefits of a traditional office while also allowing you to maintain your independence You get a desk (permanent or shared it varies) the all-so-important Wi-Fi network access to a kitchen plus the chance to network with like-minded souls exchange ideas and advice and generally reassure
yourself that yoursquore not going quite as mad as you thought you were when you were working at home with only the cat for company All for considerably less than it would cost to rent your own office
Jerry Ganston a self-employed recruitment consultant is adamant that he made the right decision when he opted to join a co-working space in Brighton England ldquoWhile being laid off from my previous job with a multi-national recruitment firm was probably the best thing that ever happened to me I soon discovered that Irsquom not nearly as self-disciplined as I thought I was
Come work with me (cont)
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 55
Top 10 Things People Miss About lsquoTraditionalrsquo offices1The chance to moan about life the universe and everything on a near constant basis with work colleagues A highly under-rated carthartic exercise
2 Social interaction at the coffee machine or down the pub after work
3 An endless supply of bright yellow post-it notes
4 The opportunity to wander around the office randomly disturbing other people every time you get a bit bored
5 Your very own desk above which to hang signs saying things such as lsquoYou Donrsquot Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helpsrsquo
6 Carpet Tiles
7 Prarie Dogging (for those lucky enough to work in cubicle style open plan offices) when something ndash the noise of someone snoring perhaps - causes everyone to simultaneously stand up at their desks and peer over the top of their cubicles like a bunch of nosey prarie dogs
8 The chance to eat a slice of birthday cake from somebody in accounts yoursquove never even heard of
9 Amateurish lsquoin-housersquo magazines with demoralizingly dull pep talk editorials from senior management
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 56
Advantages of working from homeEvery day can be a lsquodress downrsquo day Pyjamas bobble hats leiderhosen you name it everything goes
Peace and quiet Hour after hour after hour
Daytime soap operas (in the background of course)
Cost price coffee and biscuits
The chance to lsquotalk throughrsquo new business ideas with the cat
Ample time to improve your lsquokeepy uppyrsquo skills in the back yard
No commuting
Being able to listen to traffic reports and snigger
A million and one other handy distractions
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 57
ldquoWhen I was working from home I was forever finding little jobs around the house that needed to be done instead of getting stuck into my work I call it work avoidance and I was really very good at it Now that I work from a shared space I find the lsquoofficersquo atmosphere far more conducive to work Maybe itrsquos a Pavlovian response to 20 years in the corporate world I donrsquot know but I found I needed some sort of structure even if it was a loose onerdquo
Richard Genling a freelance web designer agrees ldquoIf I
worked from home Irsquod have to get my wife to hide the remote control for the TV thatrsquos for sure Itrsquos a thirty-minute bike ride to my shared office in Bristol but itrsquos certainly worth it I need to have people around me the buzz of work Even though wersquore all generally working on different projects it helps to have to explain yourself to people occasionally
ldquoTherersquos plenty of chatting about ideas going on every day and it really helps to be able to run ideas past people who donrsquot have any sort of vested interest in what yoursquore doing I listen to other people and they
listen to me It worksrdquoGenling also believes that the co-working space has helped with clients who he regularly invites to the lsquoofficersquo ldquoThere are meeting rooms you can hire by the hour which helps but usually we just lounge around in the coffee area I think secretly some of the people I work for are intensely jealous Most importantly though they see that I take my work seriously and that I am working from the sort of creative space they expect to see creative people like me working fromrdquo
The Cambridge Business Lounge
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 58
Many co-working spaces go further than just providing meeting rooms The Impact Hub in Islington for example employs what they call lsquoHub Hostsrsquo who organise events such as ldquoPitch and Pizzardquo where members are encouraged to seek feedback from other members assistance or collaboration on their projects They also organize workshops on a range of useful topics such as legal practice social networking and personal development as well as regular networking lunches Members can even offset the cost of their membership by becoming hosts themselves from time to time Working a day a week as a host earns you
a free Hub 100 tariff which translates to the use of a desk for 100 hours a month
The cost of joining a co-working space varies tremendously but is related to location and the type of add-ons being offered
A monthly membership at the Impact Hub in Islington for example starts at pound16 for five hours a month and goes up to pound319 a month for unlimited use with 30 off for students and discounts available for start-ups
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to three days a week The
Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260 for a monthly pass
Most set ups include a desk and a wi-fi connection as standard with other facilities usually being charged additionally At Impact Hub Islington for example pound5 will buy you as much tea and coffee as you care to drink and at the Skiff in Brighton you can rent storage space from pound20 a month while for pound40 workaholics can buy a set of keys to enable them to go to work whenever the mood takes them
The choice of office seems to have a lot to do with the type
An open office in New York run by green-deskcom
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 59
of environment its members think will be most conducive to their work style with some preferring cozy set ups occupied by only a handful of people and others being drawn to warehouse style affairs complete with lsquochill outrsquo areas lsquointeraction spacesrsquo and even pool tables
ldquoWhat I really like about my space in Barcelonardquo said Joanne Greenly a freelance writer and self-confessed lsquonetworking junkiersquo ldquois the amount of work I get from it It seems everyone but everyone is working on some sort of website and they all need content Word just gets
round that Irsquom a writer and hey presto therersquos someone hovering at my desk with that lsquoI donrsquot suppose yoursquove got 15 minutes to spare to look at this thing Irsquove written have yoursquo look on their face I always start off doing stuff for free and if people like what they see I start charging Itrsquos been a gold minerdquo It makes sense to seek out a space that suits you Indeed many co-working spaces have details of current members on their websites so you can easily check out who you would end up working with
Not that full time co-working suits everyone ldquoAt first it was
greatrdquo said Grant Turron a media consultant working out of Edinburgh ldquoBut after a while I found that I was spending all my time having fun chatting to people about their start-ups going for coffees and generally not doing any work I didnrsquot bin it altogether though I pay for 30 hours a month just enough to carry on feeling connected to the real world but if I really want to get some work done I go to the library Fortunately for me they still have those in Scotlandrdquo
The Skiff in Brighton charges pound19 for a one-day pass and from pound49 to pound119 a month for one to
three days a week The Cambridge Business Lounge offers a walk-in rate of pound10 for 4 hours and pound260
for a monthly pass
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 60
Sharing economy companies are currently experiencing many challenges and pressure from their investors as a result of going mainstream but the reality is that the economic crisis and the new lsquomillennial culturersquo have changed expectations of the corporate world and the desire for more collaborative business models is driving a search for healthier modes of consumption
For example we are seeing a rise in new organisations and businesses that focus on the local level and the generation of true social value
One of these companies is Swapsee a small but growing exponent of the sharing economy in Barcelona Swapsee is a community-focused skill sharing platform where members can find talent in their local community to collaborate on projects and professionals for hire for freelance and long term jobs
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
Instead of getting your coding or your design done half way around the world Swapsee proposes that you work with professionals in the local community and in doing so foster the growth of your local economy by generating jobs getting projects off the ground and building networks of proximity and connections between professionals so that collaboration is easier Swapsee launched in Barcelona scarcely half a year ago and currently has almost 4000 members of which 70 are in the Catalan capital Often compared to other online talent platforms such as the well established oDesk Nubelo and eLancer Swapsee differentiates itself from them in its core
values an emphasis on quality enforced through its lsquoinvitation onlyrsquo sign-up policy and its truly local community-centered character
In the words of Marta Marine Swapseersquos Marketing and Community Development Manager ldquoWe arenrsquot just a website that provides a service and where people have an account We are building a community where members know each other and have real offline relationships that create networks of proximity make collaborations more fluid and abundant and ultimately build trustrdquo
Swapseersquos success stories are perfect examples of this like the most recent one involving Sharlene Halbert Sharlene is an English and Piano teacher and a Swapsee member who was working on a very interesting personal project creating a childrenrsquos television show
To pull it off she needed a
SWAPSEE TIMESpotlight on a sharing economy startup in Barcelona with its focus on local networks
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 61
In an age in which virtually everyone can access the Internet and companies have a myriad of resources to outsource work to low-cost
countries Swapsee proposes a socially conscious alternative
talented and artistically inclined person to help her design the visual aesthetic of the pilot episode She posted her needs on Swapseersquos online marketplace and despite her offer being a non-paid collaboration she found a host of designers and illustrators that wanted to work with her based on their personal
interest in the project
This illustrates that the spirit of collaboration is strong in the community and that often the talent we need for our projects is all around us and we simply need a way to find it
Swapsee launched its first
community in Barcelona in August 2013 and is currently expanding and setting up communities in Madrid Delft Bristol and Bath You can find out more about them at their website and on Facebook and Twitter
Swapsee initiated a joint effort with the local council to train local people in the specialist art of graffiti removal One of a number of such community based projects
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
62
Consider it Monopoly for the modern world EcoTopia is a board game designed to embody the dream of a sustainable utopia
The goal is for players to create a city with the most balanced economy and environmental impact
Players are faced with the challenges of creating a sustainable city making decisions of economic vs environmental cost and hedging their bets for population and energy production which determine the winner
Kickstarter-backed funds will go to the production of the board game and furthering the success and sustainability of its future Pledging starts at $5 and just $30 will land you your very own EcoTopia
kickstartercom
CROWDFUNDING ROUND UP
THECROWD
ECOTOPIA a sustainable city-building board game
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
Coffee lovers prepare to leave your house for coffee again Rocks amp Gravel Coffee is a local (by way of Manhattan) small batch organic fair trade Full City Roast
The Koren brothers hope to build a membership of coffee drinkers with coffee refills shipped direct from roast in recyclable collectible tins
The project gives back in four ways with recyclable reusable packaging by using fair
trade USDA certified organic lsquobird friendlyrsquo and shade grown beans offering a refer-a-friend discount and giving a royalty to the artist behind each unique tin A pledge of $25 nabs you a single tin (limited) but $100 will earn you a 3x membership and a Pour Over Cup Need more Joe Grab an entire year of coffee for just $350
kickstartercom
ROCKS AND GRAVEL COFFEE Eco-roasts to your door
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 64
One of the most frustrating parts of planting your own garden is moving seedlings into the ground Itrsquos messy itrsquos dirty and worst of all you could end up ruining the roots and destroying the plant in the process
Plantable Planet changes all of that Each box contains a globe-shaped planter made from 100 recycled paper coloured pencils to spruce up the globe and two organic NON-GMO seeds
The planters are filled with coconut husk instead of dirt and will germinate within a week of planting Once the plants are mature you plant the entire planter into the ground enabling decomposition of the planter and stronger roots for your plant
A single planter is just the small pledge of $5 and you can choose to donate it to an underprivileged school of your choice
kickstartercom
PLANTABLE PLANET a 100 recycled paper earth planter
THECROWD
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 65
Despite successfully raising twice their $39K goal on Kickstarter EcoQube is back on Indiegogo to raise just a little more to add lightening functions to the desktop aquarium
Part fish tank part planter the EcoQube uses an aquaponics filter to keep the aquarium clean That means no cleaning no watering and very little maintenance on your part
Grab your own self-sustaining unit for less than $150 One word of caution though professional aquaponics farms do not use aquarium chemicals like the EcoQube Herbs and micro-greens will thrive with the EcoQube but are not safe for consumption
Indiegogocom
ECOQUBE desktop ecosystem that grows flowers and herbs
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 66
In the largest SunFunder project to date SunnyMoney and backers came together to supply over 8000 solar powered lights to Kenyan families
SunnyMoney is a social enterprise that sells quality solar lights in Malawi Zambia Kenya and Tanzania reducing reliance on expensive poor quality fuels such as kerosene and disposable short-life batteries
The solar lights are expected to impact nearly 35000 people and save $78 a year on energy
in addition to saving 167kg of CO2 emissions displaced annually per family
The dlight s2 is an ultra affordable study lantern allowing students to double their study time and positively impact on grades and performance
To date the SunnyMoney team in Kenya has sold 183000 solar lights
sunfundercom
BRIGHT CHILDREN bright future
THECROWD
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 67
The water package of the future is herehellipwell almost After raising over $14K in the fall of 2013 the Eco-Carton is becoming a reality
Eliminating plastic pollution and the toxic impact of the traditional plastic water bottle the Eco-Carton uses a mineralized barrier coating on the inside and outside layers of the carton unlike traditional milk boxes
The Eco-Carton uses 40 less plastic and are made from recyclable sustainable and renewable pressed paper
It contains no BPArsquos no VOCrsquos has less carbon emissions and best of all is affordable for the consumer
The project is currently underway and hopes to ship the Eco-Carton in December 2014
indiegogocom
ECO-CARTON an authentic alternative to plastic bottles
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 68
Dirtball constructs only 100 eco-friendly 100 made in the USA apparel and used Kickstarter to fund the Green Jean a pair of jeans made from 71 cotton and 29 recycled polyester denim from the legendary Cone Denim White Oak Plant
A 70 recycled cotton 30 recycled polyester duck fabric khaki pant is also available
Both are constructed in the USA will sustain approximately 25 US manufacturing jobs for 2 months recycle thousands of water bottles and save hundreds of barrels of crude oil
The Green Jean was fully funded in september and can now be purchased on the Dirtball Fashion website
kickstartercom
THE GREEN JEAN made in the USA eco-friendly denim
THECROWD
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 69
Henry Boschen is a concerned citizen
He has been fighting fracking for over 5 years and is looking to expand his access to ecological sites by seeking $2000 for a professional GPS stabilized radio controlled multicopter with telemetery controlled video and 14 mega pixel still picture capability
This would allow him to capture high quality photographs of the clear cutting deep holes wet-land destruction waste water holding ponds spills and pipeline breaks endemic to these
industries
These photographs will be posted on his website and be available to anyone needing photographic proof of the damage caused by fracking
indiegogocom
AERIAL FRACKING PHOTOS lsquoeyes in the skiesrsquo multicopters
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 70
As a groundbreaking new school opens its doors in early 2014 one group is seeking scholarship money to send students from the LA area
Seed School teaches gardeners how to save historic seeds ensure access to non-GMO seeds breed vegetables to be productive and support food sovereignty issues
The group will be accepting applications from individuals who are committed to taking this
information back to underserved communities and teach in local community gardens schools and events and help establish a network of seed saving libraries for a GMO FREE LA
Funds cover the costs of two full scholarships and various partial scholarships
indiegogocom
THECROWD
SEED SCHOOL los angeles scholarships
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 71
Research at Neptune Islands over the last decade has observed an increasing number of injuries to marine animals attributed to marine debris
The evidence that pollution is a threat to marine biodiversity is overwhelming and injuries include scars open wounds and entanglements to great white sharks Australian fur seals and Australian Sea Lions
This unique project seeking $160000 will
conduct a survey and cleanup of marine debris at the Neptune Islands and Liguanea islands
Once the dominant sources of debris are identified a public education campaign will target the main offenders A subsequent beach survey will be conducted 12 months later to determine the rate of debris deposition and to monitor the impact of the educational component of this project
greenvolvedcom
OCEAN WATCH protected species yes marine debris no
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
PAGE 72
KMC 13-013 advertentie 2050magazineindd 1 15-10-13 1345
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