Kuliza

A look at collaborative consumption, a phenomenon that is challenging current methods of consumption and is defining new ways of living.

by Kaushal Sarda

Collaborative Consumption

Social networks, location technologies, and rise in mobile communication are driving a reinvention of activities like sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping. These changes are driving consumption towards peer-peer exchange amongst people as opposed to ownership. New examples of this behaviour are popping up every day across the world in various contexts like unused spaces, goods, skills, money, energy, and general services.

Understanding Collaborative Consumption

Drivers of Collaborative Consumption• A renewed belief in the power of communities • Success of peer-peer social systems and real-time technologies • Global recession that has challenged the prevalent consumption

driven lifestyle • Growing concern in relation to unresolved environmental issues

Systems that are powering collaborative consumption• Product service systems: Systems that allow people to pay for

the benefits of access to a product rather than owning it • Collaborative lifestyle: Systems that allow people to mutually

benefit by sharing personal resources like skill, space, money, and power

• Redistribution markets: Market places that help stretch the life of a product and in turn reduce waist

Trends that support collaborative consumption• Rise of distributed structures: 16 of the top 100 bestseller books

were self-published and made available via Kindle. This marks the shift in power from established, controlled structures to distributed structures such as market places and funding. Kickstarter is now the largest backer of creative projects on the planet.

• Reputation economy: The rise of identity brokers offers trust or reputation scores for people on distributed market places. These trust scores act as the backbone for peer-peer exchanges

Communities

Communities

Social Technology Quarterly 06

ZipCarSystem: Product Service System

Category: Transport

About: Zipcar is an American membership-based car-sharing

company. Zipcar members have automated access to Zipcars by

using an access card that works with the car’s technology to unlock

the door. It also offers an iPhone and an Android application that allow

members to ‘honk’ in order to locate a Zipcar and unlock its doors.

Share Some Sugar System: Product Service System

Category: Home, Living

About: An online service that helps one find someone in a

neighbourhood or a group of friends who is willing to lend or rent

something one needs.

ColoftSystem: Collaborative Lifestyle

Category: Co-working

About: Coloft is a shared work space in Santa Monica that creates

a sense of community and excitement amongst like-minded people.

It empowers working professionals such as entrepreneurs, start-

ups, freelancers, programmers, and designers by providing space

and office facilities.

AirbnbSystem: Collaborative Lifestyle

Category: Travel & Living

About: Airbnb is an online service that matches people seeking

vacation rentals and other short-term accommodations with those

who rent-out rooms. Listings include private rooms, apartments,

castles, boats, manors, tree houses, teepees, igloos, private islands,

and other properties.

GazelleSystem: Redistribution Markets

Category: Electronic Recycling

About: Gazelle is a fast-growing website that has

created a marketplace for people who want an

alternatives to disposing electronic devices that were

once expensive possessions.