From P2P Foundation

This is a new section to encourage the sharing of resources and the creation of Use Communities.

The P2P Foundation fully supports the Shareable initiative. And we listen to the Sharing Song by Jack Johnson.

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Citations 2.1 Engineering Abundance by Sharing Surplus 3 Directories 4 Key Resources 4.1 Key Articles 4.2 Key Books

Introduction

1. In this article on Use Communities, Alex Steffen argues that sharing infrastructures are vital for sustainability
2. A Typology of Sharing Practices

The three major categories of sharing, according to Rachel Botsman in her book on the Rise of Collaborative Consumption:

• Product Service Systems like Bikesharing and Carsharing, based on a ‘usage mindset’ whereby you pay for the benefit of a product – what it does for you - without needing to own the product outright.

• Redistribution Markets like Freecycle and eBay, used or pre-owned goods are redistributed from where they are not needed to somewhere or someone where they are

• Collaborative Lifestyles like Couchsurfing, and the Lending Club: sharing and exchange of resources and assets such as time, food, space, skills, and money

For a more radical approach that involves stronger elements of communal living, see the work of A. Allen Butcher on Communal Economics, and his useful typology of Production Sharing and Communal Distribution.

Citations

Engineering Abundance by Sharing Surplus

Marina Gorbis:

"Not everyone has a large house to trade or a large sum of money to donate but look around you -- we have excess of stuff, talent, ideas, information--in our homes , in our communities, and in our organizations. We are over-producing and under-utilizing resources all over the place. Witness the recent example of clothing retailers like H&M deliberately mutilating and tossing unsold clothes in the trash. Many experts in retail concede that the practice is not uncommon--for some unfathomable "economic" reason it makes more sense to destroy clothes than to release them into a local community. The situation is even worse when it comes to food. We over-produce and waste a lot of it. According to the USDA, just over a quarter of America's food -- about 25.9 million tons -- gets thrown into the garbage can every year. University of Arizona estimates that the number is closer to 50 percent. The country's supermarkets, restaurants and convenience stores alone throw out 27 million tons between them every year (representing $30 billion of wasted food). This is why the U.N. World Food Program says the total food surplus of the U.S. alone could satisfy "every empty stomach" in Africa. How about empty stomachs in our own communities? The list goes on an on. We have surplus of space--many commercial buildings, schools, corporate and government spaces are underutilized, while many small organizations and individuals are struggling to find spaces for their work. We also have excess of talent--musicians, artists, designers, educated unemployed people, young and old--needing audiences, venues to work in, or contribute ideas to." (http://boingboing.net/2010/02/08/marina-gorbis-crowds.html)

Directories

• The Mesh Business directory: "Mesh businesses leverage data and social networks to enable people to share goods and services efficiently and conveniently/ There are already thousands of these businesses—in transportation, fashion, food, real estate, travel, finance, entertainment and many other categories." [1]

See the following compilations on our wiki:

1. Global Resource Exchange Groups and Localized Exchange Communities
2. Peer to Peer Exchanges and P2P Exchange Infrastructure Projects
3. Low Cost Groups

Key Resources

1. Shareable magazine aims to be the voice of the new sharing culture
2. Video: The Collaborative Consumption Groundswell Video ; [2]
3. Book by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers: What's Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption

Key Articles

How-to articles:

1. http://shareable.net/blog/how-to-share-a-chicken
2. http://shareable.net/blog/how-to-stop-foreclosure-through-homesharing and http://shareable.net/blog/how-to-share-a-house-a-case-study
3. http://shareable.net/blog/off-the-waffle
4. http://shareable.net/blog/how-to-share-a-nanny
5. http://shareable.net/blog/how-to-start-a-crop-mob
6. http://shareable.net/blog/how-to-exchange-time
7. http://shareable.net/blog/how-to-start-a-really-really-free-market
8. http://shareable.net/blog/how-to-throw-your-own-community-swap-meet
9. http://shareable.net/blog/how-nonprofits-can-share-down-their-costs-part-ii
10. http://shareable.net/blog/how-to-share-a-car-part-ii
11. http://shareable.net/blog/how-to-stop-foreclosure-through-homesharing
12. http://shareable.net/blog/how-i-rescued-myself-from-holiday-shopping-through-a-donation-exchange

Key Books

• The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing Lisa Gansky. Portfolio / Penguin Group, FALL 2010
• What's Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers (Fall, HarperCollins), 2010