Collaborative consumption is slowly rising out of its grass roots movement phase--thanks to pioneers such as Rachel Botsman, co-author of What's Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. It introduces the idea of employing technology to re-imagine--and thereby renovate the consumer behavior landscape. Such concepts are a direct response to the recent breakdowns of the global economy and the environment.
Botsman refers to community business models such as Zipcar, Zilok, and Freecycle as existing confirmations that the world is ready to make a joint effort to trust and barter in order to reduce useless mass consumption--utilizing the web as the starting point. Have a watch at the Australian Social Entrepreneur's video below as well as her recent talk at a TEDx in Sydney.
Collaborative Consumption Groundswell Video from Rachel Botsman
Rachel Botsman studied fine arts at Oxford University, and she went on to study business and political science at Harvard. She is also the founder of CCLab: an innovation incubator that provides collaborative consumption strategies to startups as well as big business (in the Fortune 500 rankings), local governments and nonprofit organizations.
Tedx Sydney Rachel Botsman on Collaborative Consumption
