Sharing Systems – Page 7

August 3, 2012August 3, 2012

Connect with Neighbors On and Offline with Front Porch Forums

According to the US Census Bureau, the average American moves 11.7 times in his or her lifetime. As the average life expectancy of that same citizen is 78.2 years, most Americans will move every 6.68 years.

It is perhaps this peripatetic lifestyle and an ever-accelerating pace of life that leads many of us to live those 7 or so years without getting to know our neighbors. We don’t know their names and we don’t rely on them–i.e. the original collaborative consumption.

A website called Front Porch Forum is making getting to know your neighbors just a little easier. The site is like the front porch or town square where people voice their needs, opinions, services–pretty much anything. Your particular forum is determined by your street address and unlike a community site like Craigslist, it is not anonymous. There are real names of real people who live really near you. Unlike Yahoo or Google Groups, you don’t need any special interests–just an address.

One of the site’s FAQ’s is “Has it really come to this? Using computers to talk to people next door?” The answer, they believe, is yes. Here’s what they claim:

In one rural town, we found that half the community had subscribed to FPF after one year and, remarkably, 66 percent had posted….In another study in Burlington, Vt., where half of the city subscribes to FPF, 90 percent reported that their local civic engagement had increased due to this online service.

Their site includes a sample of posts–things like “Found watch – yours?” and “Audubon summer day camp scholarships available.” The kind of casual stuff you’d chat with a neighbor about. Though we cannot attest to it personally, we imagine this online interaction would serve as a catalyst for face-to-face communication.

The site’s newsletter are sponsored with ads. If you’re an idealist, this might strike you as a corrupting force. If you’re a capitalist, this might strike you as practical. The fact is sites like these take time and money; they can either be beholden to volunteers, donors or corporate sponsors.

There is one serious rub to FPF: it is almost exclusively in Vermont (there are couple communities in NY and NH). They are actively looking to expand, but right now that is not the case.

If you are interested in creating a FPF in your area, drop them a line. If you have used FPF, we’d love to hear your experience.

image credit: portlandoregon.gov

July 31, 2012July 31, 2012

RelayRides: Like an Automotive Airbnb

We’re big fans of Zipcar and similar services. They allow people who don’t need a car full time to have on-demand access to cars when they need them, for as much or as little time as necessary.

A site called RelayRides is trying to get in on that action. Rather than dealing with a corporation however, RelayRides allows peer-to-peer car rentals–sorta like an Airbnb for the automotive world. RelayRides takes people’s slumbering cars and puts them to work as well as making some cash for the owners.

Car owners set their cars price and availability and renters book the cars online. Owners review the request before their car is booked. Protection comes in the form a $1M insurance policy for both owners and renters; 24 roadside assistance comes with the package. Riders are screened to make sure Thelma and Louise don’t rent your convertible.

In terms of money, owners get 60% of the reservation fee. Yep, that’s right–40% go to RelayRide (a hot topic on their comment board). Cars seem to rent for around $7-50/hr, with majority for around $15. Renters cover gas charges.

We wish RelayRides the best, but wonder about their value proposition. Their prices are higher than Zipcar whose prices start at $9/hr in NYC (lower in other regions); oh yeah, this includes gas. RelayRides reservations are not instantaneous and in some cases both parties have to arrange a key exchange (“select” cars can be opened with a cellphone). Zipcar members have a card that allows them to open the door for any reserved car. To be fair, there is a yearly registration fee for Zipcar ($60 in NYC).

I am quite familiar with using Zipcar. I’ve used it for several years, and excepting a few late returns and last-minute reservations switches, I’ve been quite happy with the service.

Have you used RelayRides? What was your experience? Would you recommend it? Are there other similar services we should be looking at? Let us know.

Via Netted by the Webbys

July 26, 2012June 6, 2013

Airbnb: Changing How and Where People Stay When Away

Several of the LifeEdited team are based in large cities like New York and Seattle, and unfortunately we are cursed with those great city’s myopic worldviews. There are certain things we deal with that we assume everyone deals with, like $2K/month studio apartments, locating reliable public restrooms and knowing cheap places to stay for guests when your place is too small.

For that latter topic, the last few years have seen a revolution in guest accommodation with Airbnb. The company calls itself a “community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world.”

The company, founded in 2008 in San Francisco, lets you book rooms in peoples’ homes in 26K cities and 192 countries, often paying a fraction of what you would in a hotel. Conversely, you can rent out your space to earn some extra money.

Beyond the savings, you can book spaces far more interesting that standard hotel fair–like a cave house in Granada Spain for $63/night (above) or a houseboat in Paris for $125/night. Funny enough, you can rent the 1 Sq Meter Home we covered the other day for $12/night in Berlin. On a more conventional note, you can rent rooms in places like New York City–where average hotel rooms are in excess of $300/night–for less than $100/night.

Airbnb makes money by charging hosts a 3% processing fee and guests a 6-12% service fee (more expensive stays have a lower fee)–nominal expenses compared to a hotel’s overhead charges. Their website provides reviews of hosts and their accommodations, as well as profiles of guests to protect hosts. There are numerous safety measures in place, such as $1M coverage for theft or vandalism for hosts. Their system also allows you to network with your friends, so you can exchange information about various stays from people you know.

Airbnb does require a couple extra hoops to jump through over a conventional hotel, like waiting 24 hours to confirm a reservation and you often have to coordinate a key exchange, so it might not put the hotel industry out of business just yet. That said, it creates a far more affordable, interesting and intimate way to house yourself when you’re away from home.

April 9, 2012August 28, 2013

How Coworking is Changing the 21st Century Workplace

Freelancers and small businesses are increasingly proving themselves 21st Century economic powerhouses. Their small sizes allow them to flow with the currents of technological and cultural change in a way their larger, corporate counterparts can’t. They are cost-effective because they can keep a small core staff, bringing on specialists depending on their needs.

But where do they work? Many find themselves too big or busy to work from home, or too small to afford their own office.

For these homeless freelancers, small businesses and entrepreneurs, co-working spaces provide a great option. Individuals and small organizations can rent a desk or small office in a space filled with like-minded industries. Tenants share things like boardrooms, printers and other resources. Rent depends on your use of the space, e.g. NYC-based Green Spaces charges anywhere from $20/day to $550/month for a dedicated desk.

Because most are formed based on industry–e.g. there might be a tech, non-profit or ethical business co-working space–the environments foster community formation and collaboration. Many host events with dedicated spaces like this one in Zurich.

One of the best known co-working spaces is The Hub, whose mission is, “To become a global network of connected communities that enable collaborative ventures for a better world.” Formed in 2005 in London, they now have 25+ locations, 4K+ members, 50+hubs in formation, spread across 5 continents.

Coworking is a great form of edited workplace for a number of reasons:

If you travel a lot, you can pay and use the space only when you need it, cutting overhead and overall space use.
Shared office equipment cuts clutter and saves money.
Human interaction promotes happiness.

If you’re interested in finding a coworking space in your area, visit the coworking wiki directory, which contains a list of spaces around the world.

images via Hub Westminster and Hub Zurich.

March 20, 2012April 14, 2014

Take Your Neighbor’s Stuff Without Getting Arrested

Long ago people didn’t have a lot of personal possessions. Not everyone had their own power-drill, cookie pans or tripod. And because the nearest Target was 30 years away, rather than not assembling that desk, eating raw cookie dough or shooting blurry shots, people used the only store around: their neighbors.

Well those days might be upon us again…but better. Rather than bugging your neighbors, services like Neighborgoods, Snapgoods and Share Some Sugarconnect you online with people in your area who have the stuff you need. Neighborgoods is free and has a pretty deep inventory of stuff (for our Brooklyn-based author at least); I found a Wii, a glue gun and a cat carrier–all things that might come in handy once in a while, but hardly necessary all the time. Share Some Sugar charges a nominal rental fee for household items, while Snapgoods focuses on high-tech gear; e.g. I found a CAD M179 Large Diaphragm Studio Condenser Microphone with Shockmount (Continuously variable pickup pattern!). I have no idea what that is or does, but am sure $9/day is a good deal.

We live in an age of abundant and cheap consumer goods. So much so that we end up buying stuff we don’t really need. But as Dave Bruno put it,”Stuff is not passive. Stuff wants your time, attention, allegiance. But you know it as well as I do, life is more important than the things we accumulate.” With aforementioned sharing systems, you can have the stuff you need, but only when you need it, allowing us to focus on other, more important stuff.