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The Challenge
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How might we restore vibrancy in cities and regions facing economic decline?
Concept
ShareFair; On- and Offline Rent, Swop, and Share Fair
ShareFair increases people’s access to products by facilitating (peer2peer) renting, swopping and sharing. Everybody can start offering their products, vacuum cleaners, drills, land mowers, cars, everything, on- and offline to neighborhood peers.
This concept makes use of what is available, not focusing on what is missing. Within cities / communities in (economic) decline, people might have less and less buying power, but that does not mean that there are less products available for people to use, enjoy and experience.
ShareFair increases people’s access to products by facilitating (peer2peer) renting, swopping and sharing. Everybody can start offering their products, that they do not need at all times; think of vacuum cleaners drills, land mowers, cars, everything. And, people can make an extra buck with it; everybody can start their own ‘rent shop’ on- and/or offline and start making money with the products they already own. People can enjoy all kinds of products, without having to buy, own and store them. Next to that this system can initiate entrepreneurship on many different levels.
There will be two ways people can meet to negotiate the ‘deal’; online (website / smartphone app) or physical (at market places). Within this concept I focus on online offering of goods.
Transportation
In case the deal is made online extra transportation services can be organized to get the products where they have to be and after use, to take it back. Bike trucks; bikes with some storing space can take around all the products within a certain neighborhood or block. As people search for products close by, distances can never be far.
Increasing trust between users
At physical (market) places people meet in person, which might increase trust. At these meeting places people can rent, swop and share all their hardware.
Online trust is created by feedback; think of ‘power users’, 'power renters' and 'power lenders'. For example stars can be earned when people lent or rented out many products. Also badges or printed out 'proof' can increase trust when people meet each other in person. Products can also be numbered (serial numbers that are punched in) or maybe RFID tags can secure products as then you can track them down.
Deposits can help to secure people taking back the item as well. The deposit can be high initially (for example 70% of the price in the store), but after some time, when people have shown the right behavior (after lending 5 times through ShareFair) the deposit can be lowered to, let's say 20% - 50%.
The 'safety' page on http://www.couchsurfing.org/safety, show some rules how to increase trust and decrease misuse. The more information of a user is available, the more he/she shows him- or herself, the more he/she can be trusted.
Apps to find the closest renter
Smartphone apps (see picture #2 for an example) can be used to facilitate searching at locations and to notify users when there is interest in using their products. For example, when someone is looking for using a drill for a couple of days; a website or an app can assist in finding the closest renting or sharing offer. In case of an app, a (text) message can be send to the owner in order to notify him about the current interest. Immediately the owner can communicate whether the product is available and when the product can be collected. This decreases the need of planning.
The costs and the benefits to lend/rent
Currently many people buy a certain, sometimes using it only for a couple of hours during its entire lifetime (think of a drill which is used in average 2 hours in its entire life). By renting it out it can be used by many people; for a day, a weekend or week. Using it costs only a couple of bucks. I expect that a drill can be rented out for $1 to $5 a day. When renting it out people can earn back their investment.
Entrepreneurs can facilitate the sharing of other peoples’ products or can start an online stores by posting pictures of their products. Craftsmen (e.g. carpenters) can also earn an extra buck quite easily by utilizing their equipment (e.g. wood crafting tools) in another way. When products are difficult to utilize it might be wise to rent people's knowledge or skills along with product itself. Think of a bulldozer or something like that, which can only be operated safely when people are skilled.
Most products are available in people’s houses or sheds, but it is not common to share them. When it can be organized in a safe way, by registering users and by providing insurances, people can buy usage time, which is far less than the entire product. The engagement of the local community to swop, rent out or share their products instead of buying and selling them is crucial for the success of the service. It should be clear that dealing with products this way is just as good as owning or buying it.
Finally the environmental aspect should nog be underestimated as this concept saves many unnecessarily bought items to be produced. We increase usage, decrease production. At the same time we increase money transfers or perception of wealth. Now it becomes interesting to buy and produce long lasting, durable products instead of cheap ones. The longer the user phase (looking at the entire life cycle), the more efficient we deal with our resources. And, the bigger the chance becomes of earning back the initial price it has been bought for.
So, why this concept restores vibrancy in cities?
· There is more financial traffic between people and the concept triggers other (transport and insurance) services. Social or local currencies can be combined if needed or necessary
· People can make an extra buck by renting out the products they have but not use often
· People will keep getting access to all kinds of products, which might make them feel wealthy or secure in a way. People will understand that being poor does not mean that most products are out of their reach
· More people meet each other; People will experience that together they can change the current way of owning and buying products, which stimulates social cohesion
· Less products have to be manufactured while the effective usage time of products increases. This is environmentally a very good development as we are making use of our products and recourses much more efficiently.
Interesting organisations to learn from are:
www.couchsurfing.com
www.nextdoor.com
www.rentcycle.com
www.gehuurdindebuurt.nl
www.zipcar.com
www.ecomodo.com
What resources (money, time, people, technology, etc) will your concept need to be successful?
A (community) website can be quite elaborate. A stylish website with a unique look and feel and costs around $5000 – $30.000 to make and I expect yearly $5000 to maintain. Simple community websites can be used at first to start creating the first ShareFair communities. This does not have to cost that much.
In case we organize one online and one physical meeting place for about 2000 – 10.000 users we need promotional tools, ambassadors spreading the word, an office, a ShareFair location. When let's say 2-3 people work on this part time, the first year will cost $50.000 – $100.000. But, i do believe that such a system can be implemented at lower costs.
Insurances and transportation are challenges for safe distribution and usage. This is why it could be wise to partner up with an insurance and/or transport company to bring in the right skills and knowledge. The organizers should organize meetings with organization for collaboration.
Within 3 months the concept could be made stronger and applied on one particular location (e.g. a neighborhood in Greece). 2 to 3 months for making the website and thinking of the strategy to involve people. Within the second half a year (monthly) physical events can be organized in order to explain the idea and to practice with the activities. The event is not to sell products and is not about a barter market only, but is to stimulate sharing, renting and swopping. Physical meetings might be necessary to change this mindset of not having to own stuff, but that it is about using stuff. This might take some time.
For these events a location (simple empty building) is needed and people should be aware of the events, so this includes spreading the word through social media and folders (door2door). Neighborhood organizations (ambassadors) should be involved to reach the users.
In order to make money with the service itself it might be interesting to ask for a fee for every ‘deal’ that involves money; so only the renting deals. The organization may ask for 20% of the renting fee. This way the website and organizing staff can be maintained in the future. The service can be profitable by itself. Fro example; when someone rents out a land mower, the lender pays $5 a day. The organization takes $1 automatically. This is possible when the payment is done online.
Another option maybe to manage the deposits. When there are large amounts of cash held by the organization, it might be interesting to do something with it, like investing it. More research needed.
Another source of income can be advertisements. Maybe even of the power renters themselves. People might pay for their products to end up on top of the list.
Another option is maybe for people to earn points when they rent out a lot. These can be reimbursed or something.
After some time, when the Walmart or MediaMarket notice a decline in sales; they might start offering their products for rent as well! This will change everything and more scenario planning is needed, but this will lead to a revolution in how we use our things. Renting, leasing and buying might go into each other. What happens then is that these organizations only rent our high quality products as these can be rented out many more times as low quality ones (that break down and ask for higher maintenance). In this case people in cities / communities in economic decline will be the first to use only high quality products. A step back (or aside) sometimes enables us to take a giant leap forward!
What steps could you take to implement this idea today?
First steps are:
• Start a simple website to spread the word and where people can become a member. In the simplest form, it can be a Facebook page. Or a NING website, which is suitable for community building.
• Search for a suitable starting location and appoint ‘ambassadors’ on a local, neighborhood level. Let them promote the project by informing neighbors. Have promotion material ready for them to use/spread
• Use Facebook and other social media tools to explain the idea and connect to people that support the cause, start building a community with believers
We can already start communicating that we do not have to own all of these products per se. That we can share our stuff (instead of keeping everything for ourselves); saving and earning money, living space and last but not least; saving the environment as we are producing less products.
The website and social pages should explain that we are able to enjoy each other’s products. And if people use the system in a smart way; we can have access to all products in the world, making extra money with the products we already own. The website or FB-page might be named; SharingisCaring.com or ShareFair.com or shareware.com (haven't checked the availability).
In short, I think it can be implemented today by start mobilizing a critical mass and start small teams on a neighborhood level that support the cause and spread the word. It might take some time to change the mindset of people as at this point in most cases owning/buying a product is perceived to be better than renting or borrowing it. Appointed local ambassadors (that might start their own renting, swopping, sharing ‘shop’) should inform their neighbors.
How can your idea be scaled so that it's implemented in cities around the world?
As there are not many physical elements necessary the idea can be initiated quite easily. It needs some attention and success story for people to understand that making more efficient use of existing products is indeed possible and profitable. When there are people acknowledging the opportunity of this, it might go fast.
My Virtual Team
Great contributions come from:
Gijsbert Koren
Tejas Shah
Johan Löfström
Peter Marshall
Simon Morfit
Thanks!
33 Evaluations so far
Login to evaluate this concept and to see the results.
How well does this concept restore vibrancy to cities and regions facing economic decline?
| This concept will definitely restore vibrancy to struggling cities | |
| This concept has potential to restore vibrancy to struggling cities | |
| This concept will not restore vibrancy to struggling cities |
How scalable is this concept across struggling cities and regions worldwide?
| This concept could be scaled for impact across multiple locations | |
| This concept will take a fair bit of work to build and scale | |
| This concept is not particularly scalable |
Does this concept require a lot of resources (time, money, people, etc) to achieve impact?
| Not really – few resources would be needed to get results | |
| Somewhat – significant resources would be needed to get results | |
| Yes – considerable resources would be needed to get results |
How easy would it be for our community to design an early prototype of this concept?
| Easy – we could start prototyping this today | |
| A bit tricky – but we could figure it out | |
| Not at all easy – we'd need help from outside experts on this |
Overall, how do you feel about this concept?
| It rocked my world | |
| I liked it but preferred others | |
| It didn't get me overly excited |
Comments
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Create a BARTER MARKET! (updated)
Inspirations this built upon
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Start a community store
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