We've all heard the saying, “what’s mine is yours.” That cute, quip of a saying is now a significant movement called collaborative consumption! People are trading, bartering, renting and swapping goods, services and skills like never before. While our elders engaged in traditional collaborative consumption and communal sharing in local townships years ago, modern-day collaborators reach each other via, what else, technology.

Back in November 2011, TechCrunch.com’s Andrew Keen reported on Lauren Anderson, a member of Collaborative Consumption’s team. Anderson believes that the “me” of the industrial age will soon be replaced by the “we” of the collaborative age.

Modern-day collaborative consumption has been lauded by Time and the New York Times and discussed in detail at events such as the TED talks. The concept builds peer-to-peer connections in communities, and is a viable “new” business model for burgeoning start-up companies that specialize in product-service systems, redistribution markets and collaborative living services. 

According to the Collaborative Consumption Hub: “Collaborative Consumption is disrupting outdated modes of business and reinventing not just what we consume but how we consume.”

Online sharing communities and marketplaces allow users to exchange goods and services, and share unused space and skills. For example, want to find a car-sharing site? Visit Zipcar. Need a storage space? Click to StorPod. The Collaborative Consumption Hub has an exhaustive list of websites dedicated to connecting habitual sharers.

Granted, collaborative consumption deals can go bad, but this “new” way of living is undeniably interesting and innovative.

For more on sharing, collaborative consumption and gifting:

5 Tricks to the Living-Without-Money Trade

10 Free Gifts for Dad

image: woodlewonderworks