Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Sharing Economy & Apples: Connecting the Dots

When I say "connecting the dots", I actually mean the dot coms. In other words, I'm getting fascinated about  how sharing is connected to our online lives. 
Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, email and our various gadgets, it is getting so much easier to buy, sell, rent and share our stuff like houses, cars, tools, clothes, and the garden harvest. The fun part is looking at the examples.
Here's a handful:

From Sharable magazine: How to share fallen fruit.
"Next time you walk through your neighborhood, take note of abundant fruit trees, and the ground under them. See it?"
Fallen Fruit, an organization that uses fruit as the common denominator that changes the way you see the world, generates maps of fruit in public spaces all over the world. They tell you, for instance, that huckleberries are ripening on California's north coast. And they are all over the place.

For my recent
Adweek story, I found out about Repair Cafes, where people share their fix-it skills. Very cool if  -- like me -- you haven't met a machine that you can't break. 

Maybe this sharing thing is a fad, maybe it is just the latest trend. But I think there is more to it. Is it a movement, like insiders call it? Don't know.
I do know that swapping homegrown apples, oranges, figs and eggplant is better than money in wine country right now.

I'll look for more food, wine and fitness sharing ideas and let you know.
cheers,
Joan