Join the 100+ members in the brand new San Francisco Sharers group.

People who join want to share time, resources, space and skills! I created this group to address the people who like to share and bring them together. I think there are common threads amongst people who cowork, urban garden, use airbnb, couchsurf and share their cars.

This is group is the opportunity to get all the different types of people who share together to collaborate, talk about new ways to share and help transform our economy by making new connections.

The first meetup is scheduled on March 20, 2012 in San Francisco at Amelie Wine Bar. I'm not going to lie... I'm combining two of my loves: wine and the sharing economy. But, I think the spaces in between, the conversations and the energy we'll all get from being together are invaluable and will lead to more expansion of the sharing community locally and beyond.

As of today, there are 14 spots left --- so RSVP to join us for Collaborative Happy Hour. If you see this too late, still join our waiting list as there is a good chance we'll be able to squeeze you in.

I just returned from the BIL Conference in Long Beach, talking about the new sharing economy on the main stage. What an honor to be amongst so many brilliant, unique people.

Apparently, BIL is a throwback to TED... making it more accessible for anyone to speak and attend. A new friend of mine, Alexis Bright invited me to speak.

At the conference, I was in good company with friends John Roberts of Heal the World and Damian Madray and Alexandros Pagidas of the Glint, also speaking. The Glint has been a TED-like experience, where there is a live/work environment shared with other entrepreneurs, innovators and creatives. I've made a lot of new friends (including Alexis and John) and been inspired regularly by the inhabitants and others who pass through the house overlooking Twin Peaks in San Francisco (more on that and coliving another time).

I also had a fantastic time hanging out with Johnathan Yankovich and Micah Schaffer, who kept me laughing up a storm even as my Macbook took a nosedive and I redo all of my slides at the eleventh hour.

At BIL, I learned about Bullet Proof Coffee from Dave Asprey, more on the paleo diet from Josh Whiton and loaded up historical wonder on the Queen Mary Ship, where the conference was held.

The audience for my talk was small, but the people who came to my talk seemed to have a genuine interest and curiosity in collaborative consumption and how exactly the sharing economy works as well as what the limitations are. I talked about some user stories I've encountered while writing the book... giving examples of TaskRabbit and Airbnb, which have helped better lives socially and economically.

One of my favorite parts was the my discovery and learning of the triple bottom line in relation to the sharing economy... people, profit and planet are the tenants of the triple bottom line. In my talk, one of the slides said: economic, social and environmental impact. Then the human readable version. Save money --> Feel good --> Own less stuff. I like that connection.

Also, a special shout out to Gabriel Stempinski and Alexandra Liss (my co-authors) who were missed.

So, you want to rent your car to perfect strangers? What?! Yes, yes... you do. And I will tell you why.

1.) Make money - ok, this is a no brainer. According to Jessica Scorpio, one of the co-founders of Get Around - most people who rent out their car regularly net $300-400 a month. And based on people I've spoken to that use these types of services, the time investment is minimal once you get systems like automatic door openers and SMS requests set up.

2.) Pay off your car faster - If you have a car payment, why not disperse the cost of your car over several drivers. Most car sharing services see that their users are 75% local with many repeat users. So, basically, you are just sharing your asset amongst neighbors who need access to a car.

3.) Insurance is legit - Did you know that companies like GetAround provide a 3rd party insurance policy, which covers both the driver and you? So, you won't have to pay a single penny if the driver/renter of your car does any damage and nor will it go on your drivin record. Pretty cool, huh? The only downside is that you'll have to pay a hefty 40% transaction fee. So that means if you rent your car for $40 a day, you'll only see $24 of it. Totally worth the peace of mind though.

4.) Keep cars off the road - According to independent research, people who utilize car shares drive significantly less as do the owners of the cars. Once car sharing is implemented, both parties seek alternative transportation options.

5.) It's human - Sounds so silly to post this as a reason, but sharing feels awesome. It feels good, it feels human to rent your car that sits 92% of the time. Plus, you'll probably meet some pretty interesting people along the way that share the ethos of sharing. Sometimes people even leave sweet gifts in the cars of their hosts.

The 3 Best Peer-to-Peer, Neighbor-to-Neighbor Networks for Sharing Your Car

Get Around - Least amount of red tape and easiest to start. Simply get your VIN, insurance policy and photos of all sides of your car together and you can post your car in one fell swoop. Plus, insurance is built into the system.
Relay Rides - Requires that you use their proprietary locking mechanism, but still provides an excellent insurance policy. It took 3 months for me to get my car accepted, but still worth a try.
Airbnb - I don't think Airbnb officially sanctions renting cars out on Airbnb, but when I coworked at airbnb more than a year ago, Brian Chesky, one of the founders had just posted his Jeep and was trying to post other items on their as well. You can rent your car on Airbnb, but insurance isn't included the same way it is with GetAround. Call your insurance company --- mine allows me to share my car with friends for up to 500 miles and a few days.

You can call it
Fractional ownership
Underutilized asset allocation
Or collaborative consumption, but the fact is that
The sharing economy is changing the way we do business

This is the next generation of the internet, which provides the social context for a peer-to-peer connections. The sharing economy is a revolution of underutilized time, space, skills and resources.

Instead buying or renting from a company, neighbors, friends-of-friends and perfect strangers can do business with each other. Now anyone can be an entrepreneur… virtually overnight.

Anyone be a car rental agency (GetAround), professor (Udemy), hotel (Airbnb), shuttle provider (Zimride) and/or a tool rental service (SnapGoods). People can save or make money easily with web-based services that provide them with the social context to do so.

What does the future of sharing look like?

The next stage of the new sharing economy include services that have the following components:

- Underutilized/unutilized resource
- Ability to save money or make money
- Peer-to-peer component
- Social context

Underutilized
Everything from TaskRabbit to GetAround represent a foothold in the future of the sharing economy. Many would argue that TaskRabbit falls outside of the parameters of the sharing since the service connects people to do tasks and doesn’t follow along the lines of asset reallocation.

Instead of sharing an underutilized space on a website like Airbnb, TaskRabbit gives people the ability to share time that would otherwise go unused in exchange for money. While some earn a living using TaskRabbit, many who use the service are moms with extra time or students that have time between classes. And instead of being hired for a full or part-time job, they are able to do gigs for other individuals (hence peer-to-peer).

Ability to Save Money or Make Money
In this definition of sharing, no money has to be exchanged… only value. For example, services like Couchsurfing link people traveling with similar interests to facilitate international cultural exchange and a place to sleep while traveling. No one on either side of the transaction exchanges money, but both extract value from the experience and the Couchsurfer is able to save money by not having to pay for a hostel, guesthouse or hotel.

Social Context
Technology is at an apex where sharing is enabled through trust mechanisms like the social graph of Facebook and Twitter. When you sign up for many of these sharing services, you can see which of your Facebook connections are registered and what friends-of-friends are sharing. And when sharing occurs, much more than the transaction takes place. Sharing gives people the opportunity to meet in real life in order to meet basic needs, forging a sense of human connection deeper than what is possible merely interacting online.

Peer-to-peer
Fractional ownership is a definite shift from traditional consumption. Travel timeshares and ZipCar memberships profit by taking a resource that’s typically owned by one person dividing the cost by multiple people. For the sharing economy to become mainstream, the services that rely on peer-to-peer connections must prevail.

The new sharing economy ups the ante on ZipCar with services like GetAround and RelayRides that rely on peers instead of an intermediary who owns the vehicles. People can now rent cars from their neighbors.  This gives consumers a wider array of choices, giving them the potential to access to the right car, at the right time, in the right location, at the right price.

Steve Case, an early investor in ZipCar and LivingSocial calls the sharing economy  "a disruptive attack on legacy industries" like homes, cars, and stores.” With that, I tend to agree.

However, Case defines the sharing economy more broadly than I and sees LivingSocial as part of the movement since group buying gives people access to goods and services that they might not have had otherwise.