Making Collaborative Consumption Happen

Date: 08.02.2011 08:30 - 12:00

Location: NESTA, 1 Plough Place, London, EC4A 1DE

Collaborative Consumption presents a game-changing opportunity for the future of Britain's Public Services, creating new systems of exchange between both individuals and organisations that harness the untapped value of idle resources. Whether through the bartering, trading, swapping or borrowing of goods, skills, time, space, tools or resources, Collaborative Consumption is emerging as a way of,revolutionising the way public services are both engaged with and delivered.

Join us with for this practical workshop as we explore how to harness sharing behaviour, at scale, for public good.

Speakers include author Rachel Botsman, NESTA director Jon Kingsbury and CEO of Timebanking UK, Sam Hopley.

Harnessing Collaborative Consumption

This participant-led workshop will practically explore how we might harness Collaborative Consumption by working on three participant-nominated challenges. The workshop is limited to 36 interdisciplinary attendees of a blend of social entrepreneurs, public services, civic organizations, and the digital community. The key ideas, challenges, best practice and practical actions that emerge from the day will be widely shared.

Collaborative Consumption - sharing behaviours such as bartering, trading, and lending - has happened for centuries, however capitalizing and creating scalable solutions for public good has always been a challenge. In recent years three key shifts are happening to change this picture;

1. Collaborative technology is connecting people in new ways and at a scale never possible before.
2. Financial pressures for the public and public purse alike are encouraging consumers to look for more economical ways to access what they need.
3. These changes are enabling both a cultural need and technological ability to connect and form trust with strangers.

When we share, the results are powerful

• Japan's Fureai Kippu scheme is now enabling the elderly to be cared for by sharing millions of relatives across the country. What's more, research shows people prefer Fureai Kippu carers to professional service agencies.
• By understanding how to connect people, the social lending site Zopa has enabled £100 million to be lent peer-to-peer in just five years, avoiding the need to engage with the big banks.
• Within six months of launch, 2 million trips had been taken on Barclays Cycle Hire, London's bicycle sharing scheme.
• Garden-matching platform Landshare has over 58,000 members across the UK.
• By 2015 it is estimated that 5.5 million people in Europe will belong to sharing services such as bicycle sharing, peer rental, car sharing, bicycle sharing and time-banking.

Attend the workshop

To attend this workshop please contact Carla.ross@nesta.org.uk with a some background on your work and interests. We're particularly keen to invite representation from local authorities and social organizations, who may be looking at doing things differently and how to do more with less, or who already may be doing collaborative consumption and want to share your ideas.

Send in or post up your challenges now ready for the day - you can take part in the linked in discussion here, or mail Carla with ideas. We're looking for ideas that start with 'What if..' or How could we...'