Sunday, 21 November 2010
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
The wave of new books which are catching up with the sharing innovators -and pointing out new directions
I was excited when a friend from the new economics foundation shared with me a copy of 'The Mesh' by Lisa Gansky at the weekend. (Amazon link to book here);
Seth Godin (writer of recommended 'Tribes') -and an advocate of regular blogging to refine your ideas, writes as follows:
I hope you'll buy a copy right now. It's that important and that valuable.
Gansky has written the most insightful book about new economy business models since The Long Tail, and if you're not facile in understanding and working with the key concept behind this book, it's going to cost you time and trouble.
In short, the Mesh outlines how sharing resources and information creates an entirely new class of commerce. When you travel to another city, you don't buy a house. You stay in a hotel. A hotel, because it allows hundreds of people a year to share a single room, is a mesh business.
The thing is, the web has created thousands (probably more) of these businesses in areas you have never thought about. Zipcar, sure, and Netflix. But in all sorts of nooks and crannies as well. Lisa's online directory already lists thousands of these companies. Existing companies need to know about this, job seekers should be attracted to it, and for entrepreneurs, it really is a new frontier."
An Amazon review however warns as follows:
I bought this book as a result of a recommend by Seth Godin. I can only assume that he didn't get to read the final version.
The idea is OK - making expensive or infrequently used stuff available for short term rent rather than the customer having to buy. The main example given is companies like Zipcar who make cars easily available, via mobile phone booking & remote unlocking, in convenient locations. Then use the customer data gathered to offer complimentary products and services via other partner businesses. Problem is, all we get is the same points (often using the same example company) repeated in different order. Quite frankly, it gets tedious.
If it were a film, it is one of those where you keep watching expecting something to happen, but it never does.
I expected to learn some new ideas, some insightful formulas and get excited by the whole concept.Instead, I confess that I didn't even finish the book, so if anyone manages to actually get to the end please let me know if anything actually happened.
Other recent sharing books of (more?) note:
Let's have a book soon on 'Collaborative Conservation'!
If you are going to buy new books, please try and at least buy them with friends.
In case you haven't heard me saying this before clearly enough, in this decade I'd love to see a world in which people routinely list what they own on a site like freelender.org or letsallshare.com, which would link eg to Facebook and Amazon/eBay in ways that Amazon/eBay earns commission from letting you know that you don't need to order what you're looking for because x,y,z is owned by your friend or neighbour who is willing to lend it, and knows how to lend/borrow responsibly.
Some discussion on Collaborative Consumption can be found at:
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2010/11/the_unrevolutio.php
http://www.generationbubble.com/2010/10/26/flea-market-ideology-a-review-of-whats-mine-is-yours-the-rise-of-collaborative-consumption/
Seth Godin (writer of recommended 'Tribes') -and an advocate of regular blogging to refine your ideas, writes as follows:
The Mesh is here (don't miss it)
"My friend Lisa Gansky has a new book out today. You can read a bit about it here.I hope you'll buy a copy right now. It's that important and that valuable.
Gansky has written the most insightful book about new economy business models since The Long Tail, and if you're not facile in understanding and working with the key concept behind this book, it's going to cost you time and trouble.
In short, the Mesh outlines how sharing resources and information creates an entirely new class of commerce. When you travel to another city, you don't buy a house. You stay in a hotel. A hotel, because it allows hundreds of people a year to share a single room, is a mesh business.
The thing is, the web has created thousands (probably more) of these businesses in areas you have never thought about. Zipcar, sure, and Netflix. But in all sorts of nooks and crannies as well. Lisa's online directory already lists thousands of these companies. Existing companies need to know about this, job seekers should be attracted to it, and for entrepreneurs, it really is a new frontier."
An Amazon review however warns as follows:
I bought this book as a result of a recommend by Seth Godin. I can only assume that he didn't get to read the final version.
The idea is OK - making expensive or infrequently used stuff available for short term rent rather than the customer having to buy. The main example given is companies like Zipcar who make cars easily available, via mobile phone booking & remote unlocking, in convenient locations. Then use the customer data gathered to offer complimentary products and services via other partner businesses. Problem is, all we get is the same points (often using the same example company) repeated in different order. Quite frankly, it gets tedious.
If it were a film, it is one of those where you keep watching expecting something to happen, but it never does.
I expected to learn some new ideas, some insightful formulas and get excited by the whole concept.Instead, I confess that I didn't even finish the book, so if anyone manages to actually get to the end please let me know if anything actually happened.
Other recent sharing books of (more?) note:
- What's mine is yours
- Collaborative Consumption
Let's have a book soon on 'Collaborative Conservation'!
If you are going to buy new books, please try and at least buy them with friends.
In case you haven't heard me saying this before clearly enough, in this decade I'd love to see a world in which people routinely list what they own on a site like freelender.org or letsallshare.com, which would link eg to Facebook and Amazon/eBay in ways that Amazon/eBay earns commission from letting you know that you don't need to order what you're looking for because x,y,z is owned by your friend or neighbour who is willing to lend it, and knows how to lend/borrow responsibly.
Some discussion on Collaborative Consumption can be found at:
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2010/11/the_unrevolutio.php
http://www.generationbubble.com/2010/10/26/flea-market-ideology-a-review-of-whats-mine-is-yours-the-rise-of-collaborative-consumption/
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