This week on-air and online, the tech team is exploring the sharing economy. You'll find the stories on this blog and aggregated at this link, and we would love to hear your questions about the topic. Just email, leave a comment or tweet.
Not long ago if you wanted to rent a room for the weekend your choices ran from the Four Seasons to Motel 6. Renting a car meant Hertz or Avis and applying for a loan meant going to a bank. But all this is changing.
Increasingly, individuals are reaching out to each other through the Internet. Thousands of Americans have started renting out their underused personal assets online to earn extra cash. They rent their apartments while they are away for the weekend, lend their cars for cash and even sell their spare time.
The sharing, or peer-to-peer, economy is exploding. And all of this is possible in part because of technology, but also because many Americans are coming to terms with scarcity in their lives.
Room To Let
Sharing is not exactly new. Even turning to the Internet to unload unwanted stuff in the midst of a personal economic crisis is a pretty old idea. After all, eBay has been around for a while. And the Craigslist auction of unwanted junk is a staple of modern life.
Still, during the financial crisis something changed.
“ In the same way when a taxi illuminates when they are on and off duty, we have this ability to illuminate waste. ... That pent up waste with new eyes becomes value.