A new online service is harnessing the power of collaborative consumption to help reduce unnecessary consumerism and feed the spirit of community. Youna Angevin-Castro finds out more.

Launched in December, Friends With Things is an online hub allowing people to connect with others who may have something that they need. Whether you need to borrow a BBQ for next weekend, or you’re looking for someone to help prune your roses, Friends With Things provides a forum for finding like-minded people willing to help you out.

Concept creator Ravi Prasad first came up with the idea following a TEDx Sydney presentation by Rachel Botsman, social innovator and co-author of ‘What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption”.

[pullquote]“I really believe that this is how people want to behave – they want to belong to a community, they want to belong to each other and they want to help each other.” – Ravi Prasad[/pullquote]

“During her talk she quoted a statistic: the average electric drill was used for only 13 minutes over its entire life time,” Mr Prasad said. “People didn’t want the drill, they wanted the hole.

“I wondered how many other things people own that they seldom used. I wondered about the environmental cost of manufacturing, transporting and selling all of these things; it must be huge. How much could we help the environment just by sharing what we have?”

Collaborative consumption is a growing 21st century phenomenon. First coined in 2007, the concept is based on the idea that people will pay for access to services or products, rather than purchasing and owning it themselves. It has led to a rise in a wealth of new services, from clothing swaps and car sharing to crowd funding and bartering, and its rapid explosion as an economic force has been facilitated by the internet.

In the book ‘What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption’, Botsman describes how the concept of collaborative consumption started online, but its acceptance by modern culture has caused it to spill over into the real world.

“…we have reached a powerful inflection point, where we are starting to apply the same collaborative principles and sharing behaviours to other physical areas of everyday lives. From morning commutes to coworking spaces to the way we borrow and lend money to the way fashion is designed, different areas of our lives are being created and consumed in collaborative ways.” (Introduction, p.xx)

It is exactly this ‘spill over’ that Ravi Prasad hopes will make Friends With Things a success. Bucking the trend of creating a membership-based service, he has deliberately designed the site to operate without the need for registration or membership fees, leaving people free to join the community on their own terms.

“The idea is that the interactions that occur on the site happen between individuals. There’s no registration, no membership, we don’t get your personal details or anything like that. I wanted to make it as simple as possible for people to get involved, and to make sure that it belonged to the community who use it,” he said.

Response to the site has been positive. Since its launch, Friends With Things has attracted over 7000 visitors, and hundreds of expressions of interest to help others within the community. It was also shortlisted as a finalist in the Earth Hour Awards. Prasad believes that the attraction of the site is its ability to nurture communities, both online and in real life, that allow people to express their shared need to help others.

“I really believe that this is how people want to behave – they want to belong to a community, they want to belong to each other and they want to help each other. Just look at what happened during the floods in Queensland – people would turn up with mops and buckets and spades at their neighbour’s door to help them during their time of need. I really believe that this is the default setting on human nature,” Mr Prasad said.

“For me, Friends With Things is about creating the social network that people really want. Abraham Lincoln the 16th President of the United States once answered a question about religion with the words ‘When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.’ Its true, helping others makes you feel good, and for me, that’s what Friends With Things is really about.”

friendswiththings.com

‘What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption” by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers is published by HarperCollins.

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About the author

Youna Angevin-Castro