Wolff Olins London MD Ije Nwokorie is leading a session at TEDxCentralSaintMartins this Wednesday, 28 March.
Ije, and our former Creative Director Marina Willer, will work together to graphically record the debate emerging from the jam-packed morning sessions in front of a twitter wall displaying tweets from speakers and participants in real time. The pair will apply their combined creative and strategic flair to summarize contributions from a diverse bunch of speakers including: The Honey Club, Peter Kruse, Michael Wolff and Tom Hulme.
Collaborative consumption describes the rapid explosion in swapping, sharing, bartering, trading and renting being reinvented through the latest technologies and peer-to-peer marketplaces in ways and on a scale never possible before.
The movement, pioneered by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers, came to notoriety through the book, What’s Mine Is Yours.
From DVDs to cars, collaborative consumption is redefining the concept of ownership. It is a profoundly important movement, marking a huge shift in the way people interact with brands and products but more importantly, how they interact with their own neighbourhood.
Rachel Botsman is giving a talk at the RSA in London today on ‘The Rise of Collaborative Consumption’ and Wolff Olins will be attending, so watch out for our live tweets on the @WolffOlins twitter feed.
To whet your appetite ahead of the main event, we thought we’d share three great examples of collaborative organisations:
The People’s Supermarket
This London cooperative is challenging the might of the big chain retailers that dominate the British retail space. In return for volunteering to work in the shop for 4 hours a month, members of the People’s Supermarket get a 20% discount in the store. So far there’s only one location on Lambs Conduit St but it’s a huge step in the right direction – providing honest, quality food at a reasonable price and fostering a community of like-minded shoppers in central London. Last month, The People’s Supermarket celebrated its 400th member and continues to grow.
Most urban dwellers are familiar with member car sharing services such as Streetcar and Zipcar, but few people are aware of brands like Whipcar.
Unlike Streetcar, which uses its own fleet of vehicles, Whipcar simply provides the infrastructure support to book, insure and pay for rental, but the vehicles belong to other Whipcar members.
Owners can set the rental price and availability of their car and make money from a vehicle that might usually be parked unused on a street for long periods. Renters get to choose from a wide variety of vehicles of makes, models, colours and sizes. What’s more, Whipcar is also a lot more personal than other car sharing services as you actually meet the car owner before you rent.
Why spend $100 on a power tool you only use for 10 minutes a year? Whether it’s power tools, baby toys, deckchairs, vacuum cleaners - almost anything can be rented or borrowed from people on NeighborGoods. Just type in your postal code and list items you want to rent or answer requests from those looking for specific items.
