Making sense of the Collaboration Economy
Open questions about the sustainability of a collaborative model for participants and thinking about ecosystems as part of new economy of sharing.
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Uber Might Be More Valuable Than Facebook Someday. Here’s Why. NY Intelligencer: That's the short-term objective for Uber: to kill the taxi business, and become the cheapest, best way to get around major cities all over the world. The medium-term objective for Uber is much broader, and has to do with what tech nerds call the "death of the ownership society." As Uber rides become cheaper and cheaper, there will be less need for people to own their own cars. This is already happening, to some extent. Questions for Uber: Is this system being designed to be sustainable for the people who collaborate within it? Are participants going to partake in the profits?
- Real Food Works. Company site: Food brings people together — every Wednesday around our farm table, every holiday around most tables, and every day over family dinners and business lunches. We’ll teach you how to enjoy those social occasions while maintaining your dedication to eating real foods. Ecosystem effect: The meals are created and prepared by a network of local independent chefs in the region who thus get to showcase their skills, add to their business by participating in the program.
Making do with what you have
Two stories about accidental deception -- the first one in an attempt to rank better in natural search, the second in an attempt to rank better as a person in society.
- The OJR.org saga has a happy ending, with the domain headed back to USC Annenberg. Nieman Journalism Lab: The Australian startup that bought OJR.org says a rogue SEO consultant is responsible for the zombie spamblog version of the site. They’re ready to give it back to its original owner, which let the domain expire.
- Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed. Raptitude [h/t @Ritholtz]: We buy stuff to cheer ourselves up, to keep up with the Joneses, to fulfill our childhood vision of what our adulthood would be like, to broadcast our status to the world, and for a lot of other psychological reasons that have very little to do with how useful the product really is. How much stuff is in your basement or garage that you haven’t used in the past year?
Making it visible
Two differing points of view on the ongoing conversation about secrets, privacy, and government involvement.
- NSA Needs a Zoloft After Obama No-Show, but Here Comes Internet's "Wrecking Ball" Letter. AllThingsD: But President Barack Obama has gone all Liam Hemsworth-cold, and the NSA is feeling wronged. “It’s become very public and very personal,” according to one former official that Nakashima quoted. “Literally, neighbors are asking people, ‘Why are you spying on Grandma?’ And we aren’t.”
- Attack Of The Billionaire Hypocrites. AdContrarian: The Silicon Valley aristocracy, who have made billions and billions of dollars by collecting ungodly amounts of personal information about us, came out in force yesterday to denounce governments for collecting ungodly amounts of personal information about us. They're shocked -- shocked I tell you! -- at the intrusion into our privacy.
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Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effects on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here.