Sharing has never been easier. Digitization has brought it back in a big way. Here, we look outside of the mainstream, which is populated by the likes of Uber and airbnb, to present a few unusual – and highly creative – sharing projects.
Digital gifts: Abe Hagenston, homeless person from Detroit (USA), has updated himself into the digital age. He is the first homeless person in his area to accept donations either in cash or by credit card. The card reader only set him back ten dollars. His free Wi-Fi comes from the McDonald's restaurant that he often sits in front of.
Share a pet: How about a coffee and a chance to give a cat or an owl a little TLC? In Japan, petting cafés are nothing new. In fact, Tokyo is now full of cat, goat, rabbit and owl cafés. And now there's ... a hedgehog café, in which you can pet those prickly companions for the equivalent of 8 euros during the week and 10.50 euros on the weekend.
Distributed computing: Calculating the unknown quantity. Sharing computing power in the interest of science. A number of projects employ "volunteer computing", in which computer users voluntarily make computing resources available for research: Seti@Home (search for extraterrestrial intelligent life); Stanford University's Folding@home (simulation of protein folding).
Digital advice for small investors: Money and friendship can indeed mix. It happens in social trading, which brings stock exchange trading together with social networks: investors share – with the community – their strategies or even a look at their entire portfolio. Other investors can see the information, post comments or simply pursue similar investing strategies.
Everything on loan: Digital neighborly assistance. "Pumpipumpe" [roughly: "lend me a pump"] is a sharing project that designers in Berne have developed with the aim of facilitating joint use of consumer goods in neighborhood settings. Via "stickers" on their mailboxes, neighbors announce the goods that they have available for loan – and get to know each other better.
Together against hunger: Sharing food with strangers? Strangers in need? That can certainly be a noble idea, and it's the concept behind LeftoverSwap, an app developed in the U.S.. The idea is to make leftovers available to needy people – instead of simply throwing them away. The leftovers are photographed, described and then offered, via smartphone, for pickup.
