Efficient Frontiers: Will the Sharing Economy be Cooperative or Co-Opted?
What do 3D printing technologies, social lending platforms and co-working spaces have in common? It is tempting to answer that they are all part of the new sharing economy – a playground of possibilities including open source and peer-to-peer endeavors in a new creative commons. Yet if history repeats (or at least rhymes), the democratizing effects of these developments may be overrated. What they do share for certain, though, is a impressive and praise-worthy shift toward increased efficiency and (consequently) resource sustainability. Read the rest of this entry »