The rise of collaborative consumption is perhaps the most efficient movement arising in society today. Basically, collaborative consumption is based on an economic model where products are shared or rented instead of owned. This model may become pervasive enough to replace the ownership-based model we have today. For good introduction to this movement, see the video above. It’s by Rachel Botsman, author of What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption.
Airbnb has become the poster-child for the collaborative consumption movement. It’s a website that allows people to rent out their homes easily. The service has become so popular that each night, in New York City, more rooms are rented out through Airbnb than all the hotels in the city combined.
There’s a long list of peer-to-peer companies here and at Meshing.It
This is a newer concept to North America. Europe has many collaborative bike and car programs where citizens don’t have to purchase a car or bike they simply use one when they need one, some are even free.
I think North America will adopt this more and more as a way to keep down costs in a down-turned economy.