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How the Internet Economy Changes the Rules, with Rachel Botsman
Video

How the Internet Economy Changes the Rules, with Rachel Botsman


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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Eloquent

Recommendation

Disillusionment with big business is snaking through society, but while individuals’ trust in institutions has collapsed, the Internet has fostered interpersonal trust among strangers. Social entrepreneur Rachel Botsman documents this phenomenon in her analysis of the sharing economy. Her brief, clear talk identifies the behavioral shifts that the growth of collaborative consumption will beget. getAbstract recommends Botsman’s video to executives at traditional institutions and new-age enterprises alike, as well as to anyone interested in technology’s impact on society.

Summary

When a man with a bad back placed an ad on TaskRabbit, an online errand network, seeking someone to walk for two hours on his new mattress, which was too hard for his spine, he received 12 offers to perform the chore. Many people would be wary of such a peculiar request, but new technologies are promulgating interpersonal trust in unprecedented ways. Trust in outmoded hierarchical organizations is waning in the new collaborative era, but trust in peers is increasing. A common characteristic of this sharing paradigm is the acceptance of a three-pronged “trust stack”; that is, people trust the idea...

About the Speaker

Rachel Botsman studies the collaborative economy. She is the author of What’s Mine Is Yours.