What’s Mine is Yours: The rise of collaborative consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers (2010)

“I knew I would love the book when I read the first paragraph,” says Catherine Whittaker. “After I read it, I was glad I borrowed it from the library.”

The embedded lesson in the book is the gross consumption of material items with little regard for waste. Instead, society is moving toward collaborative consumption. What’s old is new again.

Millennials are spearheading efforts toward collaborative consumption, which the authors divide into three models:

1. Product service systems: utilizing shared products, like cars or bicycles, reduces the necessity of ownership.
2. Re-distribution markets: purchasing used goods gives new life to old items and keeps them out of a landfill.
3. Collaborative lifestyles: technology allows for collaboration and conversation, citizen space, shared workspace, and the development of social capital.

Whittaker quotes the book, saying, “What people want is the hole, not the drill.” The challenge is to produce the whole without having to contribute to consumption by buying the drill.

• Overall Response: Read the book. Then, share it.

Previous Reviews of this book: Fall 2010 Part 1; Fall 2010 Part 2

About Digital Media Book Club: In the growing field of strategic communication, social media rockstars, academics, and digital thinkers are investing time and energy to share their learning with others. In my Digital Strategic Communication class, students in the Master of Arts in Organizational and Strategic Communication program at Queens University of Charlotte are sifting through a variety of texts to discover the embedded wisdom. These are their thoughts and reactions.