Shared fate - are you ready for the collaborative economy?

This week, I was fortunate enough to listen to a presentation by Jeremiah Owyang and his shocking predictions for the Collaborative Economy. Jeremiah's vision takes us from today's world where ownership is everything, to a future where sharing drives the economy.

You can read Jeremiah's full report, see his slides and have your mind blown here.

The premise is a simple one.  The crowd, i.e. you and me and all our friends, use social media to engage with one another, share ideas, critique goods and services, compare prices and basically do all that we can, to meet our wants and needs without ever consulting the corporations who used to dictate our aspirations.

This, always on, globally linked approach, is possible because in todays world, more people now have mobile phones than toilets (I know, I couldn't believe it either). Mobile phones, ipads, tablets and all those other internet connected devices, have made it easier than ever to access what we want, as we want it, so the crowd ultimately decides what's made, delivered and consumed.

If this sounds like futurology, consider how the crowd could currently be contributing to your business.

Need a presentation produced, questions for your focus group, an SEO action plan for your website?  Look no further than fiverr.com  This is collaboration in action.  Those with the skills offer their services for a small fee, usually $5, and hey presto that irksome little task that's been loitering on your to-do list since the start of the year, has been delegated to a safe pair of hands to complete.

Need a freelance copywriter, project manager or other short term team member then skills-hive.com could be the answer and there are any number of similar services worldwide.

If you're lucky enough to be a New York dweller, your office needs by the hour/day/week, could be met by liquidspace.com, without any of the search, overhead or relocation delays.  

It may seem a bit of a hippie throwback, but with an ever increasing global population, scarce resources and short attention spans, it's the obvious way ahead.

No doubt the lawyers are already worrying about what this means for intellectual property, copyright etc but for the rest of us, a brave new world of possibility awaits.

Bring it on.