[Advisors] FW: [ciresearchers] The Facebook Community Commons

[michael gurstein]

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Very interesting Don... I wasn't aware of this phenom but I'll check to see
if it is happening in rural Canada as well...

However, I did come across something very similar in rural India (can't now
put my finger on the name, but it was being cited as a major driver for
local connectivity/telecentres especially providing a means for
inter-communal trade in things like bicycles etc.

M

-----Original Message-----
From: ciresearchers-owner@vancouvercommunity.net
[mailto:ciresearchers-owner@vancouvercommunity.net] On Behalf Of Don Cameron
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 11:14 PM
To: ciresearchers@vancouvercommunity.net
Subject: [ciresearchers] The Facebook Community Commons

There?s a quiet revolution happening on Facebook that?s really helping to
bring back the concept of ?marketplace commons? to rural communities
otherwise adversely impacted by the overwhelmingly one-sided and increasing
trade deficit of online connectivity.

I discovered it quite by accident when looking at ways to either donate or
convert into cash a few unwanted items. Accepting that most people and
charities were unlikely to travel hundreds of kilometres to a rural district
to pick up an old stove or unwanted power tool (making eBay a less than
viable option), and being unwilling to go to the time and effort of
advertising and preparing a local garage sale (that would only be raided
anyway at 6:00 am by local second-hand vendors), I asked a few locals what
other options were available.

Everyone I spoke with told me the same thing ? ?sell them locally on
Facebook" (as IT manager with our largest employer I was a little
embarrassed I hadn?t thought of this myself).

So lo and behold... a search of Facebook ?Buy Swap and Sell? just in our
little community alone returns half-a-dozen matches; the largest a
ferociously active forum/page with more than 5,000 local subscribers
(amazing of itself given our entire district population is less than
18,000), where people trade, donate, swap and sell dozens and sometimes
hundreds of items per day. Items ranging from the cheapest of toys and
clothing to cars, farm pumps, boats, tractors and everything in between at
prices well below what we would pay elsewhere.

Yet what?s truly inspirational is the depth of membership diversity in age,
health, wealth and other areas, and the fact the site is only open to local
residents yet contains nearly half our entire district population, the
unpaid volunteerism and teamwork inherent in moderation, and the degrees of
charity openly displayed to less fortunate people. In other words; a virtual
community marketplace where local people interact and help each other in
exactly the same way we do in our physical community (and the complete
opposite of every other online resource trying in one manner or another to
convert people into consumers and spend money outside our community).

A search of similar Facebook "Buy Swap and Sell" pages shows they exist
right across regional Australia, and to a lesser degree, right across the
globe.

I?m wondering, is anyone researching the phenomenon?

~ Don 



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