Group items tagged

Have you noticed that as we dematerialize consumer goods (that is, change their atoms to bits), we're less likely to own them? Businesses like iTunes have furtive terms of service that turn out to merely license the music you think you're buying. And then there are fee-based services that forgo media ownership entirely, such as Spotify. As visionary and Wired cofounder Kevin Kelly puts it, "Access is better than owning." 29 That sentiment is the driving force behind a new economic model called collaborative consumption, where consumers use online or off-line tools to rent, share, and trade goods and services. Some people refer to it as Zipcar capitalism, from the eponymous car sharing service wherein subscribers-who apparently without irony call themselves Zipsters- rent vehicles by the hour.