Take a look around you. Do you have a guest room that sits empty for most of the year? Maybe you have a back garden calling out for a veggie patch, but you neither have the time nor the green thumb. Perhaps you are like the average car owner whose vehicle sits idle on average for 23 hours a day.

We are surrounded by assets that have "idling capacity" – the untapped social and economic value of under-utilised spaces, skills, time, gardens, and "stuff". With the rapid growth of network technologies, we can connect and collaborate on a scale and in ways that have never been possible before. Networks, smart phones and real-time platforms create the efficiency and social glue to trade, swap, barter, lend, gift or share "idling capacity" in ways that can enhance all aspects of our daily lives. It's a growing culture and economy called collaborative consumption.

When you rent out your empty room on a site like crashpadder.com, not only can you make some money but also give visitors access to a local, personal experience of your city. Through "garden dating agencies", such as landshare.net, you are connected with a gardener who might not have the space to grow their own veg and you are helping strengthen reciprocation in your community.

By using a peer-to-peer car-rental platform, such as whipcar.com, you can maximise the usage of your vehicle and create trusting neighbourhood relationships between lender and lessee. And these examples are just the tip of the iceberg of thousands of collaborative marketplaces popping up around the world.

Collaborative consumption has the power to revolutionise how we tap into idling capacity, and by doing so change the way we view and become a part of communities in unique and meaningful ways.



Rachel Botsman is co-author of What's Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption is Changing the Way We Live (Collins, £12.99). Visit theschooloflife.com