Two years ago, our team at Shareable embarked on an ambitious project. We launched a fellowship program to work with experts from different disciplines on a collaboratively-produced book about how cities and city residents are sharing resources to build a sustainable world. After months of research, writing, editing, and revising, we are two weeks away from the worldwide release of the book.
On Tuesday, March 27, "Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons," will be available on our website as well as on a number of other channels. In order to stay true to our ethos around sharing and collaboration, we published this book under the Creative Commons CC BY SA 4.0 license. What this means is that you're free to change, adapt, and build upon the text, photos, and graphics in the book. We realize that the case studies and policies described in the book are by no means comprehensive, and we want to empower people to modify the book to suit the needs of their communities and cities.
Our main goal with this book is to spark conversations about how cities and city residents can facilitate the creation of a "real sharing economy" — one that's not solely focused on the bottom line, but on the true sharing of resources across various sectors. To this end, we'll be launching a number of local events as part of a global book tour, but we know that our readers have the power to take the discussions about the ideas presented in the book much farther than we can. So here are some ideas on how readers can be part of the "Sharing Cities" story:
- Host a discussion of "Sharing Cities" at your next book club
- Host a Meetup to chat about the book at your local coffee shop or library
- Host a panel discussion at your university
- Host a large community gathering
We'll be more than happy to provide materials for discussions, facilitate connections with local sharing experts, and provide any other resources and support readers need. Our hope is to give readers the tools they need to shape the conversations about the ideas presented in the book. Events are already in the works at the following places: Berlin, Heidelberg, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney, Ann Arbor, Asheville, Chicago, and Tokyo. We've set aside some of the funds raised during last year's crowdfunding campaign to provide a print version of the book to the first 20 people who sign up to host an event between April and June. We'll even reimburse some of the costs for snacks and space rental. The official sign up form will be available on March 27. If you have any questions, feel free to send a note to our director of strategic partnerships Tom Llewellyn: tom@shareable.net.
You can meet with Shareable staff this spring at several events across North America, including:
- Maker Faire, Miami, Florida, April 7-8
- Shareable Presents: Urban Villages and Sharing Cities, Oakland, California, April 11
- Creative Commons Global Summit, Toronto, Canada, April 13-15
- Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, April 17
- GCUC, New York City, New York, April 22-24
- Sustainable Brands, Vancouver, Canada, June 4-7
- CommonBound, St. Louis, Missouri, June 22-24
Interested in bringing Shareable to your community or event? Drop us a line here.
