Tagged: collaborative consumption
People power at work
People power! Here at MeeMeep it’s something we believe in with a passion so it’s nice to see others putting their own unique take on it too.
Have you heard of Goget or Quiverizer? Or Ziilch? How about Airbnb or MamaBake? OpenShed? They’re all innovative examples of sharing and caring kind of start-ups. The kind of start-ups that encourage community to connect and help each other directly without the use of traditional types of business models, just like MeeMeep. If it helps lessen the load on the planet, one small step at a time, by a more sustainabile-friendly approach to consumerism, it’s even better. Sharing knowledge and friendship? That’s great too.
Like MeeMeep, many of these companies are leveraging emerging technologies, coupled with social networking tools to create an online network that connects to a real-world network. Sometimes described as collaborative consumption or peer-to-peer marketplaces, this model is disrupting business models across many industries, and modifying the way we consume.
Take MamaBake. It was founded by Michelle Shearer, shortly after the birth of her second child and inspired by a well-meaning friend and a lasagne delivery.
“I was blown away by the gesture and how much easier it made things that evening,” said Shearer. “The key philosophy of MamaBake is that, through group big-batch baking, we can bring community back to where it is needed most, the home, the mother, the family. MamaBake hopes to realise a shift in thinking to a more community approach in the journey of motherhood and create a worldwide network of MamaBakers,”
MamaBake provides a support network, community, and the sharing of chores, food, recipes and wisdom. ”It works by setting a date and a venue (someone’s house), everyone turns up with pots and ingredients for one big batch meal (or comes with one big batch pre-prepared). The women spend the three hours cooking, talking, drinking tea, sharing the childcare, wisdoms, experiences and recipes and at the end of the session each big batch meal is divided up amongst the women,” says Michelle of the Mamabake model. “Each mother then goes home with a selection of freshly cooked meals for the week, giving Mum some time off dinner at the end of the day.”
And then there’s Ziilch.com. The inspiration for Ziilch came a couple of years ago when Michelle Power and her partner were renovating their home. “We had many renovation and household items which were not appropriate for donation, not valuable enough to sell on eBay but were too good to throw out. ” Michelle said. “Instead of these items gathering dust in our shed, or ending up in a hard rubbish pile destined for landfill, the idea of a website where people could giveaway these items to other people was born.”
With a growing consumer sentiment interested in environmental sustainability, Michelle believes the time is right. “We’ve had extremely positive feedback from the community and local councils,” Michelle said “our vision is for Ziilch to become mainstream and inspire a reuse revolution.”
And so the same goes for MeeMeep.com, which we loosely define as a ‘social courier’. By harnessing the collaborative power of people, MeeMeep transforms everyday commuters into couriers and connects these commuters to people who need stuff moved. The face of MeeMeep.com, 23-year-old Will Emmett is passionate about this new business model.
“As a community, we’ve awakened to the idea of sharing and collaborating for a greater good. It is a remarkable shift – when you think about Collaborative Consumption, it really is a perfect economic example of creating shared value amongst a huge range of people.
As MeeMeep shows, Collaborative Consumption is not just about community and sharing – it’s also a great way for commuters to make money, and for everyday people to save money,” said Emmett.
Meet our Movers and Shakers
It’s all happening at MeeMeep central. With literally hundreds of new members joining up each week, we thought it was high time we introduced you to a few of our active movers and shakers.
It’s easy to get something moved on MeeMeep
Getting something moved on MeeMeep means connecting to someone who is ‘going your way’. Not only are you saving the environment by reducing the number of vehicles making one-off trips, but you are also getting your stuff moved more cheaply.
We have an army of reliable and uber friendly movers at MeeMeep, just waiting to get your job done. Our Movers come from all walks of life – students, peeps commuting to work, retired people, sales people who travel around a lot, parents doing the school run, taxi drivers (don’t worry, they don’t turn the meter on), rural and regional travelers and of there are the many contract and professional couriers looking to back fill jobs as they move around town.
One thing you will notice about MeeMeep Movers – they are highly motivated, love how MeeMeep works and want to be part of a growing community. But most importantly, our Movers come with a verified profile, star ratings and reviews from past jobs done on the site.
You can get pretty much anything moved on MeeMeep – big or small.
Our Movers have moved beds, chairs, fridges, forgotten sunglasses, keys, last minute drinks for a party, bikes, Ikea furniture, even a tractor and a deer’s head. Plus, we know many of you are using MeeMeep for those Pick-up Only items from the likes of Gumtree, eBay, Ziilch and the Trading Post – where conventional delivery methods often out weight the cost of the actual item.
So what does it take to become a verified mover on MeeMeep?
We don’t ask you to jump through too many hoops to become a Mover on MeeMeep, but we do ask you to undergo the process of having your identity verified, by passing a number of key checks. Verification helps increase the overall security of our site and helps other members feel confident when they transact with you. We all know how important it is to feel secure when we transact online and what better way to do this than with someone who is verified!
Community reviews
We all know that trust between strangers online improves though an effective ratings and review system – we have eBay to thank for this! Feedback and ratings are important tools in helping us asses another member, but they are also a valuable indicator of our own reputation!
The way that it works at MeeMeep, is that at the completion of each job, you will be asked to rate and review the other party. You can elect a star rating of between 1-5 for the other party in the transaction. Ratings are an indication of how happy you were with everything. For example, a 3 Star Rating would be good, a 5 Star Rating would be excellent. You will also be asked to give some feedback on your experience in words. These ratings and reviews will be available for viewing in your profile and on each job that is yours and on jobs that you bid on and win.
And finally…don’t forget to take our Poll – closing soon
One day we were looking out the window…
Actually, that is true … that is exactly how our story at MeeMeep.com began. One day, our founder, Rob Emmett was looking out his car window as he sat in traffic, frustrated by all those empty cars, trucks, vans choking our roads. He had a light bulb moment, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could harness all that commuter movement, that amazing people power and put it to good use?”, he thought. “What is stopping us from connecting the physical power of the people with the digital power of the internet?”
So Rob decided to do two things: buy a scooter and start MeeMeep.com. Buying a scooter went part way to solving his traffic frustration and meemeep.com to going that one step further!
A recap of what MeeMeep does
For those of you who may not be following us on Facebook or Twitter, or haven’t yet used meemeep.com to either earn money or save money, here is a recap on how MeeMeep works.
MeeMeep is a new way to move stuff. It connects people on the move to people with stuff to move! So, if you’ve got stuff to move you can save some time and money and if you’re on the move you can make a little money. In MeeMeep-speak, if you want something moved, you’re a Shaker. If you’re on the move and can move something you’re a Mover. Shakers post what they want moved on the site, leave some details like, what, where, when and how much and then Movers place a bid for the job. Once a price is agreed, the Shaker pays MeeMeep who holds the money until the job gets done and everyone’s happy.
MeeMeep essentially transforms everyday commuters into couriers. With a motto of ‘People power can move anything!’, it harnesses the energy of all the trucks, cars, foot traffic and bikes already in motion, and puts it to good use in the social networking space.
It’s a win-win for both the Movers and the Shakers and, with its social and environmental credentials, comes with a great dose of feel-good factor, too.
And now to the blog
We are very excited to be launching our new Blog. Our aim is to bring you really useful and interesting posts and updates about all the exciting things happening at MeeMeep.com.
We want to share with you our passion about the collaborative world we live in and demonstrate, that, with a little bit of foresight and planning, we really can make a difference to the world. We’ll bring you tips and ideas on moving things around this great land of ours in a smarter and more productive way. We’ll also share the latest new features and function on the website. Things to expect from us on a fortnightly basis will include interesting articles on relevant topics, website updates, book reviews, promotions and competitions.
And finally, the Blog is where you can get more involved with MeeMeep, leave comments, tell us what you love, tell us what you want us to do differently or do better. All feedback and comments are welcome.
And what better way to start than by participating in our first online poll. We’d love to hear what you think of some of the new wesbite ideas we are considering.
