Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Share Some Sugar Goes Social! New Updates & Features!
New Features Have Launched! After lots of hard work, we are proud to announce some exciting new (and useful) features to Share Some Sugar! It's now easier for you to share, borrow and have a great experience in your neighborhood! Thanks for all of your great feedback. It helped us improve the site to meet (and hopefully exceed) your needs!
Here's a flavor of what you can experience now on Share Some Sugar:
Sharing Groups: Share Within Your Social Network! Now you can now share with people you know and trust. Create your own Sharing Groups and invite your friends from Facebook or by entering their email addresses. Click 'Create New Group' and follow the steps from there!
Wishlist: We'll Help You Find Things That You Need! Looking for something that hasn't been posted yet? Add it to your wishlist and we'll notify you as soon as someone has posted it. Click 'Add to My Wishlist'!
And lots, lots more!
- Merge Your Facebook account with Share Some Sugar to take full advantage of our new features.
- Search and browse for items within your Friends, Groups and your Neighborhood.
- Item icons are now pictures of the exact item so it's easier to visually browse and borrow.
- Neighborhood Buzz: see what your friends (and groups) are sharing, borrowing and wishing for.
We love hearing from you- so send us your ideas or just let us know how we're doing, so we can continue to improve the Share Some Sugar experience!
Your Neighbors,
Shugie (your favorite neighbor) & Keara (Share Some Sugar founder)
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The Rise of Collaborative Consumption
The interesting thing is that most of these new service based ideas all intrinsically connect people to each other in different ways. If it's meeting a new person when you pick up an item on freecycle or unlocking a rental bike at a bike sharing rack and meeting someone doing the same thing... peers, people with similar interest are connecting in ways that have not been common in a long time.
It's an exciting time right now and we're exciting to be a part of this socioeconomic shift!
Check out the awesome video!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Build a Sharing Community in Your Neighborhood
1. Print this poster and hang it around your neighborhood or put it in neighbors mailboxes. Don't forget to write in your own zip code! (click on the image and then again to zoom in for full size poster)
2. Forward ShareSomeSugar.com to the your neighborhood council director and tell them how it's an easy way to meet new neighbors, be resourceful and environmentally responsible and save money!
3. Every neighbor knows a few more neighbors. Tell the neighbors that you know about Share Some Sugar and ask them to tell the neighbors that they know!
Email us with ideas, feedback or stories on how you are building a sharing community in your neighborhood!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Jack Johnson's Sharing Song
Here are the lyrics:
It's always more fun
To share with everyone
It's always more fun
To share with everyone
If you have two
Give one to your friend
If you have three
Give one to your friend and me
It's always more fun
To share with everyone
It's always more fun
To share with everyone
If you've got one
Here is something you can learn
You can still share
Just by taking turns
If you've got a ball
Bounce it to the gang
If there is a new kid
Invite him out to hang
If you've got one sandwich
Cut that thing in half
If you know a secret joke
Tell it and share a laugh
If you've got one drumsticks
Give one to your friend
Make one beautiful rhythm
Share a beat that never ends
And if you're feeling lonely
Share time with your mom
Share some milk and cookies
And sing the sharing song
It's always more fun
To share with everyone
It's always more fun
To share with everyone
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Universal Design Observations from the Grocery Store
Insight from the Grocery Store: The shopping experience is not designed for people in wheelchairs. It's not an inclusive, universal design.
Observations from co-shopping with Cheryl, a woman in a wheel chair that I met at Biggs after watching her struggle:
#1: Cheryl couldn't see above the 3rd shelf. If she wanted something from the 4th shelf she needed someone to help her.
#2: Luckily there's an electric wheel chair shopping cart. However when it's time to place the items from the cart on the conveyor belt at check out, Cheryl struggled. She didn't have the strength or reach to move a small bag of cat food onto the belt.
#3: Similar to the check out experience, Cheryl couldn't place her grocery bags in the trunk of her car. Regardless of weight (she asked for them to put just a few items in each bag), her bumper was too deep so she couldn't get close enough to her trunk. When she tried to put a bag in the trunk, it ended up hitting the floor.
#4: Grabbing an apple is like asking to play 52 card pick up. For those not in wheel chairs, we tend to grab an apple that is placed in a path of least resistance. But Cheryl could only reach the apple on the bottom of pile...then about 15 more apples came rolling down.
I could go on and on. Luckily I was there to help Cheryl. I let her do as much as she could because she wanted to feel independent and empowered. I helped where I could. It was painful to watch.
I ask that you reach out to and offer to help someone who clearly would appreciate your assistance. If they turn you down, that's fine. But at least you offered.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Group Cooking & Being Resourceful in the Kitchen
- cooked pasta
- leftover chili - a lot of it!
- spinach
- shredded cheddar cheese
- garlic
- eggs
- apples
- brown and white sugar
- olive oil
- tomatoes
- tortilla chips
- Salsa
- Guacamole
- and graham crackers
Saturday, January 30, 2010
From eCommerce to eBorrowing
OpEd Guest Post By Keara Schwartz, Founder of Share Some Sugar
But what’s the alternative? You already saved yourself lots of money by signing up to paint your living room yourself rather than hiring a professional painter. Think about all of the people that live in your neighborhood who probably already own these painting tools. How do you know who has what? If you could type in ‘ladder’ on Google Shopping and you get approximately 128,000 search results on ecommerce sites, you should be able to do the same thing in your own community and find neighbors and friends who are willing to lend you what you need.
Welcome to the world of eBorrowing. An online world full of items that people own and are willing to share with people who need to use them. Lots of people own items that collect a lot of dust because the items don’t get used very often. These people are usually happy to share things, like a ladder, with someone who needs it for a weekend project to paint their living room.
A new era has emerged. An era of C2C or consumer to consumer sharing sites likeShareSomeSugar.com which finds someone in your neighborhood who is willing to lend you something that you need. Sharing or eBorrowing sites leverage consumers’ existing inventory, or items that people already own.
The concept of eBorrowing is not new. B2C services like Zipcar.com, the car sharing service orBagBorrowOrSteal.com, a site that lends out designer purses and accessories, have recently been gaining critical mass. Why? Because it doesn’t make much sense to purchase and own something that you don’t use all that often. But why are these sites gaining popularity now? Well this reasoning is rooted in the current economic climeate where consumers are consuming more consciously. These sharing services have a high capital investment in inventory and the consumer pays directly to a business.
These days, consumers are asking themselves if they really need to buy that ‘ladder’ that they will use once or twice a year. Or if it makes more sense to borrow or rent it from a friend, neighbor or another small business, use it and give it back when they are done. Borrowing and sharing isn’t for everyone. It is however one economic and environmental solution that fulfills your need to temporarily use an item. Next time you consider buying a durable item that you may use infrequently, ask yourself if you really need to own the item or if you could just borrow it instead.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Life without Cable!
Once you're a member:
- Click on 'my items'-->Add one item
- Click on Entertainment-->Other-->DVD
and enter the title of the movie and any info along with a photo of
the movie (you can grab one from Amazon).
That's it!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Northside Knows Community!
- Two very passionate neighbors, Jon and Heather are starting a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group in Northside. I love that they are building this from the ground up. But the thing that really got me excited is that there are lots of ways for neighbors to get involved. You can not only purchase locally grown food, help garden and grow produce, but you can also share your garden with the CSA so they can use it grow veggies! What a fantastic use of privately owned space. They have a vision of using as much local land as they can get their hands on to grow local food and then support the community with it!
- In the good old days, neighbors would knock on your door and bring you baked goods when you moved in the neighborhood. In Northside they've evolved this tradition of welcoming new neighbors by having Meet & Greet events and neighborhood potlucks!
- Northside is planning to grow their 'Northside Goes Green' Earth Week into a bigger and better week this year. With plans to have another 'Reduce/Recycle/Run-Walk-Bike' race, a 40th Earth Day celebration, Great American Cleanup and lots more! Looking forward to Earth Week!
- Northside has moved their wonderful farmers market indoors for the winter:North Presbyterian Church Auditorium at 4222 Hamilton Avenue on Wednesdays 4:00- 7:30pm from now until the market moves back outside in the spring. For more information contact Robin Hendersonvia email or at 513-591-0083.
- There's a Bicycle Cooperative in Northside; MOBO! Who knew?! Bring your bike and work on it all year long.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Neighborhood Swap Meet Success!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Shareable.net Article: Why I Started Share Some Sugar
Saybrook Avenue is your typical street in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, OH. It’s lined with small starter homes with front porches that anyone from young professionals to retired couples reside in. Unlike many of the new subdivisions, it happens to feel like a neighborhood.
Four years ago I moved from a small apartment in Manhattan to one of these starter homes in Cincinnati. When I moved into my house I needed a lot of house things like power tools, gardening tools and lots of other items that would help me take care of my house. I got to know a few of my neighbors who were all really friendly and offered to let me borrow anything that I needed. I was so appreciative of their offers since it saved me money and time going to the hardware store.
Every once in a while there was something random like a tall ladder that I needed and no one that I knew had it. The idea of spending $100 dollars on something that I would probably only use once or twice made my stomach turn. I thought to myself, "There must be someone in my neighborhood who has a ladder," but I didn’t know who that was. Off I went door to door asking neighbors who had a ladder. “I don’t have one, but I think Greg down the street does.” And so I went to Greg’s house. “I think Amy and Ted are borrowing my ladder, but I can’t remember if they still have it or not.”
As I was going from house to house, I realized a few things. First, I was meeting all of these new neighbors that I hadn’t previously met. Borrowing things was actually a great way to meet new neighbors! Second, wow, why is it so difficult to find out who has what in my neighborhood? There has to be a simpler way to go about this. I can go online and search to buy a ladder and get over 120,000 results, yet I can’t find someone in my own neighborhood who has one.
Two and a half years later I needed that ladder again, but I found out that Greg had moved. At the same time the economy was in a downturn and people’s spending habits were changing.
Out were the days of buying something that sat in your closet collecting dust, and in were the days of only really buying what you needed to get by. The Green Movement was becoming more widely adopted. Bringing your own reusable grocery bags to the store was not only for the eco-conscious college student, but soccer moms were following suit. People were downsizing their homes and staying in to watch a movie rather than taking the family out to dinner and to the movie theatre. Most people were a part of online communities such as Facebook or LinkedIn, but did not feel like they had a sense of community in their own neighborhood.
All of these societal shifts prompted me to think about the insight that I had a few years back, "Wow, it’s really hard to find someone in your neighborhood who has something that you need. There’s got to be a solution to this problem."
And so I created Share Some Sugar, an online service that finds someone in your neighborhood who is willing to lend you something that you need. Need that ladder? Or how about borrowing an Xbox and Guitar hero for your holiday? You can go to www.ShareSomeSugar.com and type in the item along with your zip code. A list of results come up, showing which neighbors are willing to lend out that item. You then request to borrow the item for the dates that you need it. Once they accept the request, you meet your neighbor to borrow the item, use it and return it to them.
There is a security deposit feature and a contract as options to make you feel more secure in your transaction. Similar to eBay, you can leave feedback for your neighbor. This feedback system enables other neighbors to find out more about other neighbors sharing history prior to initiating a request with them.
When you become a member you choose a neighborhood that you would like to join. You can either join an existing neighborhood or create a new one, like one for your apartment building. The neighborhood discussion groups enable you to connect with your neighbors online. You can plan block parties, give away an old bike that your child outgrew, get a recommendation for a babysitter or anything else.
Why buy when you can borrow from a neighbor? You can:
- Lower your environmental footprint by consuming less.
- Save money by borrowing instead of buying.
- Get to know new neighbors and watch your neighborhood turn into a community.
We look forward to sharing with you and your neighbors at Share Some Sugar!