0:00:03.526,0:00:08.858
Ours is the age of sharing, gigging[br]and Ubering just about everything.

0:00:08.858,0:00:10.662
Let me give you a couple of examples.

0:00:10.662,0:00:12.196
When you leave here tonight,

0:00:12.196,0:00:14.932
maybe you will get on your Uber app

0:00:14.932,0:00:20.355
and you will get someone[br]to take you home in their personal car.

0:00:20.355,0:00:23.974
Let us imagine that you decide[br]to go on a vacation,

0:00:23.974,0:00:27.414
maybe you'll go on to Airbnb[br]and stay with someone

0:00:27.414,0:00:30.536
in their own home while they're there.

0:00:30.846,0:00:34.373
These are the things we didn't do[br]that long ago, but it goes further.

0:00:34.373,0:00:37.905
Let's say you go to IKEA,[br]and you buy your child some furniture,

0:00:37.905,0:00:41.614
and you're facing putting together a crib?

0:00:41.906,0:00:44.804
You don't have to learn how to use[br]that Allen wrench anymore,

0:00:44.804,0:00:47.984
you can go onto TaskRabbit[br]and get somebody else to do it for you.

0:00:48.243,0:00:50.164
Le's say you're tired of cooking.

0:00:50.164,0:00:52.210
You can go onto Blue Plate,

0:00:52.210,0:00:56.160
and you can get someone[br]to use a shared kitchen,

0:00:56.160,0:01:00.280
and they will deliver[br]that fresh meal to your door

0:01:01.087,0:01:04.209
for your family to eat,[br]and you don't have to cook anymore.

0:01:04.620,0:01:06.864
Now, the interesting thing[br]about all these uses,

0:01:06.864,0:01:09.267
and a lot of the other uses[br]of the sharing economy,

0:01:09.267,0:01:10.779
is that they profoundly change

0:01:10.779,0:01:14.251
the way that we think about[br]the way our economy works

0:01:14.251,0:01:15.883
and the way we've done business.

0:01:16.250,0:01:19.690
The other interesting thing[br]is that a lot of them are also illegal.

0:01:20.219,0:01:23.340
Now, I wrote an article

0:01:23.340,0:01:26.160
called "First Principles[br]for Regulating the Sharing Economy"

0:01:26.160,0:01:29.288
that was recently published[br]in the Harvard Journal on Legislation,

0:01:29.288,0:01:32.836
and in that, I deal with a lot of[br]the technical issues of this illegality.

0:01:32.836,0:01:37.033
But I want to focus here today[br]on four principles

0:01:37.033,0:01:40.324
for why you should embrace[br]the sharing economy

0:01:40.324,0:01:43.163
and ways that it can affect your life.

0:01:43.163,0:01:45.604
I'm going to call these[br]the core principles:

0:01:45.604,0:01:51.384
Community, Ownership,[br]Reputation, and Equity.

0:01:51.384,0:01:53.181
So let's start with community.

0:01:53.523,0:01:54.994
When we think about community,

0:01:54.994,0:01:57.502
we often think about family,[br]close friends.

0:01:57.502,0:02:00.094
But in the '70s, a sociologist[br]named Mark Granovetter

0:02:00.094,0:02:03.033
started thinking about[br]other types of community.

0:02:03.033,0:02:07.376
And what he was looking at in particular[br]were what he came to call "weak ties."

0:02:07.695,0:02:09.884
These were the people[br]that you barely know.

0:02:09.884,0:02:14.424
Jane Jacobs, the urbanist,[br]might have called these, in her lingo,

0:02:14.424,0:02:20.864
"hop skip" people, the kind of people[br]that help to bridge boundaries between us.

0:02:21.274,0:02:25.533
And what he found in his research,[br]and subsequent sociologists have found,

0:02:25.533,0:02:27.166
is that it's along these weak ties

0:02:27.166,0:02:29.823
that a lot of information[br]in communities flows,

0:02:29.823,0:02:34.925
and the kind of the political cohesiveness[br]of our society tends to rest.

0:02:34.925,0:02:37.265
Well, that's all big thoughts[br]and everything,

0:02:37.265,0:02:41.285
but I'm going to argue[br]that the sharing economy can be valuable

0:02:41.285,0:02:45.624
because it provides us these opportunities[br]to make weak ties in communities.

0:02:45.624,0:02:47.264
Let me give you an example.

0:02:47.670,0:02:49.553
My family, we rented an Airbnb

0:02:49.553,0:02:53.145
in a single-family residential[br]neighborhood in Bend, Oregon.

0:02:53.145,0:02:57.874
And we go there, and we're at the park[br]with my two-year-old daughter at the time,

0:02:58.115,0:03:01.779
and we start talking[br]to another guy who's there,

0:03:01.779,0:03:04.369
who lives there and has a two-year-old.

0:03:04.369,0:03:07.842
And we start talking about how hard it is[br]to find a place to go with kids,

0:03:07.842,0:03:09.026
a place go out to eat.

0:03:09.026,0:03:14.100
He tells us about this pop-up beer garden[br]that has come up across town,

0:03:14.100,0:03:15.339
where there's food trucks,

0:03:15.339,0:03:18.011
he says, "It's a great place to go,[br]you should go there."

0:03:18.011,0:03:20.081
We go, we have a great time,[br]it was perfect.

0:03:20.081,0:03:23.081
That's the kind of information[br]that wasn't in the tourist books,

0:03:23.081,0:03:25.010
that we wouldn't have found ourselves.

0:03:25.010,0:03:27.122
But it was that weak tie

0:03:27.122,0:03:31.072
that provided us the information[br]to have a little bit of a better time.

0:03:31.392,0:03:35.661
That's the kind of community building[br]the sharing economy can really facilitate.

0:03:35.661,0:03:39.171
But there's another issue of community[br]that we really need to think about.

0:03:39.171,0:03:43.992
Let's say that instead of just us[br]being there at the playground,

0:03:43.992,0:03:49.231
there were 15 people that were vacationing[br]in that residential neighborhood.

0:03:49.550,0:03:52.381
And we were all there[br]with our two-year-old daughters,

0:03:52.381,0:03:54.469
and he comes with his[br]two-year-old daughter.

0:03:54.469,0:03:57.617
Well now, suddenly, it's not[br]the same type of experience

0:03:57.617,0:04:00.841
that he was expecting[br]when he went to the playground, right?

0:04:01.237,0:04:04.331
So one of the issues[br]as we think about these types of uses

0:04:04.331,0:04:08.928
that allow us to engage[br]in the communities that we visit

0:04:08.928,0:04:13.390
is that we have to think about the effects[br]on the communities that we are visiting.

0:04:13.720,0:04:18.739
So while the sharing economy[br]can provide us great new opportunities

0:04:18.739,0:04:22.949
through things like weak ties,[br]to find new ways into the community,

0:04:22.949,0:04:26.259
we also need to think about[br]the types of effects that we have

0:04:26.259,0:04:31.109
on established communities, and make sure[br]that we're protecting them as well.

0:04:31.440,0:04:33.091
Okay, so that's community.

0:04:33.389,0:04:35.389
Now, let's talk about ownership.

0:04:35.389,0:04:37.640
Americans, we love to own things, right?

0:04:37.640,0:04:39.390
Let me give you a couple of examples

0:04:39.390,0:04:45.829
about how the sharing economy[br]can change our emphasis on ownership

0:04:45.829,0:04:50.345
to an emphasis on access[br]to owning collective goods.

0:04:50.345,0:04:51.365
Okay.

0:04:51.365,0:04:55.080
Let's say you're working in your wood shop[br]trying to make a piece of furniture,

0:04:55.080,0:04:58.709
and you find out that halfway through[br]you need some sort of specialty sander.

0:04:58.709,0:05:01.641
Well, one thing you could do[br]is you can go down to Home Depot

0:05:01.641,0:05:05.190
and buy that thing that costs[br]$100 or $200, right?

0:05:05.190,0:05:08.451
And you're going to use it,[br]then it's going to sit there for a year

0:05:08.451,0:05:13.955
or maybe two years, or maybe you'll use it[br]five times in the entire time you own it.

0:05:14.203,0:05:17.970
Then you'll sell it for $5,[br]20 years from now.

0:05:18.454,0:05:21.310
The alternative would be,[br]what's happening now,

0:05:21.310,0:05:24.430
is that a lot of places[br]have lending tool libraries.

0:05:24.430,0:05:29.321
You go, you need that specialty sander,[br]you use it for the weekend you need it,

0:05:29.321,0:05:34.709
and then you take it back,[br]then someone else gets to use it as well.

0:05:35.302,0:05:39.220
Let me give you another example[br]of a sort of science fiction future.

0:05:39.481,0:05:41.279
Autonomous vehicles.

0:05:41.941,0:05:44.370
When we think about autonomous vehicles,

0:05:44.841,0:05:47.611
which are probably going to be here[br]sooner than we imagine,

0:05:47.611,0:05:49.701
in another decade or two, right?

0:05:49.701,0:05:51.902
These are vehicles[br]that will drive themselves.

0:05:51.902,0:05:53.807
Now some people will buy these, right?

0:05:53.807,0:05:57.217
These are the people[br]that buy Teslas or something, right?

0:05:57.217,0:06:00.000
But a lot of us are not going to buy[br]an autonomous vehicle.

0:06:00.000,0:06:04.033
Instead what we're going to do[br]is we're going to access it

0:06:04.033,0:06:07.693
through a shared autonomous vehicle, okay?

0:06:07.693,0:06:11.853
And so what we want to do[br]is think about creating an access point

0:06:11.853,0:06:17.934
to collective ownership[br]of that autonomous vehicle.

0:06:17.934,0:06:21.628
This is precisely what General Motors[br]and Lyft are teaming up to do right now.

0:06:21.628,0:06:23.122
You may have heard about this,

0:06:23.122,0:06:27.395
but GM just purchased a $500 million stake[br]in the ride-sharing app Lyft.

0:06:27.395,0:06:30.513
And what they are trying to do[br]is precisely this:

0:06:30.513,0:06:35.233
create an access point[br]for you and for all of us

0:06:35.233,0:06:38.623
to these new autonomous vehicles.

0:06:38.623,0:06:39.641
Alright.

0:06:39.641,0:06:45.791
So what we've seen here with ownership[br]is that the collective access -

0:06:45.791,0:06:49.453
if we focus on access[br]to collectively owned goods,

0:06:49.453,0:06:50.920
we can do two things.

0:06:50.920,0:06:55.792
First, we can better utilize[br]underutilized goods,

0:06:55.792,0:06:57.750
that's the sander that sits on the shelf,

0:06:57.750,0:07:01.023
instead of sitting on the shelf,[br]a bunch of people get to use it.

0:07:01.023,0:07:03.916
And the other thing is we can plan[br]for infrastructure better.

0:07:03.916,0:07:06.814
We can better use[br]our infrastructure dollars.

0:07:06.814,0:07:11.423
So if we collectively own that car[br]and it comes only when we need it,

0:07:11.423,0:07:15.290
maybe we don't need a five-lane highway,[br]maybe we only need a three-lane highway.

0:07:15.290,0:07:19.018
And maybe we don't all need[br]driveways anyway, right?

0:07:19.018,0:07:23.204
The car will just pull up right in front[br]of our house when we need it.

0:07:23.513,0:07:26.814
Now, that may all sound like[br]science fiction future,

0:07:26.814,0:07:28.913
but it will be here before we know it.

0:07:28.913,0:07:30.823
And if we focus on this type of thing,

0:07:30.823,0:07:36.835
we can substantially increase the way[br]we plan for infrastructure in the future.

0:07:37.203,0:07:39.412
Alright, reputation.

0:07:40.884,0:07:42.693
When we think about reputation,

0:07:42.693,0:07:45.594
we know that it's an important[br]part of business, right?

0:07:45.594,0:07:49.032
But the reputation[br]in the sharing economy is all;

0:07:49.032,0:07:50.692
it is everything.

0:07:50.992,0:07:52.953
For both the workers and the consumers,

0:07:52.953,0:07:57.996
it's important that we as individuals[br]be able to own our reputations,

0:07:57.996,0:08:00.836
and moreover, that we can take it with us.

0:08:00.836,0:08:02.613
So, what does that mean?

0:08:02.613,0:08:07.424
If you decide to use the sharing economy,[br]like say you decide to hire a driver

0:08:07.424,0:08:10.052
to take you from[br]point A to point B on Uber.

0:08:11.155,0:08:14.803
You're going to rate that person;[br]you're going to give them five stars.

0:08:15.134,0:08:17.154
Great job, they got me there on time.

0:08:17.154,0:08:20.173
And they are maybe going to rate you,[br]maybe give you four stars,

0:08:20.173,0:08:23.200
because you weren't such[br]a great conversationalist or something.

0:08:23.473,0:08:27.345
Well, maybe in that one rating,[br]there's some variation.

0:08:27.345,0:08:31.365
But if that driver takes[br]100 different rides,

0:08:31.373,0:08:37.125
or 1,000 rides over the course of a year,[br]they start to earn a reputation.

0:08:37.125,0:08:38.961
If they're a great driver, five stars,

0:08:38.961,0:08:41.694
you're going to want to take[br]that ride with that person.

0:08:41.913,0:08:44.355
Same with you as a passenger, right?

0:08:44.355,0:08:45.914
Reputation matters.

0:08:46.753,0:08:48.544
But here's the interesting thing.

0:08:48.863,0:08:53.633
If that Uber driver decides[br]that they want to go some startup,

0:08:53.843,0:08:55.904
can they take their reputation with them?

0:08:56.241,0:08:58.869
Let's say it's a company[br]that does the exact same thing,

0:09:00.419,0:09:05.924
some other startup, a Boise Uber[br]equivalent; they want to go local, right?

0:09:06.315,0:09:09.303
Well, they can't take[br]that reputation with them.

0:09:09.303,0:09:12.235
They can't take those[br]1,000 five-star ratings.

0:09:12.673,0:09:13.913
I think that's a problem;

0:09:13.913,0:09:16.593
I think that you should[br]be able to own your reputation.

0:09:16.943,0:09:19.854
Moreover, let's talk about[br]across platforms.

0:09:20.204,0:09:25.533
You want to hire that person to come[br]and assemble your baby's crib.

0:09:25.793,0:09:30.284
Well, maybe you also want to know[br]about their ratings as a driver on Uber,

0:09:30.284,0:09:32.823
or hosting people on Airbnb.

0:09:32.823,0:09:35.874
It may not be definitive[br]with how they are with an Allen wrench,

0:09:35.874,0:09:38.065
and you may decide to hire[br]that person anyway,

0:09:38.065,0:09:40.553
but wouldn't you want to know[br]if they had bad ratings

0:09:40.553,0:09:44.013
or people thought they had[br]bad driving skills or something?

0:09:44.244,0:09:46.943
These are the kinds of things[br]that we would want to know,

0:09:46.943,0:09:49.162
and that reputation should be portable,

0:09:49.162,0:09:52.365
and somebody should be able[br]to own it individually.

0:09:52.694,0:09:53.764
Alright.

0:09:53.764,0:09:55.673
Finally, equity.

0:09:57.865,0:10:01.245
One of the most important things[br]that we've done over the last 50 years

0:10:01.245,0:10:07.003
is to ensure equitable accommodation[br]in things like hotels and taxis.

0:10:07.281,0:10:10.949
People that are disabled,[br]minorities in our population,

0:10:10.949,0:10:13.243
have historically struggled

0:10:13.243,0:10:16.683
with these types of public accommodations[br]and public utilities.

0:10:17.544,0:10:20.593
African Americans[br]having trouble finding taxis,

0:10:20.593,0:10:26.942
people with disabilities[br]not being able to access buildings.

0:10:27.579,0:10:31.465
We've done a lot over the last 50 years[br]with the Americans with Disabilities Act

0:10:31.465,0:10:34.429
and specifically[br]the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

0:10:34.429,0:10:39.434
They've done a lot to assure[br]that the disabled and minorities

0:10:39.434,0:10:46.144
in our society have access[br]to these public accommodations.

0:10:47.220,0:10:50.879
But there is a lawsuit[br]in California right now

0:10:50.879,0:10:57.109
where a number of blind individuals[br]have alleged they've had a hard time

0:10:57.109,0:11:00.774
getting rides with ride sharing[br]companies like Uber and Lyft,

0:11:00.774,0:11:04.659
because drivers do not want[br]to have their dogs

0:11:06.868,0:11:09.478
in the cars with them.

0:11:11.188,0:11:14.386
At the same time, a recent study[br]out of Harvard University

0:11:14.386,0:11:19.157
has found that those[br]with African-American names on Airbnb

0:11:19.157,0:11:23.919
have had a much harder time[br]securing a place to stay through the site

0:11:23.919,0:11:27.624
than those with non-African-American[br]sounding names.

0:11:27.902,0:11:31.792
These point to problems[br]with the sharing economy

0:11:31.792,0:11:33.402
that we need to address.

0:11:33.402,0:11:38.102
I would argue that while the nature[br]of the regulations to ensure equity

0:11:38.102,0:11:40.283
may be difficult for us to think through,

0:11:40.283,0:11:44.563
they're important to ensure[br]that equity remains viable

0:11:44.563,0:11:46.623
in this new economy that we're creating.

0:11:47.173,0:11:49.124
So these are the core principles.

0:11:50.725,0:11:53.871
These are the core principles,[br]and If we follow through with these,

0:11:53.871,0:11:57.541
and we make the core principles

0:11:57.541,0:12:02.273
part of the way that we think[br]through the sharing economy,

0:12:02.582,0:12:08.963
we can make sure that we have not only[br]new opportunities for the sharing economy,

0:12:09.183,0:12:10.833
a new way of doing business,

0:12:10.833,0:12:14.612
but one that is equitable[br]and can actually revolutionize our lives.

0:12:14.612,0:12:15.743
Thank you.

0:12:15.743,0:12:17.472
(Applause) (Cheers)