Would you share with your neighbors?

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We should have all learned that sharing is a good thing at a very early age. I teach my 4-year old son to share. But what about sharing with your friends and neighbors? That's part of being a community, right?

Would you share a

lawn mower, blender, tools, etc with a neighbor? NeighborGoods (tagline: Save money and resources by sharing stuff with your friends) thinks you will. What do you think about this sharing service?

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Jason Hibbets
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Jason Hibbets is a Community Director at Red Hat with the Digital Communities team. He works with the Enable Architect, Enable Sysadmin, Enterprisers Project, and Opensource.com community publications.
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Michael "Pretending to be a CEO" Howell | July 1, 2010
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It would never work, because people are inheriently greedy and selfish.</pretending>

Sure it will work, whatever you say</pretending>

Honestly, I think, for the most part, it will. But the handful of jerks will ruin it for everyone else.

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Michael "Pretending to be a CEO" Howell | July 1, 2010
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Silly form swallowed my pseudo-html:

It would never work, because people are inheriently greedy and selfish.&lt;/pretending&gt;

Sure it will work, whatever you say&lt;/pretending&gt;

Honestly, I think, for the most part, it will. But the handful of jerks will ruin it for everyone else.

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Bernard | July 1, 2010
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yes it works, at least down here in rural part of New zealand

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Honey Mak | July 1, 2010
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that makes us 'self-beneficial' focus => selfish
becoz everyone would like a higher position
thus, they have to keep themselves 'single-out' in the crowd
that makes people never share

share strength OR bear weakness
that's 'share'

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Jason Hibbets | July 2, 2010
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Great comments so far. I totally get the concept of community sharing, for example, having a community tool shed, where neighbors can have one set of rakes, shovels, etc, and they get used as needed instead of sitting around, unused for 360 days out of the year.

Here's one reason why I'd be hesitant about a service like this:

Have you ever lent something out and gotten it back in a worse state? Or even worse, it was broken while it was on loan. Maybe I'm being a little too direct, but for some reason, it seems like people tend to have a different tolerance of "caring" for things that aren't theirs.

Do others feel the same way?

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Colonel Panik | July 5, 2010
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How can this even be a topic on OS.com? We all use a
Linux distro or some variant of Linux. That distro was done
by people, some huge communities of people sharing
time and talent. Where would I be if many many people
had not shared their knowledge of Linux to help me?
Share.

Look at the Amish farmers, lots of sharing going on.
Labor and tools are shared along with farm implements.
Share.

How about the whole MAKER movement? Maker Sheds
are popping up all over the country. Shared investment
for shared use. Share.

But what about the Hippies? We shared, we still share.
We had bike shops that loaned tools and space (some
still exist). We shared food and the fuel to cook it.
We shared transportation. We shared talent. Ideas.
We lived more open lives, we allowed others to join
in our endeavors, for our good and theirs. Being an
nomadic type of family we often find ourselves in a new
community or neighborhood. I go around and say hey
to all the neighbors and let them know about my weird
collection of tools, and that I lend them as needed.
Often I end up sharing my time also. Share

What about OS.com? Unless the Colonel is the only
one not getting paid here, and I really doubt that, this
is a huge share. Share.

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Drew Kwashnak | July 14, 2010
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Yes it would work, in smaller communities.

As one person mentioned, some jerk will come and mess it up. They're out there online (heck, I could be one ;) ).

On a smaller scale, though, there is the more personal interaction with people, and is a lot harder to remain anonymous. This would help reduce (not remove, but reduce) the ease of somebody screwing it up for everybody because their real-life reputation can be at stake.

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