The Science of Sharing

If you're looking to learn more about the notion of sharing in the realm of business, technology and the reasoning behind social conducts, Bryan Kramer is just the man you need to speak to. Kramer is the CEO of PureMatter and author of several business books including Human to Human and his newest title, Shareology: How Sharing Powers the Human Economy, that focuses on the art and science of sharing in today's society. Learn more by picking up your copy of Shareology here.

1. What does sharing mean to you, and why is it an important concept to foster in today's economy?

Sharing is a fundamental human behavior central to our survival as a human race. Whether we’re sharing stories, processes, insights, philosophies, techniques, or secrets, it’s how we connect to each other and advance as a society. Now with technologies like the Internet, video, social media and mobile, sharing has increased its ease and scale to a global level. Information is no longer confined to geographical boundaries; proximity is no longer required to pass information from one human to another.

This radical shift requires an understanding of how these technologies have impacted, and will continue to impact, our global society. Without this understanding of sharing patterns and analyzing what will resonate with other humans, ideas will be lost and change will be stifled.

How, what, why and where we share as individuals in our new connected technological world has the power to influence and to effect change worldwide. After thirty thousand years of sharing information in the same way–yet faced in the last twenty years with the emergence of technologies that connect global tribes together– humans need to rethink the way we share ideas as a global community.

2. What is your favorite piece of content or case study featured in the book?

There are over 250 interviews with executives, marketers, sociologists and social media people. To boil it down to one study is hard. I will tell you one that I think resonates is Ben and Jerry’s–who doesn’t love ice cream?

For Ben & Jerry’s, marketing is really about expressing themselves as people and connecting with people who have shared values and shared experiences. That’s how they built the B&J brand over the years. They try their best to cultivate their fan base and delivered amazing experiences for them. They try to treat their fans the right way as friends whether it’s at an event, in a scoop shop that you walk into or in an online community.

[Ben & Jerry’s] joined Instagram in 2011 and realized that they could really connect with people there and tell [its] story. They started sharing photos there, but very quickly understood that people loved sharing their photos with them. So they began thinking of ways they could thank their Instagram community. What value could they bring to them? They devised a program called #CaptureEuphoria that recognized amazing photography (which is very important to that community), and also gave people an opportunity to be recognized for their photography. They asked them to share their euphoric moments back with them. These moments weren’t all about ice cream—it was whatever euphoria meant to individuals. They created one-off advertisements in local communities [in] about eight different countries that featured the winner’s user name, photo and thanked them for participating. They did billboards, newspaper ads even special coasters for one community.

3. Why do you think the concept of Shareology makes more sense today than it would have, say 10 years ago?

Humans have been sharing resources and knowledge since they first banded together in prehistoric times–even before there was language. We shared to survive then, but we continue to share knowledge even though survival is no longer at stake–or is it?

Philosophers have long pondered the nature of mankind and why we interact the way we do. We share for many reasons—some self-serving and some not—but I firmly believe that our need to share is based on the human instinct not only to survive, but to thrive.

Things are moving at a faster pace today for humankind than ever before, and we’re more connected now than we’ve ever been. We’re no longer polarized by geography, by race, by gender—but we still need each other to survive. Time has spread us across the globe and the need to connect is written into our DNA, even though we’re competing for the same limited space on this planet.

So what does this have to do with where we are today? Why is this important? Because we’re on the cusp of something big–a shift in human evolution.

4. Where do you see the future of share economy heading?

The Internet of Things is a technological shift that’s taking place right now where physical devices are being digitally connected to create more value. According to Gartner Inc., there will be nearly 26 billion devices on the Internet of Things by 2020. Technology giants like IBM and Cisco have been working on this for several years. In fact, Cisco even goes so far as to call this evolution the “Internet of Everything.”