Heather

I really love the concept of online swapping, peer-to-peer renting, and collaborative consumption. Unfortunately, I’m all the way in New Zealand, and it hasn’t really taken off here yet. Shipping out to NZ costs a hefty penny so local swapping is key!

I hope through my research I can help find ways to make swapping more popular and enduring. The most common complaint from many of my past interviews has been there aren’t enough people on these sites and thus not enough things to choose from. I am doing this research to try and get a better understanding of how these issues can be tackled so that swapping and collaborative consumption can meet its full potential. I look forward to such a time, and I hope that by providing my research findings to the founders and initiators of these websites, that they can get a better understanding on where to start.

Please contact me if you, or anyone else that is passionate about swapping, want to help make the swapping experience even better by helping others to understand what it’s all about, where it needs improvement, why it’s great, and how it could be improved.

I am originally from the States, so I am hoping that on my next trip back (where shipping won’t cost a fortune) I can upload some items and attempt a few swaps :-)

Univeristy Website: http://www.mang.canterbury.ac.nz/people/philip.shtml