Saturday, March 28, 2015

Too much of the “sharing economy” in Palo Alto? “You kids, get off my lawn!”


Go quickly, and you’ll see a post by CBS Technology Analyst Larry Magid about a sharing experience in Palo Alto that got out of hand at the top of his Facebook page, at:  https://www.facebook.com/larrymagid?fref=nf

This incident calls to mind a similar one recently reported on in (). the article “Palo Alto opts not to regulate Airbnbrentals--City Council decides issue isn't urgent enough,” by Gennady Sheyner in the Palo Alto Weekly:

 “Resident Marvin Weinstein described the ‘Airbnb nightmare’ that occurred on his block when a homeowner who lives in Vietnam decided to put his house on Airbnb and to enlist a management company in San Francisco to oversee the rental. That company, Weinstein said, never came to the house to take a look at the conditions. 

“’We suddenly find ourselves in a situation where people are coming for three- or four-day weekends at a time – groups of 10 or more to live in a single house, parking up the entire street, partying to three or four in the morning.’”

Is the combination of role models from the “Hangover” movies and better distributed computing leading to the creation of “instant spring breaks” and “airbnb flash-mobs”?

Where is the reality series that will capitalize on this emerging recreational trend?  What about a Periscope or Meerkat live feed from the scene?  Or several, from the perspective of multiple participants?  What kinds of behavior are we likely to see encouraged by the opportunity to be on a viral world-wide live video feed?



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