Support 3 great organizations at once!

Investing in our raise helps support Profounder's launch, GoodsforGood's incredible mission, and of course... neigh*borrow.

We are thrilled to join the other entrepreneurs in Profounder's first class of companies to seek public "crowdfunding."

The Internet is one of the most disruptive mediums in history and will continue to drastically change the way people communicate, consume and live. Peer-to-peer networks and transactions are thriving and we continue to see amazing innovation in this space. It has even begun to change how start-ups raise their initial capital! :)

You need the hole, not the drill.

Borrowing (heavily) from the simplistic experiment, goingtorain.com, we are adding (another) experiment to neighborrow, drillavailable.neighborrow.com. We are building an inventory of every drill in America and creating a marketplace for short term use.

The page shows the real-time availability and current price for access to a power drill within 3 miles of your current location.

Rachel Botsman and Roo Rodgers point out in their book, "What's mine is yOURs" that the average drill is used between 7 and 13 minutes in its lifetime. They also guess there are around 50 million drills currently sitting in people's homes today.

That just doesn't make any sense! Even @ $50/drill (and power drills cost much more) people are paying $300 an HOUR just to own a drill. Silliness! We can do better than that. Let's see how many of them we can catalog (and help the other half of the households when they need a hole and not a drill).

Victor Papanec would be proud! 

Vote for us!

Please vote for us in the myoo create "beat waste startup challenge"

As the paradigm shifts from owning things to using things, everyone stands to save more than a pretty penny! Shared access means access to higher quality items and less waste:)

Competition. It's a beautiful thing:)

Once in a while, we Google ourselves. We search for "neigh*borrow" and other keywords not only out of curiosity but also to see how well our pages are being indexed and what our SEO campaign looks like. Sometimes we are pleasantly surprised to find a nice blog post that we hadn't seen before. Rarely do we find an unpleasant surprise as even criticism helps us learn and improve.

The other night, we found the ad below in the sponsored links section. Not only did swaptree use "neighborrow" as a keyword that they bid on (a borderline move itself) but they used our copyrighted name as the HEADLINE in their ad, basically purporting to be us! We were flattered that they feel as if they need to resort to these antics, but also annoyed. And confused (did they not think we would see it?).

You need not be familiar with Google's algorithm to see, unequivocally, the organic search results on the left and the sponsored links on the right.

Anyway, rather than waste time sending them a letter, we wanted to use this opportunity to focus on something positive. We at neigh*borrow have always tried to reach out to the brave and bright people trying to solve the same problems that we are. It's not easy to start a business from scratch, especially in an infant industry. We have nothing but respect for the fine folks at NeighborGoods, Loanables, and others attempting to use this unprecedented human interconnectivity to save financial and natural resources. We even talk to Micki and Ryan from time to time on Facebook, Twitter, etc. To them we say, keep up the good, important, difficult work!

Using a copyrighted name without permission in advertising copy such as the one above, is not only illegal and fraudulent, but a tad classless as well. We encourage our readers to Google the term "neighborrow" and click on the top organic link and the top paid link to see which one is more useful in finding you something you need to use. Enter #stcopyr along with your search!

Things you should be neigh*borrow-ing

neigh*borrow a BOOK instead of buying one. It's more fun, it's cheaper than buying, it's easier than going to the library. It saves paper. END OF STORY!

neigh*borrow SOMETHING FOR A VACATION. A CAMERA, TENT, A MEMORY CARD, A DVD PLAYER. We guarantee you will save money. We are not TRIPPING! 

neigh*borrow a VIDEO GAME or BOARD GAMES or a BOCCI SET. It's really easy. You don't get stuck buying something you will get board of. We are not TOYING WITH YOU! 

neigh*borrow BABY ITEMS. BABY TOYS, BABY CLOTHES. These items are the epitome of temporary use. Borrow the things you need from people close to you. Keep the things that are sentimental and lend out everything else. NO KIDDING!

neigh*borrow SOMETHING FOR A PARTY or HOUSE-GUESTS. An AEROBED, EXTRA TABLES AND CHAIRS. These are definitely things you need once in a while. They are things you need, but don't need to own. ISN'T THAT FUN!

Launching "B&W and read around the world"

PHASE I - neigh*borrow offices in NYC to stickybits offices in SF!! REQUEST THE BOOK HERE 

We have flushed out the details and are pleased to announce the launch of this exciting project. For the sake of simplicity, we will start with phase one, getting the book from here in NYC to stickybits offices in SF. The only rule is that you can't put the book in the mail. We are reaching out to the neigh*borrow and stickybits communities for the very first borrower and all subsequent borrowers!

**UPDATE - THE BOOK IS IN LA. Dembo is getting antsy, help the book travel up the coast to SF!


The book is in Irvine Ca, from NYC!  After phase 1 is complete we have borrowers lined up from SF, to SEATTLE, to ALASKA, then around the world she goes!

• CHECK OUT THE CONVERSATION AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK ON STICKYBITS.
• CHECK ZEEMAP SHOWING CURRENT LOCATION, PAST LOCATIONS, WILLING PARTICIPANTS, ETC
• READ MORE ABOUT THE RULES AND THE PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
• CHECK OUT THE LISTING ON BOOKCROSSING
• JOIN THE FUN AND REQUEST THE BOOK ON NEIGH*BORROW

Read Around The World in ??? Days...:)

READLAY RACE AROUND THE WORLD WITH STICKYBITS AND NEIGH*BORROW

"BLACK and WHITE and READ around the world" is an exciting project brought to you by neigh*borrow and stickybits. "Around the world in 80 days" is on a Journey around the world, that started in New York City.  The goal of the project is to send the book on a journey around the world using the technology and communities behind neigh*borrow and stickybits!

THE RULES: 

1. The book can only be lent to someone who is west of you 
2. The book must be lent to the next borrower in two weeks or returned to the lender
3. The borrower must agree, by scanning the stickybit, to the rules of the project
4. The book cannot be mailed (Options: bring the book to work, school or a coffee shop west of where you received the book...lend it to someone west of you... bring it on a plane with you...???) 

Things to think about for PHASE II and future projects. (comment or add your own)

1. Should we make a minimum number of countries scanned? 
2. Should there be a maximum distance for each segment?
3. Should we ban air travel?
4. Should we race one book we take out from the library with one book originated by a member of the community to see if people are motivated by our potential fine?!! 
5. Should we enforce a rule that you have to read the whole book? Should we send around a book of quotes instead and ask each person to scan in their favorite quote? Should we send around a book in another language?
6. Should we add checkpoints of members in the community who opt in to the project or just let the item go with the wind (as long as it goes in one direction)

The potential is endless...

HOW IT  WORKS:

1. Go to www.neighborrow.com and find the book or just cheat and click HERE.
2. Click BORROW IT and enter your email address. 
3. Based on your location we will contact you when it's your turn to borrow the book.
4. When you receive the book, scan the STICKYBITS STICKER (for instructions click here) we placed inside the first cover, this will acknowledge you accept THE FINAL RULES. (if you do not have an iPHONE or a droid supported smart phone, try and borrow a friend's or check the stickybits site to learn about other ways to interact with sb - as released)
5. Read "Around the World in 80 Days" (or at least part if it) in less than two weeks.
6. Update the comments section on the item page and add a "BIT" to the barcode at www.stickybits.com.
7. When you are ready to pass the book along, send an email to atw80@neighborrow.com or post it to facebook to find the next borrower; or locate one on your own (just make sure they follow all the steps and agree to abide by The Rules - you are still on the hook until it's scanned again:))
8. Send the book off on its journey....
9. ***After the first item gains some traction, users will be able to start their own races and send different items around the world or just around the neighborhood. 

MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT

This promotion aims to do more than illustrate the fantastic technologies and communities behind stickybits, neigh*borrow, and the other organizations helping to make this possible.

Read Around The World... 

• Will reinforce how the web and our online worlds can influence and enrich our offline connections and experiences.
• Will show how something can be hyperlocal and genuinely global all at the same time.
• Will help bring global awareness to important issues like re-using, recycling and literacy.

SPECIAL THANKS TO

zeemaps.com

ecolibris.net

****UPDATE*****

PHASE I - neigh*borrow offices in NYC to stickybits offices in SF!!

CURRENT LOCATION- ST. Cloud, MN
PREVIOUS LOCATIONS- NYC, NY; PRINCETON NJ;
CHECK OUT THE HISTORY AND CURRENT LOCATION OF THE BOOK ON STICKYBITS.
JOIN THE FUN AND REQUEST THE BOOK ON NEIGH*BORROW

Access to communal Wii @NYU!

We are running a promotion to celebrate the launch of neigh*borrow@NYU. After reaching the first 100 transactions on the site, neigh*borrow will purchase a new Wii gaming system that will be made available to all Premium members. Premium members will be able to request the Wii and use it for 3 days at a time, or until it is requested by someone else.

The faster we, as a community, get to 100 successful transactions, the faster we can play some Wii for free! So spread the word about neigh*borrow to others in the NYU community. More members... more transactions. More transactions... more money and resources saved. Oh, and quicker access to the Wii! Remember, if something can be used more than once by more than one person, it's "neigh*borrow-able."

Wii Promotion Details:

• Wii will be purchased immediately following 100th qualifying transaction
• Qualifying transactions must be completed through www.nyu.neighborrow.com
• Qualifying transactions must be between 2, unique members (at least one Premium member)
• All members must have valid and confirmed @nyu.edu email addresses
• Both Premium and Basic item transactions qualify
• neigh*borrow reserves the right to disqualify any transactions not deemed genuine or in good faith
• Wii comes with one controller and Wii Sports (tennis, golf, baseball, bowling) -- but you can always neigh*borrow other games on the site!
• Wii will be available to Premium members only and can be reserved for 3 days at a time, on a first come, first served basis (or until the Wii is requested by another Premium member)
• TO START A SIMILAR PROMOTION IN YOUR NETWORK (NEIGH*BORROW-HOOD) PLEASE CONTACT FOUNDERS@NEIGHBORROW.COM

neigh*borrow light

neigh*borrow light

As the world shrinks, the term neighbor is redefined. We like to use the term GLOCAL (yes, Up In The Air borrowed the term from us). neigh*borrow lite is a simple way for people to engage with our site instantly, to use their neighbors and existing networks as a resource to find things they need to use. No registration is required by the lender or the borrower, we just grab your email address so we can assist with communication and remind the borrower when the item is due back. neigh*borrow light plays no role in the exchange, or the accountability, or the history of the user, or anything like that (you'll need the full version for that). Our app will simply help you utilize your networks more efficiently and help you feel comfortable knocking on scores of doors at a time to ask, can I borrow a ...

If you want to try it out, click here and remember to send out the listing when it's generated.