*I like it that this Oakland lawyer who is into online sharing immediately thinks about sharing law services. No, not Sharia law, because that's that Moslem business, but sharing law. You know, for Favela Chic people who live off free software and stuff they snag off Craigslist. More of 'em around all the time, so you can bet they're gonna get hammered someday – probably by one of those dark-of-night sneak acts of Parliament like the one the British just did to deprive pirate file-sharers of any access to the Internet. That's the major political problem you face when you're bohemian underclass and have no attorneys. The government's all attorneys. Pretty much solid attorneys all the way through.
http://shareable.net/blog/birth-of-sharing-law
(...)
"Lynne lives in an urban cohousing community and shares ownership of a car with two neighbors. Every day, she fluidly shares, borrows, and lends (rather than owns) many household goods, tools, electronics, and other items.
"She is a member of a cooperative grocery, through which she receives significant discounts in exchange for putting in a few monthly work hours. She grows vegetables on an empty lot and sometimes sells the veggies to neighbors.
"She has a successful rooftop landscaping business, which she launched using 20 microloans and investments from friends and family. She often barters, doing odd jobs in exchange for goods and services.
"She also owns a 5 percent share of a hot springs retreat center outside of town, which she acquired through sweat equity.
"With the help of sharing, cooperation, and collaboration, Lynne has managed to craft an affordable, comfortable lifestyle, put her skills to use, do varied and self-directed work, and live/work in a supportive community. She has “financed” property ownership and launched a thriving business off of the traditional financial and banking grid.
"Now, if only Lynne knew how to report all this to the IRS, and how to explain it to her car insurance company, the Health Department, mortgage lenders, the Secretary of State, the Department of Real Estate, the city planning and building departments, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and all of the other regulatory and bureaucratic entities that have a say over what she can and can’t do...."
(((Big problem for our sharing heroine, right? Obviously she needs a dropout lawyer! Somebody who gets it about her multiple children, her polyamorous marriage and her habit of fabbing small household objects with a MakerBot.)))
"A lawyer open to receiving payment in time dollars or working in exchange for a bag of organic artichokes will make legal services accessible to a broader range of clients."
(((Yeah, I uh, you betcha. There have gotta be some lawyers who live on organic artichokes. Just a matter of crowdsourcing and swapping 'em!)))
(((So, is there anybody actually at home in our sharing-lawyer's online line-sharing website? Well, not exactly, apparently – but maybe she's just really busy weeding the backyard tomatoes.)))
