OurGoods is a resource sharing network for the creative community. Our members trade skills, spaces and objects to get their work done without money. We run live events, a facebook group, and a newsletter.

If you would like to speak with us about hosting a live resource sharing event, the future of resource sharing, or the best way to build an online network, please contact us.

HISTORY

From 2008-2016, we ran OurGoods on our own software. We are now cultivating resource sharing through live events, a Facebook group, and partnerships with existing organizations.

OurGoods was co-founded by Louise Ma, Rich Watts, Carl Tashian, Jen Abrams, and Caroline Woolard.

OurGoods exists so that creative people can help each other produce independent projects. More work gets done in networks of shared respect and shared resources than in competitive isolation. By honoring agreements and working hard, members of OurGoods will build lasting ties in a community of enormous potential.

IMPACT ON ART

From 2008-2016, OurGoods helped multiple cultural organizations to see that both networked information technology and resource sharing could be essential to their mission to serve independent artists. We held resource sharing events at MoMA, Eyebeam, EFA Project Space, Taller Boricua, LMCC, Creative Capital, Staten Island Arts, BRIC, Brooklyn Art Exchange, A Blade of Grass, The Field, and Gibney Dance, among others. Each year, we served more than 1,400 artists (and their 10,000+ collaborators) in the disciplines of dance, theater, performance art, music, and literature. OurGoods received numerous awards, including support from the Rockefeller Cultural innovation Fund (2012-2014), the Economic Revitalization for Performing Arts grant from The Field (2009-2012), and a prominent space in Creative Time’s exhibition, Living as Form (2011).

IMPACT ON WEB 2.0

Following the financial crisis of 2007-2008, in the period between 2008-2016, Web 2.0 platforms including AirBnB, TaskRabbit, Kickstarter, and Uber were founded. Emerging with the rise of these so-called sharing platforms, OurGoods challenged platforms to share power and resources with their members. OurGoods founders Jen Abrams and Caroline Woolard often sat on panel discussions with founders of these organizations. Again and again we urged these organizations and their users to see that proprietary, for profit organizations can not, in any meaningful way, constitute a “sharing economy.” Rather, we argued theirs was a “renting economy,” where an information commons had been enclosed upon. We were invited to take a stance against the privatization of sharing, and we did so. We are heartened to see that ethics such as the Good Work Code and conferences and publications such as Platform Cooperativism continue this conversation today.

VIDEOS

From 2009-2014, we spoke in public. A lot.

SELECT PRESS

SELECT BOOKS

OTHER ONLINE NETWORKS

We also rely on the following groups for free stuff, gift giving, and swaps in the NYC area:

CONTACT US

If you would like to speak with us about OurGoods, hosting a live resource sharing event, the future of resource sharing, or the best way to build an online network, please contact us.