Kathleen, the most recent user of the humane small animal trap kindly posted a note about her experience, but as her posting found its way to an obscure part of the website, we reproduce most of it here:

"Just a quick note to add to the last post (which pretty much covered all bases). We were very happy to be able to rent Michael's trap as it saved us from having to hire the services of a pest control company. The particular squirrel we were trying to catch was a wily one and somehow managed to get the bait a couple of times without tripping the trap. Can't figure out how this could happen as we followed the instructions to the letter. There were also one or two times when the trap tripped and still no squirrel. In any case, after two weeks of this I was ready to call it a day. But my husband insisted we keep trying and after another 3 weeks he succeeded in catching the critter. He released him into the wilds of North Vancouver (we live in the East side so we figure having a bridge between us should be good enough). Regarding bait, we found that this squirrel just couldn't resist fresh roasted peanuts in their shells (despite having many close shaves with the trap tripping on him). I suppose my message to others who may use the trap is that when it comes to squirrels persistence really does pay off. We wish anyone else who tries the trap in the future the best of luck and a big thank you for offering this great service."

Thank you for taking the time to do the posting, Kathleen.

On the block where we live, piles of dirt are sprouting. Their arrival is uncoordinated but as predictable as spring -- coinciding with neighbours emerging from their homes and meeting each other after a long winter.

Our thoughts turn to our gardens, and we order dirt.

The big expense of garden dirt is the delivery charge. Most of the piles of dirt on our block represent less-than-truck-load deliveries.

Is there an opportunity here to get dirt for less and reduce diesel fuel emissions?

We are going to try sharing a truck-load dirt delivery with our neighbours.

Grims borrowed Mac's live animal cage trap then posted a message about his experience.

The message was perfectly in the spirit of sharing. It also said a lot about how to use a live animal trap properly.

Here, reposted, is the message. We hope you enjoy it.

"Hey Mac, thanks so much for lending your trap. When I borrowed the trap, I did so hoping that I wouldn't need it. There was a squirrel in the attic at my mother's house and I was charged with it's removal. My plan was to wait until mid-day when the squirrel would be out foraging for food, patch any entry holes from the outside of the house, and then set the trap as a back-up plan (in case the squirrel stayed home that day or had another way in) I set the trap in the attic using walnuts as bait (any nut will do) and then proceeded to squirrel-proof the attic. Apparently I got the job done because there were no more squirrel noises in the attic, the trap was empty for a week, and I ran into a rather unhappy looking critter climbing around the house looking for a way in."

"If I would have caught the squirrel, my release site would have been somewhere like Central park in Burnaby. The reason behind this is that most of the squirrels that we encounter in the city are Eastern grey squirrels, an invasive species native to the other side of the country. Central park is essentially an island of park surrounded by urban sprawl. It is already packed with squirrels and it is far enough from wild space that it doesn't pose a huge threat to populations of Douglas or flying squirrels (our much smaller native species). If you catch a non-native animal, please don't release it into wild space."

"I thought I'd add a few tips for those wishing to trap small mammals. The safety of the animal is the primary concern. If you're trapping in the winter, make sure there is some sort of food and dry bedding (shredded newspaper perhaps) in the trap. If the trap is out in the open, make sure there is something covering it (maybe sheet plastic held down with rocks) to protect the critter from the elements. The most important thing is to check the trap frequently. If you have set a trap, it is your responsibility to make sure that there is no animal suffering needlessly inside. Traps should be checked at a minimum of twice per day (twelve hours apart) but I prefer three times a day at 8 hour intervals. Any trapped animal should be dealt with immediately (it helps to transport them in the dark). Make sure to wear thick work gloves when handling squirrels. Those teeth are sharp! :)"

THANKS, GRIMS.

What makes Mac's humane live animal trap a popular sharable?

The trap - which cages the animal for release elsewhere -- is out on loan again. This time for on a two week rental to catch a squirrel that is believed to be making a nest in a family's attic.

The rental cost of $5 a week seems to compare favourably to the cost of stopping up all the holes in the house and a return visit by a pest remover.

We are looking for community managers at SharableThings. These managers can be by type of sharable (e.g., tools, recreational property, parking,...) or location (e.g., Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco,...) or both.

We can't pay you -- at least not yet. But we would be pleased if you could see your way -- at least for a while -- to being a volunteer.

If this possibility grabs your fancy, just send us an email at support at sharablethings.com. Tell us a bit about yourself, why you might be interested in being a community manager and why you might be good at it.

We would be really pleased to hear from you.

"ISBN 1-55285-842-1" might not seem revolutionary, but, published online, indicating a book you can borrow in your neighbourhood, perhaps it is.

This International Standard Book Number is for John Kimantas' book The Wild Coast 3: a kayaking, hiking and recreation guide for BC's south coast and east Vancouver Island.

Other ISBNs, similarly posted online, many times over, indicating a sharable book, would make for a new sort of public library, where books of all sorts are availabe in every neighbourhood.

For this example of a small step towards a new type of public library, see here.

Is 2011 the year of the electric car? Could a few neighbours feasibly share one?

With 2010 apparently the warmest year on record world-wide, our common carbon footprint is beginning to seem like a serious matter. Will cars like the Chevy Volt, which apparently started to become available last month, be the way to go?

Michael has posted an interest in sharing one.

Mac's small animal live cage trap is out on free loan again.

Its nice to know the trap is getting used.

Grims, the borrower, has promised a report when he's done.

Meeru Dhalwala, co-owner of Vancouver's marvellous Vij's Restaurant on South Granville, appears in the Globe and Mail newspaper's One Big Idea with an interesting idea for a social network with a social conscience.

Meeru's idea for a city-operated website that would increase social capital by fostering bartering
might not work, but it is nice to see her pushing for sharing in such a high-profile way in a national newspaper.

This week and next, Vince, our chief technology officer, will be making changes to the SharableThings website.

The new underscored words “learn more” near our logo link you to this blog posting. And this blog posting is supposed to make perfectly clear how you can use SharableThings.

That is a pipe dream, of course. How you can use this site is simple (see below) but also as complicated as the ways you can imagine to use it. We are counting on you to invent new ways.

We have adopted more concrete terms at the site. We hope they will help you more clearly realize what and how you can give, get, and use things with others, but not restrict your ability to invent and discover new ways of doing that.

In this iteration of the website, you will find more concrete terms like "co-own (willing owner)" and her corollary "co-own (willing purchaser)", "for rent" and its counterpart "want to rent", "for loan" and its first cousin "want to borrow", "swap" which can do double-duty, the benevolent "free" (although perhaps it really only is junk)and the hopeful "want for free".

Here are some fictional examples of how these terms and other features are used at the site:

1. Brenda covets a book called A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. At SharableThings, she starts to create a sharing interest by clicking on "Add it" in the calls to action on the landing page or by clicking on "Add a Sharing Interest" on any page. What will she call her sharing interest? As a title, she just fills in the name of the book. Then she indicates that she is willing to co-own, rent, or borrow it, or get it for free or swap a book called The Knitters Book of Finishing Techniques for it. In the description box, she tells a little more about the book she wants, why she wants it, and the terms on which she would like to get it. Then she creates category tags (knitting, knitting book); location tags (Bellingham, Washington State); and an association tag (Ravelry) -- all of which help people narrow their searches. She uploads a photograph of the book. She prints a copy of her sharing interest and puts the printout on the notice board at work. She also emails a copy of her sharing interest to a friend.

2. Thomas creates a compound sharing interest with the title "Beneteau First 37" and "sailing opportunity". He explains in the description box that he has a Beneteau First 37 which he would be willing to share an interest in but that he is also looking for keen sailors to crew aboard his Beneteau in race season. He tags his sharing interest with category tags (sailing, boat, sailboat, sailboat racing), location tags (Fort Lauderdale, Florida); and an association tag (Lauderdale Yacht Club). He emails a copy of his sharing interest to the club racing secretary and posts a hard copy on the yacht club notice board. A different sailor might have created two sharing interests where Thomas created one.

3. Mark's snowmobiling days are over, but he can't face getting rid of his snowmobile. He likes looking at it and maintaining it. At SharableThings, he starts creating a sharing interest with the title "XP Ski-Doo", indicates "for loan", puts in the description box that he will lend his snowmobile to any member of the Trailbreakers Snowmobile Club; uploads a nice photograph of his machine; and enters "snowmobile" as a category tag; "Thompson, Manitoba" as location tags; and "Thompson Trailbreakers Snowmobile Club" as an association tag. He makes his privacy choices, as did Brenda and Thomas. While looking at his sharing interest, he uses the email a friend function to email a copy of the snowmobile sharing interest to a friend in the snowmobile club who will be able to post a paper copy at the club and who will forward the email to other snowmobilers.

4. Linda in Yonkers occasionally needs specialty power woodworking tools. At SharableThings, she makes three sharing interests, titled "13 inch portable planer", "15 inch floor drill press with dual laser guide system", and "16 inch variable speed scroll saw". She uploads a photos of each of them. She is willing to rent, borrow, or swap for the use of these machines, so she indicates all these possibilities. For category tags, she enters "tool, power tool"; for location tags, she puts "Yonkers, New York City, New York"; and as an association tag, she puts Northeastern Woodworkers Association. She waits for other power tool owners to see her posting.

What Brenda, Thomas, Mark and Linda did was create “sharing interests”. Any visitor to the site could browse or search for these sharing interests.

So: if you want to recoup part of your investment in an asset (boat, plane, cottage, car,...) or reduce your maintenance costs (in the same sorts of belongings!); if you have things that could be rented; if you have a storage problem (e.g., grandma's furniture) or a surfeit of storage space (that empty garage); if you want to save the planet by riding a motor scooter part-time or trading your beater for a 10-speed; if you just want to be a philanthropist and give things away (your Harley Davidson) or lend them out (your swimming pool or tennis court or business savvy)...try creating a sharing interest. And as the site gets going, look for things to share - or do we mean rent, borrow, co-own, get for free -- in your (online) neighbourhood.

We look forward to seeing how you use SharableThings.

Rob repairs boats at the Granville Island Boat Yard.

In earlier days, Rob worked and drank with Bill, who was a landscape painter, bush pilot, and many other things before he came to work at the boatyard.

When Bill's knees and other parts failed him and forced him to quit the boatyard, Rob reconsidered his life. He gave up drinking and smoking.

Now Rob is trying to sell his Catalina 22 sailboat. He can't stand up in it and can't get enough time off work to go away in it. He says his girlfriend wants a boat with a real galley. He says he has his eye on a Catalina 27. He says he loves Catalinas.

I have tried to interest Rob in sharing his Catalina with other owners, but he refuses. He doesn't like the idea of anyone else using his berth.

Summer is on us in British Columbia.

Sharables like sailboats, kayaks, trailers, tents, swimming pools, and tennis courts are in high demand.

If you share these types of things -- or anything else -- try posting about your experiences in the SharableThings forum.

Four steps to solving a storage problem or to obtaining the temporary use of something you need:

1A. List what you own that is taking up space, that you don't need immediately, and that you would be happy to lend (or rent out) provided you get it back. (An old boat, sports equipment, books that have been read, power tools,....)

OR

1B. List things you need and would be willing to return if you could use it for a while at low cost. (Car, kayak, ping-pong table, power saw,...)

2. Using "Add a sharing interest" at SharableThings create a sharing interest with "willing to rent out or lend" or "want to rent or borrow" at the end of its title. Don't forget to attach a photo. Suppose you create as your sharing interests: (1) "Old Dining Room Table - willing to rent out or lend" and (2) "Kayak - want to rent or borrow".

3. People contact you and come to see Old Dining Room Table. Kayak owners contact you about renting or lending their kayaks to you.

4. You and your chosen dining room table borrower enter into a lend/borrow agreement. You and the kayak owner who is willing to rent you a kayak enter into a simple rental agreement. (Sample agreements for you to customize will be up at this site soon.)

Try lending/renting out or borrowing/renting something today.

The Wildlife Rescue Association of BC is our first charity.

Help us figure out a policy regarding charities in the forum thread "List of Charities - How should we choose charities?".

A small animal cage trap has been lent to lmckenna.

SharableThings has been cut from the New Ventures BC 2010 business ideas competition.

We are grateful to the competition for having taken us outside our comfort zone and for introducing us to some great people.

Vince has re-worked our landing page. We hope you like it.

The new appearance does not reflect more ambitious revisions that Vince has in mind but, in the spirit of agile software development, we hope it will do for the time being.

Martin and Vince sent news from the sharing world today.

Vince saw a twitter about Share Some Sugar which seems to provide local renting opportunities, as does SharableThings.

Martin saw an article about a car sharing service called whipcar in the UK.

New sharing tools are coming on the scene at a furious rate.

The New Ventures BC 2010 business ideas competition continues with events most Tuesday nights into June.

Our second round submission went in to the competition last night.

At events so far, we've met three other competitors. Each of them is a great guy with a cracker-jack business idea.

Ken has a promising cure for cancer. Mike is designing a simple refrigerator to save food waste in the third world. Matt's company, Zeros2Heroes, tests ideas for television series in a way that makes expensive pilot shows unnecessary.

We feel as though we entered a soap box derby and discovered our neighbours can build Ferraris, Porsches, and Lamborghinis.

SharableThings user jenly has posted a sharing interest about bowling. Jenly is looking for people to bowl with.

The significance of Jenly's sharing interest became more apparent when we came across Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, by Robert D. Putnam (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).

Here are extracts from the book's publicity:

"In a groundbreaking book based on vast new data, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our democratic structures-- and how we may reconnect. Putnam warns that our stock of social capital - the very fabric of our connections with each other, has plummeted, impoverishing our lives and communities."

"Putnam draws on evidence including nearly 500,000 interviews over the last quarter century to show that we sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often. We're even bowling alone. More Americans are bowling than ever before, but they are not bowling in leagues. Putnam shows how changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women's roles and other factors have contributed to this decline."

"The central premise of social capital is that social networks have value. Social capital refers to the collective value of all "social networks" [who people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other. "

"Factoids from Bowling Alone"

"Family dinners and family vacations or even just sitting and talking with your family are down by one third in last 25 years."

"Having friends over to the house is down by 45 percent over last 25 years. "

"Participation in clubs and civic organizations has been cut by more than half over the last 25 years."

"Involvement in community life, such as public meetings is down by 35 percent over the last 25 years."

"Church attendance is down by roughly one third since 1960s."

Keunholee's television, mac's boardroom table, and sg.cmac's small coastal cruising sailboat have in common that their owners don't use them now but might in the future. These objects take up space their owners could put to better use.

Most of us have some such items lying around: furniture, old boats, bicycles, art, a trailer, television sets,...

Enter the solution of lending to your online neighbours.

An ideal candidate is something you don’t want to get rid of, because you suspect you might want to use it at some time in the future, but that, meanwhile, is cluttering up your home or office, occupying space you could put to better use for other purposes.

Here's how you can deal with such creatures and feel good about it.

Create a sharing interest at SharableThings with the usual photograph of the sharable. (Such sharables are photogenic!)

Append the expression "willing to lend" to the title so that everyone gets the idea.

In order to make clearer the nature of the lending, in the description of your sharing interest indicate the amount of notice you will give to get the sharable back and the amount of notice you want from the borrower before the sharable is returned.

Perhaps we may slowly get used to living without that priceless junk.

[There is now a sample "Lend/Boprrow" agreement in the wiki pages of this site under the heading "Agreements for Lending-Borrowing a Sharable, Giving to Charity, and Supporting the SharableThings Service"].

Wikipedia is wonderful as a sharing institution.

Just now there is a very specific reason for saying so from a sharing perspective.

The Wikipedia article on sharing cites an essay by Yochai Benkler that appears at pages 273-358 of volume 114 of the Yale Law Journal.

Entitled “Sharing Nicely: On Shareable Goods and the Emergence of Sharing as a Modality of Economic Production”, the essay describes “shareable goods”, which Benkler defines as “a particular class of physical goods…that systematically have excess capacity”.

Yochai Benkler offers a tall glass of water to anyone who has thirsted for definitions regarding sharing.

Sharing is a desert of language, a desert of definitions, that Benkler, a professor at Yale at the time he wrote the essay and now the Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, sets out to make familiar to us through definition. For most of us, the result will follow the adage of Walter Lippmann that we don’t see and then define but define and then see.

In subsequent postings, some of Benkler’s insights may be commented on but for now a few quotations from near the beginning of “Sharing Nicely” will have to suffice.

“The characteristics I use to define shareable goods are sufficient to make social sharing and exchange of material goods feasible as a sustainable social practice. But these characteristics are neither absolutely necessary nor sufficient for sharing to occur. Instead they define conditions under which, when goods with these characteristics are prevalent in the physical-capital base of an economy, it becomes feasible for social sharing and exchange to become more salient in the overall mix of relations of production in that economy.”

“I suggest that social sharing and exchange is an underappreciated modality of economic production…whose salience in the economy is sensitive to technological conditions.”

“My own concern is how a particular subclass of indivisible goods…creates a feasibility space for social sharing…”

“…both markets and managerial hierarchies require crisp specification of behaviors [sic – warning to fellow Canadians and British subjects we are dealing with American spellings here] and outcomes. Crispness is costly. It is not a characteristic of social relations, which rely on fuzzier definitions of actions required and performed, of inputs and outputs, and of obligations. Furthermore, where uncertainty is resistant to cost-effective reduction, the more textured (though less computable) information typical of social relations can provide better reasons for action than the persistent (though futile) search for crisply computable courses of action represented by pricing or managerial commands. Moreover, social sharing can capture a cluster of social and psychological motivations that are not continuous with, and may even be crowed out by, the presence of money. Pooling large numbers of small-scale contributions to achieve effective functionality – where transaction costs would be high and per-contribution payments must be kept low – is likely to be achieved more efficiently through social sharing systems than through market-based systems. It is precisely this form of sharing – on a large scale, among weakly connected participants, in project-specific or even ad hoc contexts – that we are beginning to see more of on the Internet; that is my central focus.”

"Social sharing and exchange is becoming a common modality of producing valuable desiderata at the very core of the most advanced economies..."

"Once we come to accept the economic significance of this cluster of social practices, we will have to turn to mapping internal variations and understanding their workings and relationships to each other as economic phenomenon.....For now, however, all we need is to recognise that a broad set of social practices can be sustainable and efficient substitutes for markets, firms and bureaucracies."

The “Sharing Nicely” article begins to de-mystify, by defining, some of what is going on in terms of sharing in our economy. Whether its analysis will have much practical application to the specific complex of legal, social, economic, and technical problems that a website like www.sharablethings.com faces, it is nonetheless gratifying to hear Benkler's voice calling directions to lost souls wandering in this peculiar little-defined place (sharing) in the middle of our economy.

RK wrote today to say, "You should ...have a look at these sites...: http://www.letsolla.com , http://www.timebanks.org/how-it-works.htm , http://hyperlocavore.com/ , http://www.zwaggle.com , http://www.u-exchange.com , http://www.swaptree.com , http://www.tradeafavor.com , http://sharetompkins.wordpress.com , http://www.flexicar.com.au , http://www.goget.com.au , http://www.orix-carsharing.com.

We tried to enter SharableThings in the 2010 CBC Dragons' Den, a "reality" television competition show for business ideas. The online entry attempt failed, which gave more time to research the show by watching old episodes, which in turn led to the conclusion that SharableThings and the Dragons' Den would make an unlikely couple.

To judge by a sampling of old episodes, the series follows a predictable formula. Usually a nice person, who has spent too much money to develop a product of questionable usefulness, accompanied by his family or a quiet friend or business partner, demonstrates and pitches the product.

The pitch reveals obvious flaws, which make the audience feel as wise as the entrepreneurs (the dragons) who are the competition judges (Star Chamber) and are to decide whether to invest their own money. The dragons' questioning uncovers the flaws and makes the proponent (with whom the audience now identifies) squirm. The proponent is devastated -- or occasionally defiant, in which case he comes in for special ridicule. Each dragon refuses to invest, declaring, "I'm out".

Occasionally, a dragon smiles and accepts a proposition, and a deal is done.

It leaves you aching for a St. George to wipe the floor with the dragons.

The tone is more polite, and less analytical, than the English version of the same show. The Canadian dragons come across as clear-eyed tight wads.

A waterless egg cooker on the English Dragons' Den series (it couldn't cook an egg) seems the archtype of the show's favourite business idea.

It seemed unlikely that SharableThings would be selected to enter the Dragons' Den, although we found ourselves secretly sharpening our sword. SharableThings does not have a simple product.

The Dragons' Den is television. While the Canadian show is quite nice (no Donald Trump or Simon Cowell here), hard thinking about difficult business models is not what it is about. The stakes are kept low and the playing field wildly uneven. It would be refreshing to see strong proponents with complex business proposals asking for serious money and causing havoc among the dragons, but that would not be television.

We ducked the Dragons' Den, afraid of falling on our sword?

Within minutes of each other today, boat sharing moderator Gerry Thorne and LexPublica founder Martin Ertl sent news from the sharing front.

Gerry has been reading two articles by Chris Cannon in The Tyee: http://thetyee.ca/Life/2010/20/AllTogetherNow and http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/04/20ShareTactics/

Martin has been reading in Springwise about P2P car sharing coming to Australia (http://springwise.com/weekly/2010-04-21.htm#drivemycar) and a neighbourhood sharing service in Southern California (http://springwise.com/life_hacks/neighborgoods).

Accountant James Topham (Vancouver), open source advocate Zak Greant (Vancouver), and Internet business consultant Harry Max (Mountainview) have joined the SharableThings Inc. team.

James Topham was the KPMG Vancouver technology partner and now serves on the board of directors of high tech companies.

Zak Greant has worked at MySQL (employee #37), Mozilla, The Open Source Foundation, and Sxip. He is a cofounder of LexPublica, which occupies much of his time.

As co-founder of Virtual Vineyards, Inc., Harry Max designed the interaction concepts behind the first secure Internet shopping cart. He was Web Communications Architect at Dreamworks Animation and has written a book about Skype. He has worked for Silicon Graphics, Apple, HP, and other well-known companies. His working life in Silicon Valley is outlined at http://www.linkedin.com/in/harrymax.

None of the new team members leaves his day job, and exactly what it means to be on the SharableThings team is still under discussion, but SharableThings is delighted to be assembling this terrific pool of talent.

We are on the lookout for a marketing wizard. (If you are a wizard and happen to read this blog, please send your resume to support@sharablethings.com.)

SharableThings has entered the New Ventures BC 2010 competition.

Competition details can be seen at www.newventuresbc.com/the-competition.

New Ventures BC says its competition is one of North America's largest technology business-idea competitions and compares the competition to a "boot-camp" for business startups.

We are looking forward (we think) to having www.sharablethings.com judged by business experts.

If SharableThings can reach round 3, we will get advice from mentors.

If we can hang in until round 4, angel investors, venture capitalists, and industry experts will evaluate our business plan.

There are prizes!

The Olympic games have brought interesting people to Vancouver. The Olympic organizers have closed streets and stopped street parking in many areas. A result is that Vancouverites are taking public transit and meeting people they would never otherwise meet. That's how I happened to meet Victoria, an Olympic volunteer from Fort St. John, on the #9 Broadway bus yesterday.

Victoria volunteers at the figure-skating and speed-skating Olympic venue. Sometimes she gets to see the events while volunteering; sometimes not. In the spirit of the previous blog post, about sharing Eric, Victoria is sharing Victoria.

In everyday life, Victoria is a farmer. She and her husband raise sheep. Ordinarily, next month, lambing would begin, but she has turned their farm into what she called, without blinking an eye, an "ass retirement centre". This is not as rude as it sounds to city ears. Now she and her husband look after retired and abandoned donkeys.

Running a retirement centre for donkeys came about naturally for Victoria. For years she had a donkey instead of a dog guarding her ewes (or, as she calls them, "my ladies"). Victoria found a donkey the best shepherd. He protected her sheep against coyotes and wolves. With pride, she told the story of a donkey that killed a cougar.

Victoria's relationship with her shepherd was not always smooth. When a lightening storm approached, Victoria chased all her ladies towards the barn, only to find that her donkey had gone inside too, leaving her alone, the tallest thing in the field. (For this transgression, the donkey spent time in solitary confinement.)

I am taking the bus again this morning. I hope there will be another Victoria aboard, willing to share her story.

Eric Brooke has posted an interesting sharing interest on www.sharablethings.com. He has posted himself: see http://www.sharablethings.com/interests/47 in which he offers to share "Eric".

Some time ago, Eric said that sharing education would be particularly useful. His "Eric" sharing interest may be offering himself as a public speaker, as an employee, as a consultant or coach. Eric hasn't defined the roles yet.

Ontario dairy farmer Michael Schmidt has won a 16-year legal battle to share raw milk products. A key to his success was his cow-sharing arrangement with customers. (Search “cow sharing” at http://www.nationalpost.com/. You will find information about Mr. Schmidt's farm at http://www.glencoltonfarms.com/).

The Ontario decision is part of an interesting debate about individual rights, supply management, and food safety.

The larger picture involves the community supported agriculture movement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture.

Will someone post farm-animal sharing agreements at our sharing agreements (precedents and links) wiki pages?