Bliive: Use Your Social Networking Time to Share Your Talents

By Murilo Mafra, co-founder, Bliive

What if you could get something back for all the time you spend interacting on social networks? This is the purpose of Bliive, our Brazilian startup that encourages people to share what they do best.

The idea behind Bliive is to allow people to expend some of their Internet time sharing knowledge. Think of it as a time bank - when you spend time educating someone else, you accrue credits to spend on learning of your own.

For example, you can offer an hour of Spanish lessons. In return, you receive a credit called “Time Money." This credit can be exchanged for any activity available in the platform, like financial tips or dance classes. In the end, you don’t need to spend any money to gain something new.

The network is based on the concept of a solidarity economy, where the goal is to bring people with similar interests together. Apart from being a tool of social integration and cohesion, time banks also offer a simple and secure alternative for obtaining services without the need of a standard currency.

At Bliive, the spirit of collaboration is encouraged. People are able to utilize and show what they enjoy or do best.

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There are more than 300 Time Banks spread all over the world, according to TimeBanks USA.

"Timebanking is a response to an economic framework that values what is scarce over what is most valuable in our society – sharing, loving, bringing up children, civic participation, being a good neighbour, good friend, and good human." (Edgar Cahn)

On Bliive, each new user receives five units of the TimeMoney currency -- each of which corresponds to an hour’s worth of services offered by other users. Among available services are lessons of idioms, music instruments, cooking and sports -- apart from help in other sectors, such as consulting, lifehacking and others. This means that users can also offer their services in order to receive more TimeMoney to spend within the network.

Since we launched, Bliive has already accumulated more than 50,000 hours of experiences. That means five uninterrupted years of new experiences offered by 45,000 users among 90 different countries. The startup was recently selected to participate in the Sirius Programme -- a United Kingdom program that promotes new companies. For that reason, Bliive has physically relocated to Scotland.

The U.K. is beginning to adopt the collaborative economy in a big way. A new report has mapped out how the UK's sharing economy is shaping up, and it has found that 25 percent of people in the UK have already participated in the collaborative - or sharing - economy.

“Our idea is to prove that there is value where is no conventional money”

Says Lorrana Scarpioni, co-founder of the startup along with me and José Fernandes.

In the network, users can find plenty of services, which range from how to make italian style beef to Portuguese lessons or even magic card for beginners. There are those who will teach someone how to ride a bike, or even give romantic advice or quantic mechanic lessons - among other unusual experiences.

Are you curious or excited about the idea? Access Bliive and take part, because Collaboration is the new Revolution.

Images and video courtesy of Bliive

Murilo Mafra is bachelor in Design, has been involved in the organisation of academic events and conferences about Design and Guerrilla Marketing. Has started his own design company in Brazil and today he commits full time to promote collaboration in Bliive. The Bliive team already won prizes like: Creative Business Cup Brazil, Hub Fellowship, MIT Creative Technology Review under 35 and Intel Challenge Latin America.