Değiş Tokuş Talks was launched on Friday evening of June 18, 2021, with Meltem Şendağ’s talk titled ‘Gift Economy Through Digital Platforms’. (The talk is in Turkish) 

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Şendağ’s talk started with a short introduction on how the giving-receiving-exchange cycle along with hospitality, and reciprocity are defined in the gift economy. She then provided examples of how digital technologies and social platforms have created new meanings within and transformed the gift economy. Şendağ detailed how the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and platforms like Facebook, Twitter have transformed internet users from ‘observers’ to active participants; while other platforms, such as Zumbara, Couchsurfing, Airbnb, Sharedearth, Thredup were created as alternatives to existing economic systems, and formed different relationship models between people. She concluded her talk by sharing her projections on the impact of the transition to Web 3.0, where central structures are broken, and distributed ecosystems are created. Şendağ’s projections included that this transformation would allow for money/exchange units to circulate more easily, transform the modes of interaction, necessitate a move from closed structures to transparent ones and possible modes of working for community currencies. ​

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About Meltem Şendağ:

After graduating from Boğaziçi University Department of International Trade, Şendağ worked as a business and market analyst in India between 2005-2006 and as an AdSense Strategist at Google Ireland between 2007-2010. She returned to Turkey to establish Zumbara (Time Piggy Bank) with a friend of hers. Zumbara became the world's largest and most active time bank and was selected among the most successful social enterprises between 2012 and 2017, thanks to its use of internet technologies and building a social network around the idea of ​​a time bank. Şendağ taught creative thinking and writing at Istanbul Bilgi University and organized workshops for NGOs serving refugees. Since April 2020, she has been interested in using the concept of gift economy to understand how value is perceived in today's economy created by global collaborations and partnerships. She currently works as the Turkey Ecosystem Leader at Celo, a mission-oriented organization that wants to create conditions that will provide prosperity for all.