Uniiverse will be hosting a clothing swap event in Montreal on May 24, 2012. Here are 8 reasons why you should be there!

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Host Spotlight on: Wei Xiu

Ever since I got into making jewelry, learning to bend wire with my trusty pliers back in high school, I have wanted to run my own crafty workshop. However, after coming up with cool workshop ideas, I would always stumble across the same two issues:  “how do I get the word out” and “will there be enough people interested in doing this?” These two questions stuck in the back of my mind every time I thought about sharing my passion with others, and, time and time again, led me to desist.

Then, this February, I discovered Uniiverse. Suddenly, all those issues that had plagued me seemed easy to solve. I quickly wrote up a description for a bracelet workshop, found some pretty photos, created the listing and waited. Before long, there was some interest. I felt elated to know that there were others who were interested in what I had to offer, and started gathering supplies and figuring out how I would actually teach the workshop. 

On a sunny April afternoon, four ladies and I gathered at the Moonbean Cafe in Kensington Market for an “Arm Party.” We had never met before, but got to know each other quite well while sipping ice cold lattes and wrangling waxed linen and beads.

Hosting this workshop was a lot of fun – we made three types of bracelets and chatted about everything from summer camp to the latest innovations in nail polish technology (seriously, did you know you could roll on designs now?). Although working with such small and finicky materials was a challenge at first, everyone came up with their own ways of handling them, and kept at it. I especially loved how the ladies who finished their bracelets first helped their neighbors by holding the strings steady for them – it was teamwork at its best! Before long, we were all donning our new bracelets and heading out to enjoy the rest of the day.

 Now I can’t wait to host more classes through Uniiverse. It’s a great way to meet people who share common interests, and to try out new experiences. Who knows, perhaps we’ll meet again at a sushi rolling night or brownie baking session! 

The Uniiverse is full of Extraordinary People like… Kirstie Smallman

Kirstie has a positive energy that draws you in and fills the room, which she brings into everything she does.  As a blue belt Nia Movement instructor, she teaches in the Cambridge, Paris and K-W area. Check out her interview after the jump!

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How many of your Facebook friends do you truly know in real-life? How many of them do you see on a regular basis?  

Uniiverse can spark real-life interactions between you and someone new, but we also want to help you stay closer to your friends and family.  Your personal network is extremely important, and we’re happy to announce a new Uniiverse feature that allows you to share brilliantly with the people who matter most.  Introducing (drumroll please…) listing invisibility cloaks! (just kidding…sort of) You can now create private and semi-private listings on Uniiverse.

Here’s how it works.  When you create a listing, you can now select exactly who can see and book it.  You can choose for it to be:

• available to the general public 
• available to just your Facebook friends
• available to select people (unlisted and password protected listings)

Uniiverse is even more powerful now that you can share with specific people.  Sometimes less is more.

We’re excited to see (and not see) what ideas you come-up with using this powerful tool:

• Invite friends to a party or get-together. Split the cost of drinks, food or entertainment. They can pay you directly through the site!
• Invite friends to a fun weekend away. Going on a ski trip? Split the cost of accommodation and transportation. Ride-share! 
• Create a private service that only your friends or loved ones can book. Remember giving mom coupons when you were a kid?  Go high tech this year and offer her access to a yearlong Mother’s Day helper! 
• Share an item or space with only your friends (you might not share certain things with the whole world, but you’d share it with friends, maybe for a cheaper price, or even for free!)

Now, to drop some science: the average Facebook user has 245 friends – but that’s more than what’s known as the “Dunbar Number”.  Research from the University of Oxford suggests that there’s a natural limit to the number of relationships humans can process: about 150 people.  With Uniiverse, you can now build mini sharing economies with the people who matter to you.  Or, share with the world and bring new people into your circles!

We’re very excited to make this option available.  You can share what you want, with whom you want, when you want!  Keep the Uniiverse close, and your network even closer.

The Uniiverse is full of Extraordiinary People like Mark A. Cadiz

Have you ever found yourself in front of a breathtaking or interesting image, captured a frame in your mind and wished you had your camera out and ready at that exact moment?

It rarely happens when we have a camera in hand, because we never really know where or when these picture-perfect situations are going to present themselves to us.

This is the story of a special day, the day in which I went to chase those “picture-perfect” moments, and discovered that it is quite possible to capture them, if we are careful and observant enough.

The occasion was “Shooting Strangers,” a cool group photography experience offered periodically on Uniiverse. Having registered for the class on the site, I woke up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday, and headed off to Kensington Market with my camera in-hand, not really knowing what to expect.

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As April comes to a close, we should all think back about what we’ve done to improve the environment – why? Because April is Earth Month! Did you know? If not, no need to fret because Earth day is TODAY, and we want to celebrate and let you know some simple things you can do to make a difference and get a little greener.

Here are 5 ways you can use Uniiverse to go green:

1. Planning to drive anywhere? You can organize a carpool on Uniiverse! Let’s reduce the amount of cars on the road.

2. Share, don’t toss – borrow, don’t shop! If you have belongings lying around the house that you rarely use, lend your items to someone else via Uniiverse. Avoid buying something if you’re only going to use it once. Instead, see if anyone is offering to share items with you on Uniiverse.

3. Have a green thumb? Find some like-minded people to share your garden with on Uniiverse. Grow some local produce. Plant a tree.

4. Want to get around the city but don’t have a bike? See if anyone in your area if offering to lend theirs out on Uniiverse. Have a fixie, road or mountain bike you rarely use? Let someone else borrow your bike.

5. Have something to teach people about lifestyles that will improve their well-being? Have some green tips and tricks? Offer a class or workshop!

Watch out world! We’re proud to announce the growth of Uniiverse in the past two months. People in over 300 cities and 47 countries around the globe have joined the sharing economy and created unique listings on Uniiverse. 

If you have created a listing on Uniiverse, then one of these green pins represents the positive impact you are having in your city. We’re excited to watch this expand!

Embracing Uniiverse and the sharing economy will continue to and increasingly have a positive economic, social, and environmental impact. 

Our goal is to have all of the land on this map hidden by green sharing pins! Have you started sharing yet? Join the movement to make the world a better place and create your first Uniiverse listing today: uniiverse.com/offering

For inspiration, here are some great listings from around the world:

• Learn basic Japanese from Susan or check out the food trucks with Luke in San Francisco 
• Share your books or run by the sea with Hayley in Melbourne, Australia 
• Rent this Earls Court flat from Anne-Claire during the Olympics in London
• Borrow a violin from Craig or join a Groove Yoga class with Tamara in Toronto

It’s been a very exciting couple of months since Uniiverse launched! We are loving the listings being created by people all over the world. Thanks for showing how extraordinary and unique you all are.

We’re constantly working hard on making improvements to the site, and we want to ensure the Uniiverse experience is as amazing as possible. We’ve been listening to your suggestions, and are happy to announce some exciting new features!

We’re thrilled to introduce an improved sign-up process! In addition to our original Facebook log-in option, we’ve added Twitter, Google+, and email as options to sign-up.  In order to further improve trust between users, we’ve added mobile phone verification to the new sign-up flow. 

If you’re already a user, you can connect your other social networks via your settings page.

Stay Tuned….

There are other fantastic freshly-created features that we are excited to announce to you in the coming weeks!

Please continue sending us feedback and let us know how you like our new features . We always appreciate your help in designing Uniiverse.

When is the last time you got your hands messy?  Have you stepped out of the box to try something new lately?  Uniiverse can help you do something different and exciting. Escape the mundane and enjoy life.

 It’s easy to sit around and think of all the things you want to experience. Perhaps you want to learn a new language, become a photographer, cook an exotic dish, paint on a giant canvas, take a road trip to a new city, or meet new people in your community.  

Life is all about experiences and the time we spend. 

Last week, ten friendly strangers booked a Uniiverse listing called “Michal’s Gnocchi Making Class.” 

Michal loves to cook and wanted to share her passion for food by teaching others how to make a popular Italian dish. Attendees enjoyed a unique outing at the end of the day, instead of sitting on the computer, or watching television. The results were pretty tasty - amateurs became experts, new friends were made, and hands got messy! Check out some photos from the class.

Feeling inspired? Offer or discover something unique on Uniiverse today.

Get out of your routine and start exploring what the Uniiverse has to offer.