Jill, 63, is a keen gardener. Unlike a lot of her friends, she doesn't grow her own fruit and veg, and prefers roses - old garden roses of the 19th century to be precise.

She borrows the equipment she needs to keep her garden trim from neighbours, using the locality service. She finds out who locally has a strimmer or rotavator, contacts them through the website and pays a small sum to hire it for the day.

She sells rose seeds on the internet using one of the many peer-to-peer trading sites, such as eBay. She also buys a lot on these sites - most of the birthday and Christmas presents for her family in fact. They don't seem to mind, in fact it seems quite acceptable these days to give second hand presents. They're as good as new anyway and the second hand goods trade means that there is less waste to cope with.

She's surprised how the internet has changed her life. She can remember when videos first came out, but now she keeps all of her films, music and photographs online, and has done for several years. It's so much more convenient not having CDs and DVDs cluttering up the place, and better for the environment too.