--- title: America's Spare Bedrooms Are Worth $6 Billion description: The hidden billions in America's spare bedrooms, how libraries are the new public commons, and more. canonical: https://time.com/4317578/america-spare-bedrooms-worth-billions/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-04T17:55:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:02.245Z article:section: Ideas og:title: America's Spare Bedrooms Are Worth $6 Billion og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4317578/america-spare-bedrooms-worth-billions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: America's Spare Bedrooms Are Worth $6 Billion twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # America's Spare Bedrooms Are Worth $6 Billion by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 4, 2016 5:55 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 4, 2016 5:55 PM UTC **1\.** [**America’s spare bedrooms are worth $6 billion.**](http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/04/27/There-s-6-Billion-Being-Wasted-America-s-Spare-Bedrooms) By Janna Herron in the Fiscal Times **2\.** [**See how public libraries are becoming the new public commons.**](http://mediashift.org/2016/05/how-libraries-are-curating-current-events-becoming-community-debate-hubs/) By Laurie Putnam in MediaShift **3\.** [**Is Russia’s crackdown on Islam breeding more extremism?**](http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21698111-police-shut-dagestans-salafi-mosques-believers-head-fight-islamic) By the Economist **4\.** [**Siri and other devices are always listening. Is privacy over?**](http://recode.net/2016/04/28/always-on-privacy-implications-of-microphone-enabled-devices/) By Stacey Gray at Re/Code **5\.** [**Innovation is great, but maintenance — keeping a good thing going — matters more.**](https://aeon.co/essays/innovation-is-overvalued-maintenance-often-matters-more) By Andrew Russell and Lee Vinsel in Aeon  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4317578/america-spare-bedrooms-worth-billions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4317578/america-spare-bedrooms-worth-billions/"},"headline":"America's Spare Bedrooms Are Worth $6 Billion","datePublished":"2016-05-04T17:55:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:02.245Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4317578/america-spare-bedrooms-worth-billions/","keywords":["Innovation","russia","housing","Siri","Libraries"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4317578/america-spare-bedrooms-worth-billions/","name":"America's Spare Bedrooms Are Worth $6 Billion"}}]}] ```