The rise of the collaborative economy offers both significant challenges and opportunities to local governments. The traditional lines between the public and private spheres are blurring. It is increasingly unclear where private activity turns into entrepreneurial activity, as consumers can at the click of a button become hoteliers, sellers, lenders, transporters and producers. This has consequences for many important pillars of our society such as taxation, insurance and regulation. First of all, there are potential advantages, such as a growth of civil participation in the creation and consumption of public goods and services, as well as an assumed positive environmental impact be- cause existing resources are used more efficiently. Secondly, there are risks such as unfair competition between “old” and “new” companies. When peo- ple start to produce, consume and trade more among one another on peer- to-peer marketplaces, there will be an impact on existing industries. Thus the challenge for local governments is to grasp the opportunity and promise of the collaborative economy, while smoothing the transition by safeguarding public interest and different stakes that exist in our society. One of the ways in which local governments can deal with these challenges and grasp the opportunities is by becoming a “sharing city”. Read more...
Read MoreAmsterdam kan niet meer om de deeleconomie heen. Dat was de boodschap van de Chief Technology Officer van Gemeente Amsterdam, Ger Baron gisteren bij de shareNL meetup. Start-ups en andere belangstellenden waren gisteren naar de meeting in Pakhuis de Zwijger gekomen om te praten over Amsterdam Sharing City.
Uit een nieuw onderzoek van de gemeente blijkt dat bijna alle Amsterdammers de deeleconomie kennen of er gebruik van maken. Consumenten zijn ook bereid om te betalen voor diensten binnen de sharing economy. De overheid zoekt nu naar een rol binnen deze nieuwe ontwikkelingen, bijvoorbeeld die van marktmeester. Baron spreekt van gedistribueerde businessmodellen. “We moeten op een heel andere manier naar de stad kijken.” Lees meer....
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