by Monica Bernardi | Apr 24, 2016 | The Urban Media Lab
The topic of the sharing economy is gaining more and more attention at global level. Many institutions, governments, experts and also the private sector are increasingly questioning about its impact and how to regulate it in order to not suffocate its development and favor the achievement of its full economic potential, by promoting a flexible environment for innovation. The issue is quite controversial since there is no certainty about its future development and direction. Some underline how it opens to the hope of a better tomorrow, windfall of benefits and economic growth; others point at how it will replicate capitalistic models and reproduce current inequalities, amplifying them.
The Cost of Non-Europe in the Sharing Economy.
Recently, the European Parliament has drawn up a detailed report analyzing the economic, social and legal challenges of the European Sharing Economy, highlighting both the benefits achievable through European action and the cost of the lack of action in this field. The report, The Cost of Non-Europe in the Sharing Economy: Economic, Social and Legal Challenges and Opportunities stresses the importance to identify clear criteria for a good definition by analyzing and compuonding the existing definitions. Thus, it defines the sharing economy as “the use of digital platforms or portals to reduce the scale for viable hiring transactions or viable participation in consumer hiring market (i.e. ‘sharing’ in the sense of hiring an asset) and thereby reduce the extent to which assets are under-utilized”. The research estimates the potential economic gain related to a better use of capacities (otherwise under-used) in €572 billion in annual consumption across the EU-28. The costs that the sharing economy can replace go from €1.100 per year in Bulgaria, to €14.600 in Luxemburg, while in Italy the amount is €7.200. Yet, the research warns on how this esteem is just potential since some barriers could prevent the full achievement of benefits and reduce the value of potential increased use to up to €18 billion in short-term and up to €134 billion in the medium or longer term, depending on the scale of regulatory obstacles.
By date, many EU Member States have looked for legal solutions, (in Italy e.g. the Parliamentary Intergroup for Innovation has just presented a legislative proposal open to comments till the end of May). Yet, the necessary balance between technological innovation and fair competition seems to be not already reached, since some solutions tend towards an excessive regulation, others to excessive simplification. In general, two approaches can be identified among the Member States: a more top-down governmental control and a bottom-up regulation or self-regulation through reputation. The report supposes that a mix of the two will probably be the best solution. The regulatory frameworks of course might support or inhibit the growth of the sharing economy, and related obstacles identified are: 1. outright or effective bans on sharing economy platforms; 2. regulatory costs which deter self-employment; 3. regulatory costs which deter marginal transactions; 4. inconsistencies or idiosyncrasies in intellectual property rules.
Apart from the regulatory frameworks the research recognizes other six barriers. One is related to the digital access and skills, but with the growing smartphone penetration it will rapidly lose importance. Also the physical barriers to participation in the sharing economy are significant, even if conquerable by new business models. Third point are the consumer preferences for ownership, followed by labour market obstacles, such as low mobility, sticky wage demands, technical or social skills mismatches, that will inhibit the growth of the sharing economy. Another key challenge is the need to establish trust, achievable through different strategies such as insurance, prior scrutiny before participants in the market start using the platform and ratings after the use of the platform. Finally, tax and other policy choices (not intended to affect the sharing economy) might still affect its growth in each economy.
To overcome these barriers and realize the economic potential of the sharing economy, the document questions the next steps that have to be taken at EU level, giving some recommendations, resulted from a deep analysis of the national interventions (in particular for the cases of accommodation and transportation). First of all it is necessary to define at European level what constitutes a professional activity exercised on a sharing economy platform and what does not, establishing clear criteria to determine to which legal category digital platforms belong. Second, to improve regulations applied to sharing economy platforms, setting common rules and acting progressively starting from sectors that clearly need for a new legal framework (e.g. passenger transport). Third, to mitigate social exclusion, in terms of reputation, tolerating a degree of social exclusion (laissez faire approach), or establishing a right to a reputational Year Zero, or regulating reputational scoring so that only socially desirable exclusions occur, or also creating community platforms where reputation can be rebuilt. Next recommendation is to deal whit the potential market power of sharing economy platforms, avoiding thinking that all the platforms will become monopolies and proposing specific suggestions (such as relying upon market forces and innovation to undermine market power, or developing the Single Market to maximize the size of the market…). Last point is to apply labour market regulation to sharing economy platforms, without altering them to include sharing economy providers, but considering people working for providers as self-employed and encouraging platforms to supply other benefits besides cash remuneration. This point includes sharing economy service providers in the scope of the general rules applicable to self-employment. Lastly the document touches also other fields where policy adaptations might be required to contribute to maximising the potential of the sharing economy: data protection rules, manufacturing sectors, planning, and intellectual property rules.
This document clearly focuses on the platforms levels, giving us back a comprehensive picture of the current state of development of the sharing economy in the EU-28, and analyzing how Member State are dealing with it. It suggests the importance to know the phenomenon and to let it fully integrate in the society itself, balancing the creative freedom for business with the necessary regulatory protections. The research marks out the path to follow, even if the future direction of the sharing economy itself remains uncertain, by suggesting Member State the courses of action and to avoid dangerous veers of the phenomenon. The great penetration that the sharing economy is having is imposing to reflect about it in an integrated and structured way, not only at national level but overall at European level. The document does not deal with other aspect of the sharing economy, more socially oriented and related to bottom-up processes, but it can be seen as a kind of guidelines that tries to give precise indications to extract the maximum potential from the sharing economy, gain from the recirculation of goods and the sharing of services.
–
—–
All’inizio dell’anno il Parlamento Europeo ha presentato il rapporto The Cost of Non-Europe in the Sharing Economy: Economic, Social and Legal Challenges and Opportunities, in cui analizza le sfide economiche, sociali e legali che la Sharing Economy Europea si trova ad affrontare, misurando le potenzialità dell’economia della condivisione e proponendo le problematiche ad essa connesse. A fronte, infatti, di una stima di €572 miliardi di valore potenzialmente raggiungibile in Europa attraverso pratiche di condivisione, il rapporto mette in luce la necessità di regolarla per superare una serie di barriere che ne potrebbero ostacolare lo sviluppo e impedire di raggiungere le cifre calcolate. Il lavoro è estremamente dettagliato ed offre a tutti gli stati membri suggerimenti e raccomandazioni che si pongono da vere e proprie linee guida per realizzare il massimo potenziale dalle piattaforme della sharing economy.
by Benedetta Gillio | Apr 13, 2016 | The Urban Media Lab
On Friday 15th April LabGov will be in Trieste, on the occasion of ANCI Giovani’s annual Meeting.
Two workshops will take place during the Meeting:
- “Better together. Advantages, process and instruments of the forms of inter-communal aggregation”
- “Commons, administrative barter and civic monitoring: useful instruments for a new relationship between citizens and public administration”
Professor Christian Iaione will hold a panel in the workshop about Commons, administrative barter and civic monitoring. He will talk about sharing economy and about Commons as new challenges for the municipalities.
Alongside with the Professor will intervene Fulvio Mancuso (Siena’s deputy mayor), Professor Fabio Giglioni (Labsus – professor of Administrative Law in La Sapienza University of Rome) and Gianluca Sgueo (policy analyst at the European Parliament).
The 50 young public administrators who will take part in the workshop will have the possibility to interact with experts who will present them the topics and talk about concrete cases of application in the territories.
The workshops will begin at 10 a.m. and end at 1 p.m.
—————————————————————————————
Venerdì 15 aprile si svolgeranno a Trieste, in occasione della VII Assemblea annuale di ANCI Giovani, due laboratori di approfondimento dedicati agli amministratori sui temi della gestione associata dei servizi e dell’amministrazione condivisa, organizzati dalla Scuola ANCI per Giovani Amministratori. Il Professor Christian Iaione interverrà nel Laboratorio “Beni comuni, baratto amministrativo e monitoraggio civico: strumenti per una nuova relazione fra cittadini e amministrazioni”, per parlare di sharing economy e beni comuni come nuove sfide per i Comuni.
by Adriana Marasco | Mar 9, 2016 | The Urban Media Lab
The topic of the second edition of the Sharing School will be CO-Cities and CO-territories, cities and territories collaborative. The focus of the work will be on the design and redesign of urban and indoor areas, at the time of collaborative economy.
Sharing school is organized by : Labgov , Casanetural, RENA, Collaboriamo.
As areas of action to be explored with the participants and the teachers have been chosen: the collaborative agriculture, collaborative living, the suburbs as places of social integration, culture as knowledge and promotion of tourism.
The training experience is aimed at:
– Policy makers: politicians, managers and public officials, administrators who want to understand what it is and how to promote the collaborative economy;
– Entrepreneurs, and innovators startupper they have in mind an idea, a project, a business and want to understand how to achieve the best;
– Designers, experts and professionals working for public and private institutions and want to understand how to use the tools of collaboration.
Priority will be given to 35 participants, including 5 ” holders ” of collaborative projects, one of them is Labgov, consistent with the program, to study and implement together during the days of Sharig School in workshop sessions.
Priority will be given to projects that have:
– Elements of digital innovation;
– Organizational and community development techniques;
– Scalability and replicability of the project;
– In the medium to long term sustainability model;
– Objectives such as job creation, the reduction of urban poverty, sustainable land use.
————————————————————————————————
Il tema della seconda edizione della scuola condivisa è CO-Città e CO-territori, città e territori collaborativi. Il focus dei lavori, sulla progettazione e riprogettazione delle aree urbane e interne al tempo dell’economia collaborativa.
La Sharing School è organizzata da : Labgov, Collaboriamo, RENA, Casanetural.
by Monica Bernardi | Jan 27, 2016 | The Urban Media Lab
2015 was an intense year for the city of Milan in terms of acknowledgment of the sharing potentialities in the urban context and action planning for its . It’s time to take stock, also in view of the primary elections. As the City Councilor for Labour Policy, Economic Development, Research and University, Cristina Tajani, underlines the city “experienced public policies that can deal with very deep economic and social transformations and this is recognized. The goal has always been enhancing the positive externalities of the sharing of goods and services, and to limit the negative ones (which also may occur). In short, public policies as “hand-to-hand” with reality”.
The reflection about the sharing economy was launched by Sharexpo in 2014 founding in the Public Administration an attentive and proactive listener as well as a strong supporter. In less than a year (December 2014) the city formulated its personal manifesto about sharing: the “Guidelines on the Sharing Economy” resulted from an online public consultation equipped by a questionnaire that allowed citizens, startupper, researchers, businessman, local associations and services’ users to enter in contact with the Municipality sharing ideas, information, and demands about the sharing economy. A real policy making process without precedent in Milan and in Italy that made clear the important role the Public Administration can play in this frame as “enabling platform”, connector of experiences, facilitator for the development and the integration of the sharing economy’s practices in the urban context. The Municipality embraced this role, demonstrating an already rooted sensitivity toward innovations, coming up from the previous project “Milano Smart City”, and betting on innovation as a tool to strengthen the community spirit and social inclusion.
Today we can count many different initiatives and policies going in the sharing directions. Milano(è)IN is just an example that give the idea of the cultural frame in which sharing ties. The Labor Policies Division’s project, with its series of meeting and encounters, is activating skills, competences and resources in order to exploit the city potential in favor of a better social inclusion. The frame of Milano(è)In’s policy is based on two pillars: INnovation and INclusion. The former is considered a strategic lever to foster development and competitiveness of the local/regional economic system; in terms of policy making and financial resources, Milan bets on innovative startups, incubators, FabLab and sharing economy. The latter is pursued through social, employment and digital inclusion; thanks to the collaborative economy Milan aims to create a more cohesive social fabric. With this project, the city is fueling the debate on the importance of using social innovation as a tool to improve the level of social inclusion and create a more supportive social tissue.
The Guidelines gives many useful indications to lay the foundation for a real sharing city. Some of them have been already implemented, such as the Mapping of the local actors that replies to “the necessity to give visibility and acknowledgement to the new reality of the sharing economy in the city”, as underlined by Caterina Sarfatti, Project Manager for the International Affair Department of the Municipality of Milan. The Mapping allowed to create an official Register of qualified operators and experts of the sharing economy through public call (to date there are 60 experts and 42 operators). For some local experts, as Davide Agazzi, Managing Director in RENA and counselor of the Municipality of Milan, this network could become in few years a “prototype of a new ‘associative representation business’ or more easily a coalition of actors able to imagine public services of new generation”. The Municipality, recognizing the lack of a physical place for these actors, decided to make available a space to pool energies, to adopt a systemic approach and to accelerate initiatives, a place to enabler the subjects of the net. For this reason it open the CO-HUB, The House of Collaboration, in Calusca Alley, giving to an ATS composed by the associations Collaboriamo and WelcomePack, Dorisette srl, Paolo Mauri Pisan and Fidia srl the commitment to manage the space in synergy with all the other actors and under the public supervision. CO-HUB is based on four activities, training, contamination, research and dissemination, and intents to be an enabling platform to connect experiences, practices, experts, operators coming from different worlds, business, university, institutions, civil society.
The project of Calusca Alley is part of a biggest frame of requalification and re-use of public space that the Municipality is carrying out. Among the initiatives we can found BASE MILANO (ex-Ansaldo), a space that in the vision of the Public Administration will be able to generate business and culture, training and experimentation, respecting the ex-industrial nature of the area (Tortona) and its current innovative vocation at the same time. It represents a laboratory that will cover all the cycle of development of cultural and creative goods and services, from incubation, to production and use/consumption, in which innovation, inclusion and sociality will find expression, and creative talents, innovators and ordinary citizens can connect, dialogue, confront, transforming it in a concrete result of the policies that the city is implementing under the umbrella of smart and sharing. D’Azeglio Street is another example of space reuse and the 1000m2-public space will become a modern FabLab for the local makers, a meeting point for young producers or business projects that will enliven the neighborhood social life and involve the interested communities. In the same vein in 2016 will born the Smart City Lab, thanks also to the support of the Ministry of Economic Development and Invitalia (National Agency for the attraction of investments and for the enterprises development) with the aim to develop the entrepreneurship and innovation and to create a symbolic place, a reference center for research and advanced technological solutions, to improve the social functioning of the city and the lives of its inhabitants/users. Besides these initiatives the City has assigned more than 22,000 square meters of unused spaces to associations, startups and citizens. In terms of space, eight new shared gardens (34 thousand square meters) have been set up, and 24 houses for the solidarity hospitality have been realized. In addition, the project “Tira su la cler” aims to promote the business development, encouraging the neighborhood trade, and to breathe new life into 13 spaces unused in the suburbs of the city. As declared by the City Councilor Tajani the space re-use policies replies to a double need: “on the one hand give back to the city a building abandoned by collaborating with private entities and on the other hand experience new opportunities for production and training related to innovative sectors […]. In this way we combine economic, social and cultural energies of the neighborhood”.
Another interesting action implemented is that of the Civic Crowdfunding, that seeks to create and let emerge projects of social innovation and shared social networks related to social groupings, and a more accessible and attentive city to the needs of persons with disabilities, to the elderly and the families. As remembered by Lucia Scopelliti, Smart City Coordinator Officer of the Municipality of Milan, the aim of the platform is “to favor the development of a real ecosystem of innovation in the city and thus allow the birth of innovative practices and projects the city has acted on two complementary levers: from one side auctioning virtuous mechanisms within the local administrative machine, and from another side favoring synergies and the creation of a critical mass between the civil society, the voluntary sector, the businesses world, the research entities and the financial institutions”. The city is so involved in the mission to favor social innovation that many incubators with public participation are also born: Air, Alimenta, PoliHub, SpeedMiUp and the most famous FabriQ in its second year. About this last incubator Scopelliti underlines that “the quality of the projects financed is clearly demonstrated by the ability of the same startups incubated to find also private resources […] at the moment we are working on a new governance model of the incubator that will allow, in five years, to ensure the full viability of the project. We are also thinking of innovative financial models based on the logic of “social return on investment”. The support for projects of incubation and acceleration, and spaces of collective production and consumption, is a sign of the active public participation and of its’ commitment in matching innovations and inclusion. As the Mayor, Giuliano Pisapia, declared: “create a city able to reply at the needs of who wants doing business, innovation and launch new projects, is our goal of the last years”. Not to mention the presence of 9 Makerspaces and FabLabs, 53 coworking spaces certified and included in the Official Register of the Municipality and 470 innovative startups among the 3200 born in Italy until December 2014.
Also, several initiatives coming from the different departments of the administration (Labor, Urban Planning, Culture, Sport…) highlight the general leaning and confirm an internal conformity in the direction of sustainability, inclusion, equity and innovation (Green City, 100 in 1 Day Project, BookCity, Fuori Salone, Expo in Città…).
The policies going in the sharing direction are favoring initiatives growing in number, the participatory budgeting is just another example and involves 9 municipal districts (zones) with the aim to favor citizen’s active participation and facilitate wide discussions among citizens (coordinated by experts in participatory processes). The just started experimentation of a condo-caregiver is another example: the shared caregiver inside an apartment building is a “way to put together needs and strengths, Municipality, Third sectors and citizens…” says Majorino, City Councilor for Social Politics. Through the sharing assistance the caregiver will play a significant function of defense/custodian also for the same Municipality. The experimentation is just at the beginning, and a group of work is in charge of its monitoring, evaluation and control.
Among the initiatives and policies the shared mobility is growing and enhancing. Not only in terms of carsharing, with five different companies offering the services, 340 thousands of members, an average of 8,100 daily rents and around 2,000 cars available, and the award Eurocities Innovation 2015 just won by the city for its carsharing service; but also in terms of bike sharing (BikeMi) that registers 40 thousands member per years, 10 thousands daily rents and a total of 4,500 bikes, 1,000 of them with pedal assistance, confirming the service system as the first in the world to offer this double possibility. The slogan is: “easy, convenient and green”. In addition the city has launched a service of scooter sharing. The penetration of the mobility sharing services has grown thanks to the spread of ICTs and mobile devices, allowing a process of reformulation of mobility services, demonstrating how part of the city mobility is strictly related to the possibility to access to Internet. The sharing mobility is only an example of technology applied to mobility services in the city: there are also apps for parking (Pyng, MyCicero, EasyPark), a general website about city mobility (muoversi.milano.it), the C Area (areac.atm-mi.it) and the online TPL ticket (app Atm Milano). The Municipality is open to reimagine the system together with its citizens. A possible evolution is related to the launch of peer-to-peer services that will make necessary to rethink the assurance paradigm; the current normative in fact doesn’t allow the private rent to a third person. In this case, the role of the Public Administration will assume a new aspect, in order to overcome its role of supplier to become also a regulator of the public market systems.
With the Guidelines, the Public Administration is undertaking to relate with three typologies of subjects under the big umbrella of the sharing economy. The big corporations such as AirBnB and Uber, in order to understand how to manage and regulate their presence in the city and how to exploit their networks for a recirculation of information (recently the city of Milan and the Region approved new home sharing rules); the small startups rising up in the city and based on collaborative models, in order to comprehend how promote them and allow them to thrive, socializing the benefits of the sharing economy services to people; the community’s initiatives so as to figure out how to read, interpret and relate to them.
The recent “Collaborative Week” (hosted at Base Milano in November 2015) with the third edition of Sharitaly, the Experiment Days, the European Coworking Conference, Espresso Coworking and Milano Sharing City, is a clear evidence of the city commitment in the promotion and support of the sharing initiatives.
The 2015 has been an intense year and the city has supported and is still supporting many initiatives in which its citizens and actors are considered not simply stakeholders, but solutionholders. Subjects able to enter in a virtuous process of reciprocity in order to generate forms of co- planning, co-development, co-management of practices, spaces, goods and services, collaborating with the Public Administration. The city is demonstrating a strong trust in this mechanism recognizing the central social and economic role that each individual can play and the importance of their interconnection. This interconnection can favor the formulation and identification of new solutions and new typologies of services and the same Public Administration recognizes that such results can be achieved only with a significant paradigm switch not just economic but cultural and institutional overall. The city in 2015 went for it and the results are quite evident: the ecosystem of innovation built in the last years is reaching its maturity, one can breathe a vibrant atmosphere and see the serious commitment, all elements that give us confidence for the future and hope in the direction of a more shareable and human city. 2016 seems to be the year of the definitive consecration of the sharing economy in Milan and in Italy as well.
———————————————————————————————–
Il 2015 per Milano è stato un anno intenso in termini di innovazione sociale e sharing economy. A dicembre 2014, con una delibera di giunta frutto di un processo collaborativo con la cittadinanza, sono state approvate le Linee Guida sulla Sharing Economy prevedendo una serie di iniziative ad hoc e impegnandosi a sostenere pratiche e servizi collaborativi in città a favore di una migliore qualità della vita. È nato il progetto Milano Sharing City e grazie agli sforzi che la città ha portato avanti negli ultimi anni in termini di smartness si sono poste le basi per la creazione di un vero e proprio ecosistema di condivisione e innovazione. La mappatura degli attori della sharing economy ha fatto emergere un tessuto locale particolarmente ricco e propositivo, spazi pubblici in disuso vengono restituiti alla città per accogliere e far crescere idee imprenditoriali e nuovi business innovativi, coworking e spazi di produzione condivisa sono in aumento, i servizi di mobilità condivisa sempre più utilizzati, nuove progettualità stanno emergendo (dalla badante di condominio al budget partecipativo). L’interesse e l’impegno della città sono testimoniati anche dalla nascita di Co-hub, la casa della collaborazione, uno spazio votato alla formazione, contaminazione, socializzazione e ricerca in materia di sharing, e dalla recente Collaborative Week, un momento di incontro senza precedenti a Milano che riflette il clima di fermento della città. Il 2016 sarà l’anno della consacrazione della Sharing Economy? Ci aspettiamo grandi cose.
by Benedetta Gillio | Dec 10, 2015 | The Urban Media Lab
On the 9th of December, professor Christian Iaione, LabGov coordinator, was guest of the event organized by FuturaTrento at Bookique , a literary cafè that became a place where experts and citizens can share their ideas through the word because ideas are instruments able to change reality.
The main topic discussed was the sharing as a tool to promote the care and the regeneration of the commons. After all, how he said < a common good is a sharing good > that needed the alliance between institutions, that should have the duty of making the best conditions to administrate that resources, and communities, to survive.
The sharing is, also, at the heart of contemporary discussion about economic theory: from the sharing economy to the the pooling economy, a new economy composed of “collaborative economy”, sharing economy initiatives that foster peer-to-peer approach and/or involve users in the design of the productive process or transform clients into a community; and of “commons-based economy”, “open cooperativism”, “open platform cooperativism” for sharing economy initiatives that are collectively owned or managed, democratically governed, do not extract value out of local economies but anchor jobs, respect human dignity and offer new forms of social security.Recently, on December the 4th the Committee of the Regions adopted the opinion on sharing economy written by Christian Iaione and Benedetta Brighenti, deputy major of Castelnuovo Rangone and Alternate Member of the Committee of the Regions ( COR ), with the collaboration of a team of researchers and practicioners.
All of these changes and new concepts are the symbol of this age of transition, characterized by the need of a new form of governance based on a strong partnership and collaboration between public, institutions, creative citizens and businesses.
This process of individuation of the appropriate governance tools is not so easy, but it is necessary for the local, regional, and national development. It is our future.
More information are available here:
MLOL – Provincia di Trento – Scheda media _Corriere del Trentino_
—————————————————————————-
Nella giornata del 9 Dicembre, il Professor Iaione ha partecipato al caffè dibattito Bookique, organizzato da FuturaTrento. Si è discusso di condivisione, beni comuni, sharing economy: i punti di partenza per riformulare la governance.
The topic of the sharing economy is gaining more and more attention at global level. Many institutions, governments, experts and also the private sector are increasingly questioning about its impact and how to regulate it in order to not suffocate its development and favor the achievement of its full economic potential, by promoting a flexible environment for innovation. The issue is quite controversial since there is no certainty about its future development and direction. Some underline how it opens to the hope of a better tomorrow, windfall of benefits and economic growth; others point at how it will replicate capitalistic models and reproduce current inequalities, amplifying them.
