#@collcons

Ranking consistently in a leading spot on Forbe’s ‘Best Countries for Business’ list since 2010, Ireland boasts a vibrant digital sector. Its capital city, Dublin, has become a major tech hub over the past decade – serving as the European base for many multinational IT companies (10 of the top 10 global ICT companies and 9 of the top 10 global software companies have offices in the city).

A vibrant city of 528,000 inhabitants, Dublin benefits from a constant influx of global tech professionals setting up home in ‘Silicon Docks’ – a reference to ‘Silicon Valley’ and the heavy-weight tech companies located in this city-central docklands area.

Not surprisingly, Dublin boasts a growing number of collaborative innovations and initiatives stemming from the city’s hyperconnected and highly skilled workforce. Incubators and accelerators are also fueling new sharing initiatives and platforms.

Take a look at the list below.

Office Sharing / Hackerspaces

BLOCK T – co-working space igniting arts, culture and creative practice.

Co-create – co-working space in central Dublin.

Coworkinn – collaborative, shared, office space.

Digital Hub – flexible and affordable high-spec office space with world-class infrastructure and services.

Fumbally Exchange (FEx) – shared office space and community collaboration.

Hive @Liffey Trust – a place where tech start-ups can work, meet, collaborate, network and learn.

TCube Dublin – a social enterprise co-working space for software, web and mobile tech freelancers, entrepreneurs and start-ups.

TOG Dublin Hackerspace – a supportive hackerspace in the centre of Dublin.

Tribal – early stage venture fund and co-location hub for technology start-ups.

VERSARI Hub – turnkey & flexible solutions to premise & infrastructure needs.

  FabLab

WeCreate – make, work, learn, based on the MIT FabLab model.

  Mobility

GoCar – an on demand, pay-by-the-hour vehicle rental service that offers a real alternative to ownership.

Cars on Demand – flexible options for long term car hire for periods of 1 –  24 months.

DublinBikes – on demand bike-sharing service throughout the city.

Hailo – connecting taxis to people.

Leap Card – rechargeable card to pay for transport services across trains, busses and tramways.

Uber Dublin – connecting passengers with private cars for hire.

  Finance,  Banking & Crowdfunding

CurrencyFair – online peer-to-peer currency exchange market place, based in Dublin.

FundIt – an Irish platform for artists with creative ideas to attract funding from friends, fans and followers across the world.

Grid Finance – a peer-to-peer financing platform for Irish businesses and community. organisations, based in Dublin.

iCrowdFund – a crowdfunding platform supporting donation, reward & equity based options in Ireland.

iDonate – online charity fundraising platform.

iFundraise – Irish Club, School Fundraising, Sports Club Donations platform.

LinkedFinance – peer-to-peer lending for SMEs, based in Dublin.

SeedUps – an equity crowdfunding platform for accredited and sophisticated investors.

  Arts

Exchange Dublin – a collective arts centre run holding discussions, gigs, visual arts and performance.

  Food Sharing

Dublin Food Co-op – Dublin’s member-owned cooperative shop and community – organic wholefoods, dairy, and bakery.

FoodCloud – brings food businesses and charities together to reduce both food waste and food poverty, based in Dublin.

  Learning

CoderDojo Dublin – free IT coding clubs for children between 10 – 18 years of age.

LanguageExchange – weekly language exchange matching native speakers with learners.

Mentors – bringing together business owners with successful, experienced mentors.

UniWink – a collaborative online learning platform, helping undergraduate college students boost their grades.

  Fashion

FrocknFabulous – making high-end designer dresses accessible to the ‘girl next door’.

RentMyDress – P2P platform for anyone to rent their dress.

SellMyWeddingDress – P2P platform to buy and sell once loved wedding dresses.

Siopaella – a swap boutique and consignment shop for pre-loved designer clothing & accessories.

Starla – Dublin boutique for dress hire and dress sales.

SuitsYou – menswear and suit hire.

  Crafts

Etsy – community of Etsy sellers based in Dublin.

  Events

iRegister – an online event registration software to create an event website easily and sell tickets online for events in Ireland.

  Advice

ThankFrank – a community of savvy shoppers who help others find the best stuff online, no strings attached.

  Stuff

BuyandSell.ie – online platform for bringing buyers and sellers together.

The Dealer – buy and sell anything online.

DoneDeal – Ireland’s biggest classified site.

eBay Ireland – the world’s largest maerkeplace.

FlogIt – buy and sell, swap used goods, exchange goods.

Freebies Ireland – free stuff and alternative media website.

Gumtree – sell, swap and buy anything.

Hire Here – hire anything you need for your DIY projects.

JWHire – hire anything you need for building and DIY projects.

TrovIt – swap second-hand and bargain items.

Yep – trade anything and save money.

  Travel

Experiences

FabFoodTrails – follow Dublin’s fabulous tasting trail to discover bakeries, food halls, street markets, cheesemongers, delicatessens and other speciality shops.

Ingenious Ireland – fun science focused tours of Dublin in the Summer – discover Irish ideas and inventions that changed the world.

Shiroube – insider tours of Dublin in almost any language.

Vayable – many novel ways to visit Dublin, from a photo-lovers tour to a haunted history walking tour on Vayable.

  Lodging

Airbnb Dublin – more than 2,000 Dublin listings on Airbnb – and a selection of unique places in Ireland.

Home Exchange – 180 homes homes in Dublin.

Home for Exchange – 27 homes in Dublin.

HomeStay – 63 homes within 4 miles of the city center.

Roomorama – Dublin short term rentals, Dublin accommodation and vacation rentals.

  Sustainable Living

Eco-Village Cloughjordan – a sustainable development 2 hours outside Dublin with 114 homes, 16 live/work units, and an enterprise centre to provide workspace and services to facilitate the growth of eco entrepreneurship.

  On-demand services

CleanMyHome – matching people who need their house cleaned to self-emplyed cleaners.

MinderFinders – babysitting club to provide trusted childcare outside crèche hours.

  B2B collaboration

Car Trawler – partnership for online travel brands and ground transportation companies worldwide.

Smile Exchange – free service for businesses that encourages exchanging of resources.

  Accelerators

DCU Propeller – joint venture between Dublin City University and the Ryan Family (Ryanair).

DogPatch Labs – housing startups focused on scaling from seed to series A and beyond.

Female Propeller Programme for High Flyers – an accelerator programme for female led startups.

Health XL – a collaboration between some of the largest healthcare corporations in the world

LaunchBox.ie –Trinity College’s Summer student incubator.

NDRC LaunchPad – Microsoft Ventures’ partner accelerator – a member of Startup Federation.

NDRC VentureLab – Ireland’s dedicated science-ventures accelerator.

Scalefront – building new businesses to target specific market opportunities.

UStart – Dublin City University’s student entrepreneur accelerator.

Wayra – Telefónica’s global start-up accelerator.

  Incubators

DIT Hothouse – Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at Dublin Institute of Technology

Guinness Enterprise Center – a network of entrepreneurs, high growth companies, investors and support agencies.

Invent Centre DCU – Dublin City University’s Innovation and Enterprise Centre

NCI Business Incubation Centre – National College of Ireland’s incubation centre

NOVA UCD – excellence in research and innovation at University College Dublin.

LINC – Institute of Technology’s learning and Incubation center.

Trinity Technology and Enterprise Campus – Trinity College Dublin’s incubation and development centre.

Inventorium – working with start-ups to make innovative ideas into profitable ones.

  Start-Up Programmes

The Innovation Academy – develop a new kind of PhD graduate, with a thorough understanding of how innovation can convert knowledge into products, services and policies for economic, social and cultural benefit.

New Frontiers – an Enterprise Ireland programme aimed at supporting the establishment and growth of technology or knowledge intensive ventures that have the potential to trade internationally and create employment in Ireland.

Dublin Business Innovation Center BIC – a public-private business support organization working with state agencies and private sector investors to support entrepreneurs.

StartUp weekend Dublin – a weekend to build skills, meet incredible people, and launch successful startups.

  Research and Education

INSPIRE – Integrated NanoScience Platform for Ireland – INSPIRE exists to foster, facilitate and ultimately ensure collaboration and partnership between top ranking Irish and international scientists and engineers in nanoscience research and education.

  Multinational Tech & Internet EMEA/EU Headquarter Offices

Airbnb

Apple

Dropbox

eBay

Etsy

Facebook

Google

LinkedIn

Oracle

PayPal

Twitter

Udemy

Yahoo EMEA Ltd.

Colombia is a country teeming with entrepreneurial spirit and a regional leader in social innovation. The days of drug wars are receding, and it’s opening up to the world. Colombia also has a history of progressive mayors, especially in Bogotá and Medellín, making it a hotbed for urban innovation.

Earlier this month I went to Bogotá with the objective of seeding the collaborative economy with a range of stakeholders: the business community, entrepreneurs, government agencies and non-profits. In collaboration with Compartamos con Colombia, we hosted presentations and workshops to build awareness and spark conversations about how organizations from the public and private sector can benefit from the collaborative economy.

Colombia is an interesting case study. It is an emerging growth market, less developed economically than some North American and European locations but far more developed than many other places in South America and elsewhere. Bogotá is reminiscent of Los Angeles or Madrid in some ways – yet at 2,600 meters (8,800 feet) elevation. Its economy is growing robustly, yet it still has significant challenges of poverty and urban growth.

The collaborative economy concept is still relatively nascent in Colombia but there is clearly no shortage of interest. All of the events sold out. The public presentation was complemented by a panel including participants from the Chamber of Commerce, Lenddo , Uber and a local civic initiative called Bogotá Como Vamos. The workshop focused on housing and property development, collaborative production and ‘Shareable Cities’.

Many of the issues that arose are not unique to emerging markets, although the Colombia history and context plays a special role. Some of the most important insights and learnings included:

-        Trust and reputation: after years of guerrilla warfare and internal strife, trust is not pervasive (and is not built easily) in Colombian society. Yet, nearly everyone expressed interest in wanting to participate in P2P networks and an openness to building trust across communities. In this light, the collaborative economy offers an opportunity to understand and build trust on many new levels.

-        Urban challenges and innovation: Bogotá is growing at unprecedented rates. Entirely new cities (peripheries) that did not exist even 20 years ago now house millions of people. Meanwhile, traffic in Bogotá is almost incomparably bad; the average rush hour speed in Bogotá is 16 km (10 miles) per hour (40% slower than other major metropolises like New York and London). These realities create massive potential for collaborative mobility platforms that can transform inefficient transportation networks and ultimately how people can get from A to B. However, awareness amongst the business community and local government is very low, therefore it’s a multi-step process of engagement. Organizations like Compartamos con Colombia play a key role in facilitating this.

-        Bogotá’s shared history: Bogotá has had several remarkable mayors in recent decade. Two well-known former mayors are Enrique Peñalosa and Antanas Mockus, both of whom encouraged civic innovation. The Ciclovía initiative – car-free Sundays where residents spill into the streets to ride bicycles and connect with one another – is an exemplar for the rest of the world. This has grown to include dedicated bike lanes, a government-sponsored bikesharing program, and a wide range of shared public spaces and gatherings. Colombia is well placed to build on this history by looking at Shareable Cities examples more deliberately.

-        Low income solutions and community engagement: Issues surrounding low-income populations in emerging markets are in some ways similar, and in other ways different, from developed markets. In Colombia there is a range of public-private partnerships around social (low-income) housing, and property developers and poverty alleviation agencies are very interested in collaborative economy solutions. At the same time, it is key to have grassroots and community-level involvement for solutions to be successful. Unlike strong grassroots movements around the collaborative economy in North America and Europe, in Colombia some of the biggest champions are business leaders who see the collaborative economy as a means to create more equitable, shared value.

There is a small but growing (and increasingly connected) collaborative economy community in Bogotá. We have begun to explore the universe of possibilities, and the future looks bright. Colombia has the potential to become a leading voice for the collaborative economy in South America and beyond.

ps: extra thanks to Collaborative Consumption Curator in Colombia, Gustavo Palacios for his help!

View presentation highlights here:

To Share = To Empower: The Collaborative Economy in Colombia from Collaborative Lab

View Colombia Collaborative Services Country Guide

A Shareable City enables residents to efficiently and safely share all kinds of assets – from spaces to cars, skills and utilities – to create stronger, healthier and more connected communities. From a policy perspective, a Shareable City looks at multiple aspects of urban planning and community well-being through a collaborative economy lens and proactively supports these goals.

At Collaborative Lab, we believe that 2014 will be a big year for Shareable Cities. Why? Here are some of our favorite reasons. If you have others to add, please tweet them to @ShareableCity and let us know!

Top 10 Reasons Why 2014 Will Be The Year of #ShareableCities

10. The collaborative economy is full of hyper-local solutions that are also scalable. They’re an ideal fit for “mayors ruling the world.”

9. There is a dearth of traditional “jobs” in cities, but no shortage of #collcons livelihoods. The collaborative economy is intertwined with the future of work, employment, and entrepreneurship.

8. The Circular Economy is already taking root, focused on cradle-to-cradle and zero waste principles for product and supply chain management. Collaborative consumption adds booster rockets and a human touch to this.

7. Cities are *full* of idling capacity. Collaborative consumption enables us to unlock wealth in these assets, throughout cities of all sizes around the world.

6. There are increasing #collcons linkages w megacities in emerging markets and the developing world. Though the concept is still nascent in many places, there is enormous potential.

5. Unfortunately, more climate-related and other disasters are predicted. Emergency and disaster response models that incorporate collaborative economy organizations, such as BayShare in San Francisco, can help.

4. City budgets aren’t increasing. Collaborative consumption is about efficient resource utilization and sustainability. It enables cities to “do more w less.”

3. Seoul, South Korea is the world’s most shareable city. News about its “Seoul Sharing City” vision and plans will expand globally. Cities everywhere should take note!

2. There is increased urbanization worldwide; more people live in cities than anywhere else, and than ever before. This leads to greater density, which makes it easier to share and yields more assets that can be shared.

1. Collaborative consumption is a local, flexible, resilient, sustainable, resourceful solution that works. What other solutions, ideas or alternatives exist that meet so many local needs at once and in ways that build local communities and economies?

We’ve kept our ear to the ground and shared with you amazing stories from our global curators, partners and the best of collaborative consumption on the web.  We’ve learned more about the potential of Shareable Cities, the variety of Sharing Economy Definitions and more on the ins and out of managing marketplaces from our friends at Balanced Payments.

The Collaborative Consumption Team would like to thank our wonderful Curators, partners and supporters for their efforts and enthusiasm this year. 2013 was a great year for all things Collaborative, but we know things will continue to get better in 2014!

Highlights of collaborative consumption in 2013

January

Press: Triple Pundit launches the Rise of the Sharing Economy Series,  publishing more than 70 stories about the growing movement, including our Market Wrap for 2012, highlighting the big collaborative consumption funding rounds of the previous year.

February

Press: Brian Chesky shares his experience on building the mother of all sharing economy companies, Airbnb, via Forbes: Airbnb And The Unstoppable Rise of the Share Economy.

March

Press: The Economist cover story, The Rise of Sharing Economy-On the internet, everything is for hire, establishes that peer-to-peer rental vs. ownership is the new norm. We agree!

Closure: We were sad to see our friends at Whipcar close their London-based P2P car rental service, but are excited to see what they do next.

April

Conference: Mesh 2013, a gathering and sharing economy cultural immersion, was held in the collaborative consumption epicentre of San Francisco.

Launch: We were thrilled to release the beautiful new Collaborative Consumption website, an international media hub on collaborative consumption fuelled by our network of 30 Global Curators. It now has a job board and a global company directory, and there are big plans in store for 2014.

May 

Conference: Ouishare Fest is the first major international event dedicated to the collaborative economy. The three day festival, held in Paris, brought together entrepreneurs, economists, investors, politicians and collaborative consumption fans from around Europe and the world.

June

Conference: The theme for this year’s Le Web Conference in London was the sharing economy. Major players in the industry such as Etsy, Airbnb, Lending Club and Kickstarter shared their experiences with the tech-savvy crowd.

Resolution: A landmark occasion, the Shareable Cities Resolution was passed in 15 US States, with mayors resolving to make their cities more shareable, encourage better understanding of the sharing economy, and create local task forces to review and address regulations that may hinder participation in the sharing economy.

Event: Global Sharing Day, held on June 2, a campaign by People Who Share, was launched to encourage conversations between people who share to make it more fun and enjoyable.

July

Launch: We celebrated the launch of Peers, a community organisation which helps the passionate sharing economy community mobilise around important issues to help the space go mainstream.

August

TV: Collaborative Consumption’s Lauren Anderson appeared on Australian breakfast television talking about how toRent Out Your Life.

Guide: Share Sydney an A-Z guide of Sydney’s collaborative consumption activity, was released by TimeOut Magazine, in conjunction with the City of Sydney.

September

Regulation: A landmark ruling for ridesharing companies was passed by California Public Utilities Commission, creating the first legal framework for ridesharing in the state of California.

October

Regulation:Airbnb faces regulation challenges in New York, which sparks a global debate about the merits peer-to-peer accommodation.

November

Thinking:Rachel Botsman gives clarity to the increasingly confusing terms of the space in an article published on FastCo.Exist - The Sharing Economy Lacks a Shared Definition.

December

Market: Ridesharing industry competition escalates to a new level with revenue leaks and industry growth articles, while European companies are seeing a strengthening of the community with a 99% retention rate.

What were your highlights for 2013? What do you hope to see happen in 2014 for collaborative consumption? We would love to hear your thoughts.

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