Purpose and objective
The purpose of the Sharing City initiative is to create a playground for pilot projects. An urban living lab where all stakeholders pilot with this new phenomenon and share insights and experiences. Amsterdam already houses a large number of promising sharing economy platforms, but it’s also up to more ‘traditional’ organizations like for instance SMEs, NGOs and local governments to start addressing the sharing economy. From startups to corporates,
from community center to public library, from an insurer to the airport: they’re all ambassadors
putting Amsterdam on the map as a city that has sharing on its mind.
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
There are numerous opportunities that grow out of the
collaborative/sharing economy and the Sharing City initiative, such as:
- an increased sustainable- and efficient use of scarce resources;
- an enhanced affordability and accessibility of products and services for consumer;
- nurturing innovation of products & services;
- attracting creative industries and fostering a knowledge economy;
- increasing social cohesion and safety;
- improving efficiency of space and mobility;
- creating opportunities for new public-private partnerships;
- enabling growth of local economic investments;
- identifying possibilities of new means of existence;
- making accessibility easier and empowering for example entrepreneurs.
The collaborative/sharing economy can create challenges such as:
- an unfair playing field;
- a risk of market dominance;
- exponential growth and monopoly;
- doubts and difficulties regarding social security and labour laws;
- questions concerning when to be considered a consumer/citizen and when an entrepreneur;
- difficulties in monitoring quality, safety, disturbance and when to intervene;
- oversimplified image;
- there is not enough attention on the perspective of the user;
- a difficulty to predict the development of the trend and impact.
The Action Plan that was agreed upon by the Mayor and Executive Board of the municipality of Amsterdam in 2016, also describes the opportunities and challenges.
IMPLEMENTATION
On February 2nd 2015, Amsterdam was pronounced the first Sharing City in Europe. With this,
Amsterdam positions itself as a leader in the field of the sharing (or ‘collaborative’) economy.
Amsterdam Sharing City was initiated by shareNL and is a joint initiative from the city municipality an ‘ambassadors’ from all corners of the city to work together: from startups to corporates, from community center to public library, and from knowledge institution to the municipality. Part of the plan of Pieter van de Glind and Harmen van Sprang was not only to come up with a vision, but also to create a network of ‘ambassadors’ throughout the city. In their eyes, the city is formed by not only its citizens and the municipality. Not in the least, also entrepreneurs, enterprises and for example knowledge institutions shape the city of today. So what the co-founders of shareNL did, was involving
all these ‘players’ and let them accede the network of ambassadors.
There are numerous projects and initiatives taken since the launch of Amsterdam Sharing City.