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City Guide: Dublin

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.

  The post City Guide: Dublin appeared first on Collaborative Consumption.

[hamburg-colab-mlove]

Changify in 7 steps - How to crowd power smarter cities with citizens

Changify in 7 steps - How to crowdpower smarter cities with citizens. from Changify on Vimeo.

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(via The Top Sharing Economy Leaders in one infographic – Traity)

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(via Sharing economy in cities: moving towards a more inclusive urban future | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian)

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(via Konnektid With Your Neighbors And Learn From Them — Pop-Up City)

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[shareablecity]

To Share = To Empower: The Collaborative Economy in Colombia

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

        The post To Share = To Empower: The Collaborative Economy in Colombia appeared first on Collaborative Consumption.

[fastcompany]

If your motto is no new friends, it’s time to challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone. The payoff will be worth it.

We all seem to gravitate toward our comfort zones from time to time, and one of the easiest ways to stay there is to spend time with people who are just like us.

These people agree with us, think like us, and have a similar viewpoint on issues. But while this may seem to make our lives easier, there is also a downside.

Only spending time with people like us prevents us from growing, and even though we may be less comfortable hanging around people who are different from us, doing so also helps us to expand in crucial areas. Here are five benefits of spending time with people who are different from us:

Read More>

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Bruce Sterling gave an impassioned speech explaining why cities should reject Uber, their collaborative economy ilk, and the horde of multinational corporations selling “Smart Cities” technology -- technology which will likely further concentrate control and wealth into fewer hands via @shareable

[thiscitylife]

Photo: VPSN

Last summer, I highlighted the new (some temporary) public spaces that popped up in the city. Here are Vancouver’s new public spaces this year. Enjoy them while the weather allows.

Urban Reef

Each summer, the 500 block of Robson Street (between Howe and Hornby…

[oahficw]

Nice work, Vancouver!

[urbanizen]

[oahficw]

The city as furniture. 

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[shareablecity]

3D printers print ten houses in 24 hours (by China View)

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(via The best app to arrange plans and meet people · Meetizer)

[bikeladiesunite-blog]

I’ve noticed my attire seems to prompt certain responses in other road users. How do I know it’s not just an off day? Because I have the ability to change clothes. I’m called out on my appearance daily as I go about my business on public streets without the cover of a car. Even “ordinary” attire has drawbacks. It’s no surprise most days I find myself dressing to get the reaction I want when I bike. Or at least, the most benign reaction.  But no matter what I’m wearing it’s still just me: complex, multidimensional, and in awesome shape. 

Bikeyface, 23.04.14.