[oahficw]

Sharing is a big opportunity for positive change.

Neal Gorenflo has a big idea for cities: SHARING! (via thisbigcity)

[fastcompany]

Using goods only when needed is a fundamental cultural change.

You might own some tools that you never use, or perhaps you have a backyard that you just don’t have the time to do anything interesting with. Until recently, those pieces of property mostly served as nagging reminders that you didn’t have enough time to do everything you wanted to do. Today, they can look like revenue streams, not wastes of money.

A Visual Tour Guide To Collaborative Consumption

[wired]

We are hopping into strangers’ cars (Lyft, Sidecar, Uber), welcoming them into our spare rooms (Airbnb), dropping our dogs off at their houses (DogVacay, Rover), and eating food in their dining rooms (Feastly). We are letting them rent our cars (RelayRides, Getaround), our boats (Boatbound), our houses (HomeAway), and our power tools (Zilok). We are entrusting complete strangers with our most valuable possessions, our personal experiences—and our very lives. In the process, we are entering a new era of Internet-enabled intimacy.

[wired]

[MORE: How Airbnb and Lyft Finally Got Americans to Trust Each Other]

[thebonkers]

My experience as an Erasmus Student in the course New Consumer Trends

I would like to share on this blog my experience as an Erasmus student in the class New Consumer Trends. 

First of all I would like to note that I’ve really appreciated this opportunity given to me: to be able to attend a class taught in English. I would like to thank all the students and professor Mrs. Betty Tsakarestou for providing this opportunity, for making it easier for me, and above all for their consecutive efforts to discuss and work in English throughout the semester, my sincere gratitude.

 I found this course extremely interesting, since new technologies are essential today in every aspect of the everyday life and in this class we learned how to apply and examine them correctly. For almost every class we would prepare a presentation based on each week’s theme, and even though I was not used to making presentations using video I got to learn so many new tools and ways of editing a typical presentation.

 I also discovered several Greek apps and start up companies that hadn’t heard of or used before, so I found it really interesting to learn about them and compare them to popular and well known startups worldwide for the needs of the course.

 I liked a lot the direct of working during classes, which was more practical, interactive and less theoretical. I believe this is the key to any good learning, having direct contact with the matter you’re working on, and thit is why I especially enjoyed the session were one of the founders of the mobile application Clio Muse visited the class and discussed with us, inspiring those who’re thinking of becoming future entrepreneurs. 

I would also like to emphasise on this great opportunity offered to us at the end of the course, to collaborate with the Greek delegation of the Mobile World Congress 2015. Even though I didn’t take part, I believe it is a great way to meet successful professionals and get to work with them on real-time projects. Good luck to everyone participating in this project!

 Finally, I would like to highlight the use of social networks as an educational platform. I had never participated in Facebook group (Mobile Reputations in the Sharing Economy and Collaborative Consumption Era) before for a subject and the truth is that I find very useful and handy. Why not take advantage of this powerful platform (Facebook) on which we already spend many hours of our time?

Once again thank you very much for making me part of this and a special thank you to Betty Tsakarestou and my team, the Bonkers for helping me so much.

Esther Fuertes.

[thebonkers]

Greece: Contributing to the growth of the mobile ecosystem

Some of Greece’s most exciting and innovative companies, research institutions and academia will be part of the Greek Pavilion at Mobile World Congress 2015.

There is a GRowing ecosystem in Greece and AD&PR Lab is proudly a part of it. 

[thebonkers]

Davos 2015: sharing economy in world cities

From Milan to Seoul, April Rinne looks at how cities around the world are embracing the sharing economy - and what lies ahead for 2015.

[thebonkers]

Where should research on mobile culture further emphasize?

We believe that the connection between mobile culture and emotional intelligence is a field of study that needs to be researched to further extent.

The fact that people with higher emotional intelligence engage more in collaborative practices and foster a sharing culture, is very interesting.

In addition to this we believe that the relationship between the user and his mobile device should be the next subject of research. It is true that individuals develop an emotional behavior towards their devices. The connection between the user and the device is really strong, therefore it has already be suggested by researchers that one’s separation/disconnection from his mobile device can cause several psychological and physiological effects.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcc4.12109/full

(The Extended iSelf: The Impact of iPhone Separation on Cognition, Emotion, and Physiology)

“Additionally, the results from our study suggest that iPhones are capable of becoming an extension of our selves such that when separated, we experience a lessening of ‘self’ and a negative physiological state.” (self-image, Lacan’s mirror stage!)

 Taking this under consideration, and forwarding to the next step we realize that we are very attached to our mobile devices, but it looks like it is the connectivity we mostly care about. (watch the video we, the connected generation!) For example let’s say that you are in a place without signal, your mobile device suddenly seems almost useless. Therefore we suggest that the next step of the research should focus on the aspects of connectivity, emotional intelligence and psychology and how they’re co-related.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ8cpjEdpmI

 Additionaly there are many fields of study that could be examined

 We believe that the concept of the ‘’prosumer’’ should be further studied as well as the collaborative consumption attitudes.

 In addition to the sharing economy and the notion that trust is the new currency , maybe we should examine how users behave towards brands and what is the new relationship between them.

 Utilization of online gaming (and the gamers’ perception) is also a field that should be further researched.

[thebonkers]

We interviewed George Tziralis, Partner at Openfund. 

George is an engineer by training, turned entrepreneur turned venture capitalist.He has founded a couple of software companies, one specializing in prediction markets and another in data mining; in both times he failed.

 He is widely recognized as the initiator the Open Coffee community in Greece, hosting monthly meetings in Athens since 2007.In 2009, he co-founded Openfund, which he now serves as a Partner.

We had the opportunity to discuss about Openfund, crowdfunding and sharing economy.

Enjoy!

[thebonkers]

Kickstarter crowdfunding in 2014: $529m of pledges from 3.3m backers

Fundraising website spurred 22,252 successful campaigns, with technology projects attracting the most dollars

[thebonkers]

Check out the top ten Kickstarter projects!

[thebonkers]

We Talked To The Experts — Here’s How To Ensure A Lucrative Crowdfunding Campaign

If you want a successful project, you have to do your homework first.

[thebonkers]

Crownfunding is the use of small amounts of capital from a large number of individuals to finance a new business venture. 

Find out about two top crowdfunding sites, Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

[thebonkers]

[thebonkers]

Meet another global thought leader : April Rinne.

"I believe that the sharing economy has the potential to include -- and benefit -- a far broader range of stakeholders in addition to private companies. It can truly transform almost every aspect of today's economy, from public service provision to sustainable consumption in the developing world. We can build more lively, safe, resilient, connected and healthy communities. This is great for business too. "

[thebonkers]

Enjoy the video we made presenting the two global thought leaders on Sharing Economy, Rachel Botsman and Lisa Gansky, as well as the similarities and differences in their way of thinking and defining sharing economy and Collaborative consumption

[thebonkers]

A Bunch Of New Apps Test The Limits Of The Sharing Economy

Apps like MonkeyParking and ParkModo.

Jeremiah Owyang of Crowd Companies, which advises firms on the sharing economy, thinks apps that monetise public assets are "not in the spirit" of the sharing movement.

[theatlantic]

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on Building a Company and Starting a ‘Sharing’ Revolution

"You know the story right?" Brian Chesky asks me. I nod. I’ve read it in so many places, it’s practically an origin myth by now.

Before Airbnb became a giant online marketplace for sharing homes and spaces, it was a couple of air beds on a floor in San Francisco. In 2008, Chesky and his co-founders, desperate for cash but confident they had an idea worth pursuing, got into the cereal business. They made special-edition Cheerios boxes for both presidential candidates called “Obama O’s” and “Cap’n McCains” with hot glue and cardboard, selling several hundred items for tens of thousands of dollars when investors refused to give them money. Five years later, Airbnb is a $2.5 billion company used by an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 people a night and the keystone of the emerging “sharing economy.”

Read more.