The rise of the collaborative economy offers both significant challenges and opportunities to local governments. The traditional lines between the public and private spheres are blurring. It is increasingly unclear where private activity turns into entrepreneurial activity, as consumers can at the click of a button become hoteliers, sellers, lenders, transporters and producers. This has consequences for many important pillars of our society such as taxation, insurance and regulation. First of all, there are potential advantages, such as a growth of civil participation in the creation and consumption of public goods and services, as well as an assumed positive environmental impact be- cause existing resources are used more efficiently. Secondly, there are risks such as unfair competition between “old” and “new” companies. When peo- ple start to produce, consume and trade more among one another on peer- to-peer marketplaces, there will be an impact on existing industries. Thus the challenge for local governments is to grasp the opportunity and promise of the collaborative economy, while smoothing the transition by safeguarding public interest and different stakes that exist in our society. One of the ways in which local governments can deal with these challenges and grasp the opportunities is by becoming a “sharing city”. Read more...