OuiShare, Public Policy and Advocacy

Does OuiShare care about Advocacy & Public Policy? YES
As explained in the article: |In legal no-man’s land: the collaborative economy needs its own laws:

"It is inevitable that social innovation such as the one on the collaborative economy to be ahead of the law. But still it would be desirable to raise awareness for the potential of the collaborative economy among legislators and encourage them to create a specific framework for it, as this would foster its growth and rescue it from its current situation in legal no man’s land."

To be coherent with the | Impact value of OuiShare and in order to accelerate the shift toward a more collaborative economy, Advocacy and Public Policy activities are performed by OuiShare.

Is OuiShare a lobby then? NO!
In short, no :)

One of the things we have learned so far is that beyond the problems with legal status of the microentrepreneurs (the one who generates income on P2P activities) and some issues related to taxes there is not so much common ground among the different collaborative economy sectors and companies.

Getting OuiShare involved on direct lobbying for a specific company, in a specific region, having very specific legal issues would certainly conflict with the | Independence value, therefore OuiShare does not do lobbying for companies.

Check below the list of other organizations involved on public policy and lobbying activities related to the collaborative economy

Indirect advocacy
OuiShare approach is to perform | indirect advocacy
 * 1) Activism and grassroots lobbying, mostly focused at local level but not excluding national and supranational levels
 * 2) Research in order to publish under open licenses hard data from studies that can support a variety of activities performed by  other organizations in the same space
 * 3) Being a neutral hub and facilitator of the dialogue between public officials and sectors of the collaborative economy

Examples of recent activities
Some examples of past activities:
 * | OuiShareFest Policy Jam
 * | BercyJam with the French government (| complete report)
 * Policy related workshops during | Collaborative Economy Forum in Bordeaux
 * Participation on the Collaborative Consumption Opinion paper discussion from the | European Economic and Social Committee

The framework described in this section does not prevent individuals, who are also members of OuiShare, to perform | direct advocacy activities, but not under OuiShare hat or using the OuiShare brand.

How can I contribute?
Start by joining the dedicated group on Facebook, | OuiShare Policy

List of other existing organizations active on the public policy area
This list is probably not complete, if you know an organization that is not listed here please [mailto:hello@ouishare.net| send an e-mail]

World wide:
 * | Peers
 * | CarSharing Association

Europe wide:
 * | The European Sharing Economy Coalition
 * | European Crowdfunding Network
 * | Sharelex, promoting co-creation of the best available knowledge on legal issues
 * | Bio-Commons, promoting alternative IP regimes in Life Sciences

France
 * | Association des Entrepreneurs de la Consommation Collaborative (AECC)

Italy
 * | RENA – Rete per l'Eccellenza Nazionale

United Kingdom
 * TBC

Spain
 * | Asociación Española de Crowdfunding
 * | Asociación Española de Car-Sharing
 * | Asociación Española de Coworking

Netherlands
 * | ShareNL

USA
 * | BayShare (Bay Area Centric)
 * | co:NYC (NYC centric)
 * | 1099.is (open knowledge on taxes related issues)
 * | The Collaborative Economy Coalition, althought they do not seem to be that active.