Collaborative economy

The Collaborative Economy

 * Since 2011, we have been developing a framework that explains and brings together different phenomena into one coherent vision.*


 * The collaborative economy is defined as practices and business models based on horizontal networks and participation of a community, transforming how we live, work and create.**


 * This economy is built on distributed power and trust within communities as opposed to centralized institutions, blurring the lines between producer and consumer.** These communities meet and interact on online networks and peer-to-peer platforms, as well as in shared spaces such as fablabs and coworking spaces.


 * This phenomena can be seen as the sum of the following developments:**

- **the sharing economy aka collaborative consumption** is the seamless circulation of products and services among individuals through sharing, swapping, trading, renting, borrowing or giving, fostering access over ownership and reducing waste.

- **crowdfunding and person-to-person banking** enable the circulation of capital between individuals to fund creative, social and entrepreneurial projects.

- **open knowledge** enables anyone to freely use, reuse, and redistribute knowledge such as content, data, code or designs; this principle is the foundation of **commons-based peer production** (such as free software, the creative commons, open science, …) as well as **open education, open data and open governance.**

- **open design and manufacturing** democratize the process of designing, producing and distributing physical goods by combining open knowledge with distributed infrastructures. They rely on tools, spaces, communities and marketplaces and are fueled by the maker movement, the culture of hacking and Do-It-Yourself (DIY).

- **open and horizontal governance** are transforming organizations, public services and civic action. Leading examples include civic engagement platforms, participatory budgeting, open government initiatives, co-operatives, open value networks, horizontal organizations, swarms, do-ocracries and holacracies.