HOW IT ALL BEGAN…
It all started in September 2013. Ivan and Roro were Couchsurfing in Chile and Uganda while Mathieu had just rented a place in Amsterdam with Airbnb. That’s when it all hit us! It was all so wonderfully weird: so authentic, so homey, whilst so far from home.
We liked it! We liked it so much in fact that we decided to dig a little deeper. A few meetings, readings and conferences later we discovered that these were but two of a far greater movement: the collaborative economy.
We were struck by the great energy across the collaborative space, struck by all these new ideas and alternative ways of doing things, but one particular thing caught our attention: all these people brought back at the heart of economic transactions.
However, it felt like for the media it was all about big figures: “Airbnb is valued at $10bn” or “BlaBlaCar raises $100 million”. But in our eyes, that’s not what the collaborative economy was all about! For us, it was about Sacdrac, that Chilean with whom Ivan had climbed a Vulcano. It was about Conrad, that Ugandan with whom Roro had discovered the history of his country. It was about Sterre, that Dutch host who had welcomed Mat with open arms.
We started wondering about all those other stories behind the actors that drive the collaborative space – Who are they? Are they idealists? Champaign socialists? Pragmatics? Hipsters? A little stingier than the others? What drives them? Who and what fuels all that sharing?
We thought we’d go and meet the many faces behind the collaborative economy. Let us introduce them to you!
UNCOVERING THE MANY FACES OF THE
COLLABORATIVE ECONOMY
Embark upon the first crossing of a continent using only the collaborative economy! Live those 7 months with us and discover the stories of those who have decided to integrate sharing into their daily lives. A grand-ma from Seattle renting rooms in her home, a carioca designer spending his days in co-working spaces, a Peruvian car-pooler, an Argentinian milk producer hosting and feeding people in exchange of time spent on the farm…
Who are they? What do they have in common? What are their motivations? What are their stories?
THE WEB-SERIES
We are off to meet the people who have been experiencing the economy differently over the past couple of weeks as well as those who have never known anything else! 16 countries, 16 cultures, countless stories! None of this makes sense if we can’t share our discoveries with you, which is why we decided to do a web-series! We are going to publish 12 videos mixing our adventures with interviews of local entrepreneurs.
1 Web-series – 12 videos – Interviews – Our encounters – Our experience of the collaborative economy – Rodolphe singing Celine Dion – When things get rough – The discovery of new horizons – Ivan’s culinary extravaganza – Our fears – The answers to your questions – Matthew trying out the traditional “Aztec ballgame” – Our adventures!
THE DOCUMENTARY
We will produce a documentary, which will be released when/if we come back. We want to gain a deeper understanding of this innovative and yet millenary economic model and we want to share it with you!
This short film will condense everything – our experiences, the challenges we are about to face, our encounters as well as our insights about the movement as a whole.
CHECK POINT:
The collaborative economy for dummies
An economy built on distributed networks of connected individuals and communities versus centralized institutions transforming how we can produce, consume, finance and learn.
- Consumption: Re-distribution (eBay) and shared access (Airbnb, Velib) models allowing a better allocation of resources.
- Finance: Virtual currencies (Bitcoins) and crowdfunding (Kickstarter, Ulule) decentralize access to financial services.
- Education: Online courses (MOOCs) and Open-Source platforms (Wikipedia) democratize access to knowledge.
- Production: New tendencies (the Makers and Do It Yourself (DIY) movements) enable consumers to become producers themselves, with the help of 3D printers for example.
And all that boosted by the rise of numeric technology!
You might know a few of its tools: Velib / Wikipedia / Craig’s List
Here is a short clip that explains the collaborative economy in a bit more detail:
PARTNER COMPANIES
PRESS PARTNERS
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
