towards a competitive commoning policy in the sharing economy (slides of my presentation at the...

TOWARDS A COMPETITIVE COMMONING POLICY IN THE SHARING ECONOMY

Commons collaborative economies 11-13 March 2016, Barcelona

Bruno Carballa Smichowski (CEPN – Université Paris XIII)

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@brunocarballa

[email protected]

Sharing economy & Commons: definitions and frontiers

The frontier between commons and the sharing economy

Sharing economy

Commons

Current policy approaches to the sharing economy

Government regulation

Self-regulation

Competition policy

Competitive commoning policy for the sharing economy

A baseline policy proposal

OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTATION

Personal data as a common

1/13 Bruno Carballa Smichowski

Sharing economy & Commons: definitions and frontiers Sharing economy

Two-sided markets or Multi-sided platforms

“Sharing” as the primacy of access over ownership

Two widespread definitions of the sharing economy

… that do not take into account a crucial aspect: the organization of labor

P2P transactions and/or $

Attention and Information

$


Sharing economy and Commons: definitions and frontiers Sharing economy

A mode of organizing the production and/or distribution of use value and/or exchange value based on P2P interactions that are channeled through digital platforms and rely mostly on “free” individuals (not acting as employees)

A more comprehensive definition of the sharing economy


Sharing economy and Commons: definitions and frontiers Commons

º

Co-agreed rules of governance and rights on the resource

A resource (material or immaterial)

A community that sets the governance rules

A bundle of non-exclusive rights (juridical or informal)

COMMON

Community-driven governance

THIS IMPLIES

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Shared property

Bruno Carballa Smichowski

SHARING ECONOMY COMMONS

With community-driven governance and shared property

Without community-driven governance and/or without shared property

With P2P interactions that are channeled through digital platforms

Without network interactions that are channeled through digital platforms

Sharing economy and Commons: definitions and frontiers The frontier between commons and the sharing economy

COMMONS-ORIENTED SHARING ECONOMY 5/13 Bruno Carballa Smichowski



Sharing economy

Commons

Current policy approaches toward the sharing economy

Self-regulation

Competition policy





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Current policy approaches to the sharing economy Self-regulation

Platforms have an interest in self-regulating Governments should limit themselves to act

only in case of market failures and to assure the transparency of platforms’ self-regulation

PRINCIPLES OF THE SELF-REGULATION APPROACH

This approach only works when it comes to a few issues such as safety and reputation


Current policy approaches to the sharing economy Government regulation

Workers’ rights

Uneven income distribution

Negative side effects outside the sharing economy


This approach, although positive, is not sufficient to foster the development of common-oriented sharing economy initiatives at a competitive level

Unfair competition

The government regulates the negative side effects of the sharing economy


Current policy approaches toward the sharing economy Competition policy

“LOOSE” COMPETITION POLICY (CURRENT PRACTICE)

The sharing economy is introducing competition in fossilized markets by improving quality and lowering prices.

Therefore, competition authorities should not intervene

“SKEPTIK” COMPETITION POLICY (ACADEMICS)

Network effects Switching costs The volume and cost of

collecting personal data are a barrier to entry

Personal data is an essential facility

Platforms have market power because of:

There should be a market for personal data

Platforms’ market power relies heavily on their private and exclusive property of personal data




Sharing economy

Commons

Current policy approaches toward the sharing economy

Self-regulation

Competition policy





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Competitive commoning policy for the sharing economy Data as a common

Personal data refers to other people: it’s not

(only) personal, it’s strictly a common An individual's personal data is technically

inseparable from another individual’s Personal data is an extension of a person Individual management of personal data is

impossible in practice

Reasons to consider personal data as a common (Bellanger, 2014) instead of as a privately owned asset

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Individual ownership of personal data would lead to a natural monopoly


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Competitive commoning policy for the sharing economy A baseline policy proposal

Non-commons-oriented platform

Data collection and storage

Commons-oriented platform

Opens its software code

Contributes to commons ($ and/or donating employees’ working hours to develop commons)

Personal data under a reciprocity license by default

Platforms, citizens and governments form a sector-defined agency in charge of the governance of the data

Data governance

Makes the data available to researchers and governments under a copyleft license with privacy protecting clauses

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

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Bruno Carballa Smichowski (CEPN – Université Paris XIII)

@brunocarballa

[email protected]

towards a competitive commoning policy in the sharing economy (slides of my presentation at the...

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