ShareHub – The information platform and community for sharing initiatives of Seoul city

Q How is the Sharing City team structured?

After announcing its Sharing City Seoul Project in 2012, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has been working for the project without
dedicate teams or task forces almost for three years. In the second half of 2015, SMG organized a team named Sharing City Team consisting of one team leader and two team members. As of 2017, the team has one leader and three members who are in charge of the sharing hub and domestic and overseas PR part, the sharing enterprise part and the autonomous district part respectively.

Q What is the role of the following stakeholders in making Seoul a sharing city?

- The city government, After having enacted the relevant ordinances, SMG had developed and carried out various sharing policies in order to expand the Sharing City Seoul Project. It has introduced new sharing policies like car-pooling, public bicycle and goods sharing and has made efforts to spread such sharing policies to the 25 autonomous districts.

- The advisory committee, The Advisory Committee consisting of experts from the private sector and the senior officials of SMG has contributed to creating an environment in which the civic ideas can be immediately accepted and adopted by the city.

- The private sector and The final version of Sharing City Seoul that SMG envisages is a city where the private enterprises play the key roles and citizens participate actively in the Sharing City Seoul Project. SMG has certified sharing enterprises and groups (97 certified sharing entities as of the end of 2017) and attempts to provide the relevant enterprises and groups with administrative and financial support.

- Creative Commons Korea CCK has changed its name to Corporation C.O.D.E. It is a non-profit organization that has engaged in various activities in order to spread the sharing culture in the country, starting with spread of CCL (Creative Commons License), the free use license. It has taken a lot of effort to build and spread the Sharing Hub, but had to pull out of the sharing hub operation to stay true to its original commitments from the end of 2016. SMG is currently running the sharing hub in collaboration with a sharing company named Ssocio Co. Ltd.

Q Has the solution scaled inside and beyond the city? If so, how?

There are several reasons why the sharing economy could emerge as a new type of consumption. The citizens can get the desired services conve niently thanks to the developed ICT technologies, they can use the services cheaper than in the existing economy and they can make various choices including the existing services because the sharing economy provides more opportunities of choice. In order to expand the sharing econo my, it is important not only to provide the services within the city but also to make them connected outside the city. To this end, SMG considered the collaboration with other cities as an essential aspect. In November last year, SMG adopted a joint declaration on policy cooperation for the sharing city with seven local governments. The main contents of the joint declaration were developing and promoting joint programs, establish ing joint support plans for sharing enterprises and groups, exchanging policies, common efforts to improve the legal system and strengthening cooperation with domestic and overseas cities among others.

Q How does the city continue to provide support on the project? And what are its future plans?

SMG is planning to promote the key sharing projects including the car-pooling, parking lot sharing, children’s clothing sharing, the same roof gen eration sympathy (home sharing) and so on in the coming year just like the previous years by designating the sharing enterprises, supporting the project expenses and facilitating the autonomous districts’ sharing promotion projects. This year, SMG held a rooftop festival with the sharing en terprises and groups. It opened five public rooftops to citizens to help them experience the sharing culture with the sharing enterprises and groups and to spread the sharing culture. Having received an overwhelming response from citizens, the event served to provide momentum for the participating enterprises and groups to establish networks naturally. SMG plans to organize the Sharing Seoul Festival next year in collabora tion with the enterprises based on the experience gained from this year.

Q What can other cities who want to embark on the journey of sharing learn from Seoul ?

SMG has been able to quickly establish and expand the Sharing City Seoul Project because of ① its strong will and ② the successful “Public-Civil Cooperation Model”.
SMG has succeeded in spreading the policies on sharing city throughout the city of Seoul by collaborating with 25 autonomous districts. SMG has made efforts to spread the sharing projects to the primary local governments through budgetary and administrative support and the active co-op eration from the primary local governments.
SMG organized a Sharing Promotion Committee consisting of experts in the private sector and the heads of main divisions in SMG in order to create a sharing model that is appropriate for Seoul. SMG also focused on developing the capability of private participants by providing them the required subsidies.