Innovation Through Collaborative Consumption

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Source

Via: http://www.springwise.com/ideas/

This page will contain 4 examples of innovation in specific sectors, culled from the Springwise blog.


In the Automative Industry

India: OliveTrips ridesharing company introduces eco-savings reports

URL = http://www.olivetrips.com/

"Based in Vadodara, India, OliveTrips not only connects commuters for shared trips, it also delivers periodic summaries of the savings that result.

OliveTrips not only connects commuters for shared trips, it also delivers periodic summaries of the savings that result.

Users begin by registering for free on OliveTrips with a Gmail address and mobile phone number. They then register their car, bike or other vehicle, including seating capacity, fuel type and mileage. They can also choose to include expiry dates for their insurance and pollution-under-control (PUC) documents. Next, users can post details of the trips they hope to take, including specifying whether they prefer male or female co-riders, or any other requirements. Once that’s done, OliveTrips can be used to search for other posted trips that match the user’s requirements. When one looks promising, users can express interest, prompting OliveTrips to send an email and SMS to enable direct communication between those involved.

Perhaps even more interesting, however, is that OliveTrips periodically sends users a customized EcoReport depicting the environmental benefits, financial savings, and fuel savings they’ve made from using the service. Such reports are sent quarterly for most, but can be sent monthly for the site’s heaviest users." (http://www.springwise.com/automotive/india-carpooling-service-delivers-eco-savings-reports/)


Parking Spots auction battles fuel waste in Manhattan

URL = https://parkingauction.com/

"Parking Auction have introduced an auction style web app to combat the wasted time and fuel spent looking for available parking spots in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

In a study of one part of Brooklyn, for example, drivers in search of a parking spot accounted for a full 45 percent of city traffic; in another on the Upper West Side, it was found that people drive some 366,000 miles each year looking for a place to park. So notes Parking Auction, a New York company that uses an auction model to help solve the problem.

Now focusing on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Parking Auction’s mobile web application uses a real-time auction to connect drivers leaving a spot with those looking for one. Users with a spot to share begin by indicating where it’s located along with specifications including any limitations on the spot, what they’d like to be paid and what kind of car they drive. Also required is a mobile phone number to which receipts can be sent. Potential buyers, meanwhile, indicate corresponding details of their own, including how soon they need to find a spot and what kind of car they drive. When buyer and seller agree on a bid, the spot can change hands.

It’s important to note that it’s not actually the spot that’s for sale on Parking Auction — most, after all, are public property. Rather, it’s the information that one is about to open up." (http://www.springwise.com/automotive/auction-app-connects-drivers-leaving-spot-seeking/)


Park Circa, p2p online rental community for parking spots

URL = http://www.parkcirca.com/

"Park Circa organizes a community of members who are either looking for parking or have parking facilities available. Members can list their driveway parking space as available when it’s not in use — earning cash when someone uses their spot. The payment method works on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ system, whereby drivers top-up credit on their Park Circa account. This is then transferred to the owner of whichever parking space the driver selects, with the hourly rates decided by the spaces’ owners. Members can view available parking spaces and complete payment via the Park Circa mobile app." (http://www.springwise.com/life_hacks/parkcirca/)


ParkSense, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France: Using ground sensors to identify open parking spots

URL = http://www.smartgrains.com/


"Websites like SpotScout and Google Open Spot can help urban drivers find a place to park, but typically they rely on other users to post the relevant details when a spot opens up. A new solution now at work in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, however, uses in-ground sensors to provide such information automatically.

The brainchild of Paris-based SmartGrains, ParkSense is an integrated solution based on specially designed sensors that are placed directly in the ground in parking areas. The presence of a vehicle changes the sensor’s ambient magnetic field, allowing it to infer whether or not there is a vehicle in a particular spot. "

(http://www.springwise.com/transportation/parksense/)


In the Finance Industry

Social Payment Services

Social payment services aim to reflect both real world and virtual world social behaviour and forms of financial association, mainly among peers. Examples of these are bill splitting or flash micro loans among friends. WePay expands the idea of 'social' to diverse kinds of groups, from flatmates to large companies.

WePay

URL = http://www.wepay.com/

'Splitting costs among a group of people is frequently fraught with difficulty. WePay aims to make it easier for groups of any size to share expenses of any kind.

Recently launched into public beta, California-based WePay is an online payment service that strives to make it easy for groups to collect, manage and spend money. Specifically, WePay allows users to create free FDIC-insured accounts and share them with others to maintain transparency. From these accounts, users can send electronic bills—payable with bank accounts or credit cards—and spend funds with a WePay VISA prepaid card, paper checks or electronic transfers. Clubs, organizations and associations of all sizes can use WePay to send bills and collect money, solicit donations, send reimbursements and spend money transparently. Unlike PayPal, WePay also lets users create separate accounts for different things—one for expenses shared with roommates, for example, and a totally separate one for a group vacation. Fees for using WePay range from USD 0.50 to 3.5 percent per incoming payment; outgoing transactions are free." (http://www.springwise.com/financial_services/wepay/)

See: Social Payment Services

Hyperlocal Crowdfunding

Lucky Ant

URL = http://www.luckyant.com/

Lucky Ant is a hyper-local crowdfunding platform, featuring one neighborhood business a week for the community to support. This approach to crowdfunding allows small business owners not only to avoid expensive financial costs, but also to connect on a deeper level with their local community. While Kickstarter's approach is affinity based, Lucky ant proposes a proximity (hyper-local) based solution to the concept of crowdfunding. In many cases, being the best in the block is much more important than being the best in the world, and that is where Lucky ant comes in.

http://www.springwise.com/financial_services/hyper-local-crowdfunding-platform/

Hyper-Local Crowdfunding

Banking without Banks

Civilised Money

URL = http://www.civilisedmoney.co.uk/

Civilised Money is an example of Banking without Banks, a deeply transformative new approach to finance enabled by P2P. The concept of Banking without Banks is to provide as many of the financial services provided by banks, but through more direct, lightweight and transparent structures that eliminate most of the traditional costs of personal finance. Through Banking without Banks, individuals assume the role of lenders for attractive returns and borrowing costs are significantly reduced. Additionally the social impact of interest being paid to individuals, rather than to large banks, can't be overstated.

Civilised Money’s goal is to make it easy “for people to invest, donate, lend, borrow and transact money with each other directly at fair and transparent rates” without the involvement of banks."

Banking without Banks "allows people to lend money directly to others, cutting out banks and other middlemen. Which means better interest rates for borrowers and higher returns for lenders. Described as eBay for loans, the P2P money exchanges work as follows: borrowers list loan details and a personal profile, and lenders bid on the loan. Lowest interest rates win. Lenders bid in increments and minimize their risk by bidding on numerous loans."

"Unlike eBay, which can connect buyers and sellers from around the world, peer to peer lending is generally bound by local financial regulations. Which means there’s ample room for national or regional versions."

(http://www.civilisedmoney.co.uk/)

http://www.springwise.com/financial_services/bankless_banking_update/



See: Banking Without Banks

Education-oriented MicroFinance

Vittana

URL = http://www.vittana.org/

"Vittana makes it possible for young people around the world to get student loans directly from lenders ... one student, one loan, one job at a time. Vittana works in the background to facilitate the loans you make directly to students but also works at the forefront of a global movement to bring student loans to young people throughout the world." (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/vittana)

See: Microcredit