This document proposes a solution to promote ridesharing in Athens to address issues of traffic, pollution and cost of transportation. It outlines plans to create a website, mobile app, Facebook page and Twitter account to connect people looking for rides with those offering rides. Research shows people are open to collaborative consumption. The social media platforms will share stories and data on ridesharing benefits and Athens' traffic and pollution to build an online community. The website will allow users to search for rides or list available routes, with profiles for verified drivers. The mobile app will simplify requesting or providing rides on-the-go. The goal is to motivate Athenians to adopt ridesharing through an online sharing economy network.

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Athens Ridesharing
Collaborative consumption Design project
Group:
Elena Katsara
Periklis Skoulaxenos
Instructor: Katerina Diamantaki
CN 6040 Digital Media and Computer Mediated Communication
MA in Digital Communication & Social Media

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................2
Review of research for similar problems ..................................................................................2
Problem and proposed solution...............................................................................................5
Potential impact as designed...................................................................................................6
Website..............................................................................................................................7
Facebook & Twitter.............................................................................................................9
Mobile Application............................................................................................................10
Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................12
References...........................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Sharing economies seems to gain ground everyday on every west developed
community. More or less sharing economies are built upon the idea of sharing every
kind of physical and human resources. On another approach according to Benita
Matofska as she tries to define sharing economies the term by itself “” includes the
shared creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services
by different people and organizations”. It goes without a doubt though that we are
talking about a multidisciplinary field that combines not only people sharing the same
values but also about people producing and distributing on their own (C2C)
As we are talking about C2C market we need a social and economic network for people
to contribute. Web 2 can easily give access on people and especially social networking
sites as people come together, discuss and exchange. Also the “real name policy” that
many SNS are making effort to ensure makes people feel safer and actually encourage
them to create communities beyond the keyboard.
Ridesharing is one form of sharing that nowadays is becoming more and more popular.
In Greece and especially in Athens economic crisis primarily lead on searching ways to
save money on daily bases. Even though “sharing economies” is a highly debated issue
and in Greece not common used new reality actually force people to contribute on
sharing.
Review of research for similar problems
Collaborative consumption grown a lot over the last years, it is a new socio-economic
idea that promises revolution in the way we consume. A research that took place by
Pieter van de Glind in Amsterdam resulted that 43.8% would take part in as a consumer,
and 31.9% as a provider. From all respondents, 84.1% would take part in at least one

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example of collaborative consumption. People are willing to contribute on a sharing
economy if it is possible to exist in any context. The need of that kind of economy is
need to motivate people start sharing their goods and services with others. It is
concerned that collaborative consumption is adopted mostly from people with higher
income and by educated millennials. But the research by Pieter van de Glind concluded
that the potential of this economy is in no way confined to only digital savvy millennials.
In addition, lower income families and bachelors are more likely to be motivated to
contribute and share inside the community rather the higher income ones.
The last 5 years collaborative consumption showed extreme grow in some currently
growing countries in Latin America. As the Ouishare magazine mentions at the end of
2010 the search of consumer collaboration “consumo colaborativo” resulted only to a
few results which were mostly focused on American results and examples. But after
some years the collaborative consumption projects of any kind were exploded. Those
kind of economies are connected with the current Greek economic situation. It is
concerned that collaborative consumption is mostly a reaction to the economic crisis
and after that citizens will return to their previous consumption habits, however the
progress of that type of economies in the countries experiencing growth gives an
argument that collaborative consumption is a community trend that lies in more than a
reaction to an economic problem.
Sharing economies thrived in a way that became huge companies even bigger than
regular big brands. According to Fastcompany.com Airbnb, a company which allows
users to rent out their spare rooms or vacant homes to strangers is valuated as a 10
billion organization even more than many famous and huge hotels like Wyndham and
Hyatt.
Inc.com through some info graphics tries to explain the benefits of the sharing
economy. Some of the data from those info graphics are:
 Only 20% of women wear the clothes in their wardrobe
 There are almost 19 items on each woman’s wardrobe that are ready to be sold.

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Many clothes are remaining unused by their owners, and a sharing project would save
many of them.
Ridesharing is one of the most common sharing economy projects, and the most
company oriented as many companies were created who deal with this situation.
Inc.com report that:
 In the US, 74% of the cars on the road are occupied by only 1 person.
 95% of the cars stay idle 95% of the time.
By increasing and encouraging ridesharing many more cars on the roads and those that
are idle could be used by one or more people and be borrowed to others for further
use.
Ridesharing (Carpooling) is one of the most used sharing economy systems because of
their benefits. According to howstuffworks.com “Commuters can take advantage of
many carpool benefits. Perhaps one of the most important benefits to commuters is
that carpooling saves money”. Gas prices led many people to follow ridesharing. Also
another big reason people are starting to carpool more is traffic congestion. As more
cars are on the road, the more traffic congestion is created. Cars with more than one
person on them would help reduce the traffic congestion and on the same time create
or improve a ridesharing community that would bring benefits to everyone.

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Problem and proposed solution
In Athens the first thing that a citizen has to pay for is transportation. In order to follow
your daily program you have to pay for every kind of transportation. The tough
economic situation made Greeks who own a car to prefer the bus or in general public
transportation .Also we have to take seriously into consideration that our city is having
serious traffic congestion and if all of us change our way of thinking and put in our daily
routine a sharing economy mentality we could create a totally different image for our
city and why not to save valuable time. Furthermore according to ekathemerini.com the
concentration of air pollutants in Athens have reached as much as 15 times the level
recommended by the European Union over the past two months. Research by experts
from several Greek universities has shown that we have to take seriously into
consideration ways to reduce these dangerous levels of air pollution.
So our main topic and cause is to motivate Athenians to share their cars with others.
After all, it is not only a matter of money but also of great importance because of
pollution and traffic congestion. Athens is a city where 5 million people live in, so for the
sake of the environment we need to motivate people on asking alternatives on an
everyday usage of their cars.
So we decided to launch a campaign through social media for ridesharing. Our plan is
going to be based of course on our main target audience. We will propose through
social media a solution based on points we pinpoint below.

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As we mention before and based on research social networking sites are the main
“channel of distribution” on sharing economies. This is the reason why for Athens
ridesharing we've created 4 dedicated platforms to the cause.
Potential impact as designed
Social media channels will be linked. We will include stories about ridesharing,
information about the environment, pollution rates for Athens and traffic information in
general (live road traffic coverage). Interaction in general among people who already
rideshare in the city will be crucial, as we need to create an online community.

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Website
Link: (http://katselen.wix.com/athens-ridesharing)
Our website is going to be the main channel on communication between the members
of our community. It will combine our social media platforms, our blog for news and
events between the members and of course will offer the on line trust that our users ask
in order to participate. On our home page for this reason every step our potential user
will follow ends up on the “log in” part as we need to use their real identity and in
general real information about them mostly for safety issues that may arouse. Also a
general tab about terms of use, code of contact, privacy etc on our home page will
provide further clarification. Especially people who offer a ride must be double-checked.
Our potential user will have the opportunity to find a destination or to list a rout as we
have two different type of users. People who ask for a ride will put on the platform their
data (starting point, destination, and date) and the results will come up. On the other
part, as about listing a rout every driver will put the same data with those who ask for a

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ride plus cost and number of people seats that can provide. Last but not least every
driver will have a profile on our website above listing rout with the name “drivers”.
Blog
Our blog will be embedded in the official website. Upcoming news and events about:
1. Sharing economy
2. Ridesharing
3. Pollution
4. Traffic
Those will be the main content of the blog. Also we need to create for people
rideshare an on line community in order to exchange things on line. Our blog is in
our point of view an on line feed column for people who already visit our main site

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and might not use social media in general.
Facebook & Twitter
Links:
 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Athens-Ridesharing/1588582331397844?fref=ts
 https://twitter.com/Athens_Rsr
Facebook is one of the most famous and commonly used social media platforms.
According to Alexa.com Facebook is the 2nd most visited website by Greek area users
and following the 1st social media platform used.). Twitter is selected as one of our
media because of its fast spreading tweet system. Hashtag and trend topics are the
fastest search and find feature of all social media available.
Facebook is used in order to promote the Athens Ridesharing website and expand the
community. The community will have the opportunity to get informed by the page in
topics related to Ridesharing, Athenian street topics such as traffic, pollution or any
other kind of issues on the roads. The same themes will be covered on Twitter, too.
Facebook will be also used in order to get feedback from the community about
ridesharing, to post photos of their car sharing experiences and tag their friends on

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them. The hashtag #athensridesharing would be used by the community to inform
everyone about road related issues or to share their experience on the go.
Mobile Application
Asking for a ride

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Givinga ride
Due to the expansion of mobile devices, the need of a mobile application that will help
the community share the services of the car sharing process is crucial. For that reason
we designed a prototype of a potential mobile application that can be released on all
platforms (Android, iOS and Windows phone).
The application is created and used based on two cases. Whether you want to get a car
or you want to share your car with others. The first screen will give you the opportunity
to choose between the options of sharing your car and getting a car of someone who
wants to share it with others. Next, on each case you will fill the time and the date when
you want the share to happen. A database of all the cars shared and people wanting to
get a car would try and fit you as soon as possible in order to help the community.

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Conclusion
Collaborative consumption is one of the latest and most anticipated kinds of
communities that will help the world understand how sharing and not owning can be
productive and useful for everyone. Car sharing is a new trend, car oil prices, pollution
are some of the reasons that may tend people use this type of collaborative community.
By giving help to a community like this, you may help lots of people and in the same
time help yourself saving time and money.
New technologies and especially computer mediated technologies can give us the
opportunity to share not only the cost of carrying a car but also the chance to gain in the
future even more. The economist predicts the future on sharing economies like on line
shopping. In the beginning of course people are worried about security but now are
dominatedbyprofessional “powersellers”(manyof whomstartedoutas ordinaryeBayusers).
The same mayhappenwiththe sharingeconomy,whichalsoprovidesnew opportunitiesfor
enterprise.Somepeople inAmericaforexample have boughtcarssolelytorentthemout.Who
was able topredictthat kindof businessbecause of sharing? It’stime tostartcaring about
sharingand to go beyondlimitsinordertoshare value and gainback benefits.

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References
Matofska, B. What is the Sharing Economy? [online] Retrieved
from<http://www.thepeoplewhoshare.com/blog/what-is-the-sharing-economy>
Reynolds, C. May 18, 2015. Why social media is necessary for the sharing economy.
[online] Retrieved from<http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/05/social-media-
necessary-sharing-economy/>
Mompo, F. March 22, 2014. Collaborative consumption potential is beyond millennials.
[online] Retrieved from<http://www.co-society.com/collaborative-consumption-
potential-beyond-millenials/>
Van De Glind, P. September 19, 2013. [Study] The consumer potential of collaborative
consumption: demographics. [online] Retrieved
from<http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/2013/09/19/study-the-consumer-
potential-of-collaborative-consumption-demographics>
Toothman, J. May 16, 2008. How to Start a Carpool [online] Retrieved
from<http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/fuel-economy/start-
carpool2.htm>
Truong, A. April 18, 2014. Airbnb reportedly closes new round of funding valuing it at
$10 billion [online] Retrieved from<http://www.fastcompany.com/3029361/most-
innovative-companies-2014/airbnb-reportedly-closes-new-round-of-funding-valuing-it-
at-1>
Montini, L. July 10, 2014. The Big Benefits of the 'Sharing Economy' (Infographic)
[online] Retrieved from<http://www.inc.com/laura-montini/infographic/the-sharing-
economy-disrupting-life-as-we-know-it.html>
ekathimerini.com . February 28, 2013. Athens air pollution found at 15 times above EU
alert level . [online] Retrieved
from<http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_28/02/2013_485136>

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Facebook.com site overview [online] Retrieved
from<http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/facebook.com>
March 9, 2013. The rise of the sharing economy
[online] Retrieved from<http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21573104-internet-
everything-hire-rise-sharing-economy>