Hacking the Sharing Economy

Updated 4/21/14 with panel members

Hey Seattle Legal Hackers,

Our next event is going to be a doozy!

Over the last few years, peer-to-peer "sharing" platforms have arisen in areas as diverse as transportation, housing, catering, and everyday errands.

For anyone who has followed this even marginally closely, you'll know that the Seattle City Council just grappled with these issues very publicly as it relates to car-sharing.

While that debate may be over for now, there is no question that sharing economy principles challenge local regulatory schemes related to health, safety, labor, and taxes. This is fertile ground for disruptive, collaborative, competitive and unconventional problem solving ethos of legal hacking.

Check out this article (http://pando.com/2014/03/18/airbnbs-response-to-its-latest-scandal-proves-that-the-new-disruptors-are-growing-up/) for a sample of the compelling legal, regulatory and other issues that the sharing economy presents.

So, we're going to hack the sharing economy. Or, at least, we're going to try. And, we're going to do it in Fremont - the self-proclaimed "Center of the Universe." Big thanks to our gracious hosts, Google, for opening up their space to us.

Starting a bit after 6 we'll convene a panel including the following individuals to discuss sharing economy issues:

• Rod Dembowski – King County Councilmember, District 1

• Venkat Balasubramani - Founder and lawyer at a boutique firm focused on tech/internet law, blogger at the Technology & Marketing Law blog, and avid twitter user: @Vbalasubramani

• John Martin – Founder of Moorage Market – a moorage sharing economy service.

• Nathanael Nienaber – Co-founder of Ghostruck – a sharing economy moving service.

• Sarah Studer – Impact Hub, Seattle – A coworking and events space for people working at the intersection between technology and social good.

We'll follow that with an hour of actual problem solving/hacking. So, bring your portable computing devices and your ideas.

For the remainder of the time we'll share the collective ideas and have some refreshments.

There will be more to come on the panel in the coming days but we wanted to get the meeting scheduled so that you can clear your schedules. You won't want to miss this one.

More Soon,

Dan & Janelle