Code2park: free parking in Urbino in exchange for coding

Publication date: October 12, 2017

By Alessandro Bogliolo, EU Code Week ambassador for Italy

During CodeWeek, from October 7th to 22nd, citizens and visitors can obtain a free weekly subscription to the main parking lot of the city of Urbino in exchange for one hour of code.

The mechanism is very simple:

1.      take one hour of ice-breaking coding activities (either the famous hour of code, or CodyMaze) and get your certificate of completion

2.      submit your certificate using an online form and get a free-parking voucher

3.      show the voucher at the ticket office of the parking lot to get your free weekly subscription

4.      park for free for the whole week

This opportunity is offered by UrbinoServizi, the municipal company that manages city parking lots, in cooperation with the University of Urbino, the local university that is committed to contribute to coding literacy and social innovation.

Code2park is the first working prototype of a general rewarding platform for public engagement and social innovation that the University of Urbino is developing within the European project CROWD4ROADS, to put volunteers and third-party stakeholders in communication and trigger positive externalities that can contribute to the common good. The platform is based on the generation of voucher tokens — called ‘Worth One Minute’ (WOM) — which will be generated in exchange for contributions and “work” done by volunteers, roughly corresponding to one minute of their time. WOMs can then be exchanged for services and goods possibly provided by public or private third parties willing to contribute to the aim.

In this specific case, Europe Code Week is the aim, individuals taking one hour of code are volunteers contributing to the aim, the voucher granted for one hour of code corresponds to 60 WOMs, and UrbinoServizi acts as a third party providing free parking in exchange for the voucher.

The value of the initiative goes far beyond the value of the service offered. In fact:

1.      It allows a third party not directly involved in coding literacy to contribute to Europe Code Week by motivating people to participate;

2.      It provides to individuals a tangible sign of the value of the actions they take for common good;

3.      It recognizes the social value of personal achievements, like the completion of the hour of code.

Recognizing the social value of individuals’ cultural growth is the key of awareness raising and literacy campaigns.