Lake Como, Italy has all the ingredients to make for the perfect holiday.

Chair-sharing is a system of mobile chairs equipped with wi-fi which can be rented and returned similar to the bike-sharing system used today in many major cities around the world.

The idea for chair-sharing was invented by a group of young entrepreneurs from the Province of Como who call themselves SNARK. The founders of SNARK currently work all over Europe and between them, have various professions; architects, urban planners, geographers, semiologists, economists and journalists.  The group decided to unify their knowledge in order to create this innovative chair-sharing system.

The concept is simple but efficient.  The group designed a light chair equipped with a small work surface (sufficient for one person) and wheels to make it transportable.  This chair also has integrated wi-fi to allow internet access.  It is thought that these chairs could  then be rented from docking stations that release the chairs on demand to the registered users.

The basic idea of chair-sharing aims to revolutionise living and working in public for todays citizens and was first applied in Modena to revive a rarely frequented urban district.  According to SNARK, todays citizens should be able to choose where to sit and navigate through the internet within their city and this chair-sharing idea therefore gives them the chance to experience their city in new ways.  The root idea of chair-sharing was extended by offering registered users a bonus system to accumulate points that might be used for tickets to cultural events  such as museums, theatres, cinemas or exhibitions.  Since then, SNARK has participated in pan-European cultural competitions such like the European prize for Urban Public Space 2010, The Public Design Festival and even receibved acknowledgement from the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) tobe included into its "public space archive" among the best submitted concepts.

The example of bike-sharing - already applied by some major cities; Barcelona, Montreal, Paris and recently London, is a clear sign of the changing attitude towards urban life and community services. Municipalities started bike-sharing as a service to fight urban problems such as traffic jams, pollution and shortages in the public transport system.  In Ital, the  consciousness for community living and common property isstill developed on a low level compared to other European countries.  The fresh ideas of young entrepreneurs are more than welcome these days.  SNARK might just have started the ball rolling!