An interesting post on “cloudonomics” The 10 Laws of Cloudonomics – GigaOM Many of the ideas are familiar to those who study transportation systems.
As noted previously, I have been thinking about “cloud commuting”, we should consider what already is a “cloud” in transportation, and that is the network. The network is provided not by individual travelers, but by agencies that serve many travelers. (This includes both physical infrastructure networks (road, track, port) and carrier (bus, train, plane) networks).
The question is then whether you can drive the economics to the point where the individual no longer needs a vehicle, but that too is provided by the cloud, is available on-demand, ubiquitously, and reliably, at a lower average cost.
As I now let my subscription to zipcar lapse (it seems I cannot just do that, “Please contact us within three business days or your account will be closed and turned over to a collection agency for payment. ” … which seems very rude, I am just not a member this year, no need to get a collection agency involved, I didn’t sign up for life, hence why I didn’t tell you my new credit card number) I think the economics of this are just not there yet.
Further on the zipcar issue:
“billing problems
Oops! On Aug 18th, we tried to charge the balance of your Aug 18th to Sep 17th invoice ($30.00) to your credit card MasterCard ending XXXX. We were unable to charge the card, possibly because of insufficient funds.
We would like to either try charging your card again or allow you to change your credit card information.
_ I would like to change the credit card number or expiration date on file.
_ The above credit card is working fine. Please try to bill the current invoice balance ($30.00, see your bill) to my credit card right now.”
There is no option to cancel. Who do they think they are, the phone company? These are not friendly people despite their moral righteousness.