Sharing economy

The current http://freakonomics.com/ podcast is an episode called “Regulate This” (may not be in archive yet) that has an excellent discussion of the sharing economy. It covers Airbnb, Uber, Lyft and EatWith. The Airbnb portion mentions something that is very applicable regarding the FAA, drones and the NAS (national airspace) and government regulation impacts on innovation in general. This was said by one of the Airbnb founders “If we took the approach where hey let’s wait and see what the government does to create a path that is very very clear then we wouldn’t be operating anywhere”. The FAA is valiantly trying to come up with regulations for drones to operate in the NAS but the rate of technology evolution is so rapid that they cannot continue to operate in their typical years or decades long normal process. I don’t know what the answer or best approach is but I’m certain that, much like the hospitality industry and Airbnb, the innovation business will forge ahead regardless and will eventually win.