IN WHICH I WAS THE SHEEP: At the arena in Charlotte this week -- again, not that we're talking about why I was in Charlotte -- they had free cell phone charger stations arrayed around the concourse on each level. With ports for every type of device (though not enough for iPhone users), these kiosks were a great amenity for folks at the end of long and battery-draining days, and I assume they'll become standard at many locations within a year or two. Plug in, wait by your device (or trust the credentialed masses being watched by Secret Service), voila. (I did also see kiosks with credit card-activated locked doors for devices, but they weren't at the arena.) Except ...
Except that it was free. And because it was free, folks would hog scarce ports for thirty minutes, an hour, or more (and with monitors on the concourse, you could still keep tabs of the proceedings on the stage), and iPhone and Droid users were often left waiting in intolerable queues.
If there's a better illustration of the tragedy of the commons, I'm not sure what it would be. Consider what would have happened had they instead charged for charging -- $2 for ten minutes? $5? (We know this was a valuable resource given how much people were willing to wait for it.) That way, you provide an endpoint to everyone's consumption of the resource while capturing the value that's out there. Or am I missing something?
