Page 223 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind
P. 223

C A L C ULATING THE FUTURE



                 audited down to the point of identifying who said that a mort-
                 gage applicant had sufficient income for the mortgage. An-
                 other round of bad mortgage creation and reselling like the
                 last one might bring about such a “regulatory” cloud. At any
                 time they choose, government auditors can move in and re-
                 construct the events that led to the issuing of an unsound

                 mortgage or set of mortgages, based upon falsified income in-
                 formation and other misleading statements. In the not-so-
                 distant past, such mortgages were common, but when they are
                 discovered only in retrospect, it’s difficult to tell who made
                 what decision where in the falsification process. Not that there
                 was any zeal expressed on the part of regulators. In the mort-
                 gage cloud, all decisions are auditable and reconstructable

                 from their software events, and those who were responsible
                 for each event have been required to leave a digital signature
                 on it. Imagine the impact on the trustworthiness of mort-
                 gages. And if it brings economic rationality and accountabil-
                 ity to this reckless group, then it may allow free association of
                 responsible individuals into a shared marketplace where you
                 bid your services and receive your (auditable) rewards. Au-
                 ditable cloud computing transactions might one day change
                 or even replace some corporate structures. Software interac-

                 tions are events that can now be identified, tracked, and re-
                 constructed at will.
                     During disruptive change, products will anticipate mar-
                 kets rather than waiting for them to emerge in concrete form.
                 To do so “will entail a process of mutual discovery by cus-
                 tomers and manufacturers,” writes Christensen. One of the
                 few ways in which this can come about is if companies form



                                                                     203
   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228