Hi, I'm Anne Strandchamps. Say you're running late for a meeting. Do you call a cab? You could,

but you could also punch up Uber on your smartphone. And in just a few minutes, you'd be climbing into a backseat.

So that's just the latest example of the new on-demand or sharing economy. And today, on to the best of our knowledge from PRI.

We're going to take a look at how it's changing the nature of business and of work.

The idea was that cars are placed throughout the dense cities, that you can get them 24-7,

that's between you and the car, there isn't someone in between, and that you're completely

in charge.

That's Robin Chase.

She's the co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar.

And back in 1999, she had this radical idea.

What if you could make renting a car as simple as getting cash from an ATM?

In 15 seconds, you could rent a car and go up to it, place your car to get in.

Now, this was 1999.

The prevailing wisdom at the time was that Americans wanted to own cars, not share them.

But Robin was living in Boston at the time.

She had young children, and she knew a lot of people who like her

didn't want to own a car in the city, but still wanted to be able to use one. Plus, there

was this new thing called the internet.

A light bulb went off over my head and I said, wow, this is what the internet is made

for, and this is what I personally want and need in my daily life.

So Robin and a friend launched their company.

And just to explain what a wild idea this was, at the time, only about half the country had access to the internet.

...