The fear (and the rewards) of letting go
I find it very interesting that Facebook is getting so lauded, and getting so much success, from opening up its API to allow external developers to create new apps that leverage the Facebook platform. And I totally agree its a GREAT startegy.
When you make software there is an enormous feeling of competitive pride and ownership in what you produce, but in this wiki mass-collaborative world its true that no matter how much resource you muster you simply cannot compete with the mass of creative talent and production resource that exists outside of your own company.
The move by Facebook brings to mind the fundamental decisions that IBM and Apple made right back at the start when they were developing and marketing their personal computers. Apple figured that if it kept its intellectual property to itself it could reap all the rewards from the emerging personal computer market. IBM took the opposite approach and licensed its IP to other manufacturers to make PC that were clones/compatible with their PC standard. Who won? Well, though Apple is gaining ground, I’d say that IBM won the first 25 years of this battle.
The same could be said for Palm, who decided they would keep their proprietary Palm OS to themselves and own the whole market. Wrong. Though Palm is far better than MS Windows Mobile, MSWM can be licensed by any hardware manufacturer, and so Palm simply cannot compete with the sheer number of competitions.
So, with Facebook openning up its API, how can it not get thousands of developers writing apps that leverage its platform. OK, so they cant charge for those apps themselves, and some of those apps may well be competitive with internal projects, but they see the bigger game. At a stroke Facebook has recruited thousands of new developers, for free, who will go on to make Facebook THE BEST of its kind. There is NO WAY that MySpace or others can keep up with them.
It takes a brave decision to do this, to loosten the reigns, but thats what todays wiki mass-collaborative market is all about. It is those companies that are brave enough to recognise this that stand the VERY BEST chance of winning.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Hey, while searching for widgets for my blog, I stumbled upon http://www.widgetmate.com and wow! I found what I wanted. A cool news widget. My blog is now showing latest news with title, description and images. Took just few minutes to add. Awesome!
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:53 am
Oi, achei teu blog pelo google tá bem interessante gostei desse post. Quando der dá uma passada pelo meu blog, é sobre camisetas personalizadas, mostra passo a passo como criar uma camiseta personalizada bem maneira. Até mais.