May
27
Facebook opens up
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Techcrunch:The fbOpen Initiative: Facebook Confirms Plans to Open-Source Its Platform
This is the first step in the Facebook strategy. Opening up the APIs will encourage more applications to tie in, creating a wealth of new applications. Over time, the applications used will increase and users will become accustomed to working on, in, and around Facebook. This usage momentum will lead to a usage lock-in, in which people won’t want to change from their regular habits. It’s not lock-in the traditional sense of software, but in a more individual, personal level. The irony here is opening up their APIs leads to lock-in.
The next thing they should do is to put into place the right incentives to motivate companies to start using the API. From a technology perspective, they should immediately start being very careful about the API migration. Once you have people making calls into your API, one simple change can lead to massive downstream repercussions for all the apps using it.
May
27
Web 2.0 article from Financial Times
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From Financial Times: Web 2.0 fails to produce cash
Quote: “The shortage of revenue among social networks, blogs and other “social media” sites that put user-generated content and communications at their core has persisted despite more than four years of experimentation aimed at turning such sites into money-makers.”
I agree with the comment that there is a shortage of revenue. This stems from a lack of true innovation. If you are creating another communication platform, there had better be something very interesting at it’s roots. If you aren’t differentiating yourself, you won’t be noticed.
The article mentions, but misses, the entire point of social media. It’s a new way of communication and is changing the fundamental flow of information, conversations, and collaboration. Expecting revenue to fall directly from a conversation is a little like a programmer expecting a new language to bring him money.
It’s not the language itself, but rather the application of the language that generates revenue.
