What makes a platform brilliant? Tim O’Reilly suggests platforms have the following characteristics:
- Platforms spread when they are ubiquitous and barriers to entry are low.
- Communications oriented. Strong platforms establish and document the rules of communication early so that all members know how to communicate with each other.
- Rules should create an architecture of participation. Participation is easy with simple elements.
- Platforms establish clearly defined boundaries (an api) with clearly defined extensions layers (third-party apps).
- Extending the platform is simple with permissionless extensibility.
- Platforms are “open enough”
- Simple solutions allow for incredible evolution.
- Big point: people should be able to innovate on top of your platform without ever consulting you.
- Successul platforms drive using data. “If Google were a restaurant, they would be photographing the plates.
You can listen to Tim O'Rielly's full talk here.
2 comments:
have you noticed this: for each and every one of these rules, the opposite one can be said to be correct and/or there is an example where this rule doesn't apply. (insert Friendster in each and you will know what i mean).
either the principle of falsification is at play, or just the opposite: these rules are so general that they can't be proven wrong.
I never caught that, but I know what you mean.
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