Have you read Kevin Kelly\u2019s book, New Rules for The New Economy?\u00a0 If not, you should.\u00a0 Originally published in 1998, it\u2019s amazing how it has held up over time.\u00a0 Kevin has been\u00a0re-publishing it bit by bit\u00a0on his blog, and I\u2019ve been enjoying a fresh read.<\/p>\n
Some people were (and are still) critical of it, however most truly interesting books are never praised 100%.<\/p>\n
I especially enjoyed\u00a0this bit\u00a0from Chapter 5:<\/p>\n
Maximizing the value of the net itself soon becomes the number one strategy for a firm. For instance, game companies will devote as much energy to promoting the platform\u2013the tangle of users, game developers, and hardware manufacturers\u2013as they do to their games. For unless their web thrives, they die. This represents a momentous change\u2013a complete shift in orientation.<\/p>\n
The prosperity of a firm is directly linked to the prosperity of its network. As the platform or standard it operates on flourishes, so does the firm.<\/em><\/p>\n
Formerly, employees of a firm focused their attention on two loci: the firm itself and the marketplace.<\/p>\n
Now there is a third horizon to consider: the network. The network consists of subcontractors, vendors and competitors, emerging standards for exchanges, the technical infrastructure of commerce, and the web of consumers and clients.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sounds a lot like artists and app developers in the dance with Apple and iTunes.\u00a0 Apple actively promotes the applications and music as much as their devices.\u00a0 In fact, Apple is already so far evolved in this they integrate the content within the marketing of the devices thsemlves.<\/p>\n
WordPress \u2013 although open source \u2013 is similar.\u00a0 There is a tangle of developers, designers, businesses and influential users all depending on the platform.\u00a0 It\u2019s a rich ecosystem in and of itself.\u00a0 And when any of these constituents do better, WordPress wins.\u00a0 By encouraging the network to grow and spawn additional offshoots \u2013 in ways perhaps never intended by the original creators \u2013 the host grows.<\/p>\n
Did Twitter intend for multiple clients to be created like\u00a0TweetDeck?\u00a0 Did they know developers would create influence tools like\u00a0Klout?\u00a0 Did they know someone would create CRM tools like\u00a0CoTweet?\u00a0 No, they couldn\u2019t possibly have predicted that:\u00a0 but they enabled it through an open API.\u00a0 Essentially this allowed an organic network to form surrounding them.\u00a0 Now they promote those tools within Twitter itself and understand that as the network grows, their company grows.<\/p>\n
The best part?\u00a0 You don\u2019t even have to be an Apple, WordPress or Twitter to take advantage of this strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you read Kevin Kelly\u2019s book, New Rules for The New Economy?\u00a0 If not, you should.\u00a0 Originally published in 1998, … <\/p>\n