Marc Andreessen has written a great post on his blog explaining 3 types of Platforms -- especially using examples of Internet Platforms. He layers the 3 types of platforms by the level of sophistication calling them Level 1 to 3 -- 3 being the most complex and difficult to build.
Marc first clarifies by what he means by a Platform:
A "platform" is a system that can be programmed and therefore customized by outside developers -- users -- and in that way, adapted to countless needs and niches that the platform's original developers could not have possibly contemplated, much less had time to accommodate.
Level 1 gives an Access API -- These kinds of platforms allow developers to build applications and access data + services provided by the platform. Example Flickr, Delicious. The key idea is that the developer's application code lives & executes outside the platform.
Level 2 gives Plug-in API -- Most commonly these kinds of platforms allow development of widgets and Plug-ins to add functionality to the Platform application. With Desktop Apps this paradigm has been very popular. Example applications like QuarkXPress, Adobe Photoshop have provided developers the ability to build simple to complex applications that can run along with the core app itself.
On the Internet Facebook has a plug-in API. Andreessen points that code for Level 2 apps runs somewhere else...the entire burden of building and running a Level 2 platform-based app is left entirely to the developer -- who still needs to provide her own runtime system, programming language, database, servers, storage, networking, bandwidth, and security, and who still needs to take responsibility for running all of the above.Level 3 gives Runtime Enviornment -- With these platforms developers build apps whose code runs inside the platform. Example Windows Applications. Andreeseen points out to his product Ning as a Level 3 Platform. Bob Warfield has a slight difference of opinion shared on his blog SmoothSpan.
Another great post on Platform Products and their management is by Jeff Lash. Jeff highlights the importance of System Thinking while building platforms and refers to some great illustrations by Peter Merholz. The idea is to recognize that products are part of an ecosystem. Thus system thinking helps identify user pain points better while building platforms. (Do check the “Stop Designing Products” presentation by Peter)
» 2008 Killer Apps - Tools for Managing Multiple Social Networks from TheBizofCoding
Managing scattered online Social Life on multiple Social Networking sites, I sense, will become a Killer App Category 2008. There are several startups now in the "Social Network Aggregation" space and this App Category should divers... [Read More]
Tracked on: January 3, 2008 4:45 AM | Permalink to Trackback