Jay Cross discusses an interview with John Hagel at FastForward and sees that a move from programs to platforms is necessary in a web-centric world:
The way out of the squeeze is to move from programs to platforms. He’s not talking about media. Rather, programs are push, content, and structured (as with software). Platforms are frameworks, networks, flexible, and loosely coupled. It won’t be an easy transition; many companies will die along the way. (The lifespan of an S+P company is already down to 15 years, an 80% drop from historical levels.)
Meanwhile, on the FastForward Blog, Rob Paterson shows how Wikipedia and YouTube have greatly surpassed both NPR and PBS in number of viewers. What is interesting is that both Wikipedia and YouTube are platforms, while NPR and PBS have been pushing programs.
I can see the same change happening in education. The successful institutions [if we use that term] in the near future will provide the best collaborative platforms. Those with only programs to offer will be sidelined.
H
I think that this distinction between a platform and broadcast/program/book will be THE distinction for the web.
In the early days of the web, there was relatively a small amount of content. Soon there will be an infinite amount. So the idea of having a “Page” that will be sticky enough to compete in all this noise is surely unrealistic.
Only a world – platform- will have this power. We go from asteroid to planet to solar system to galaxy – for as the universe becomes exponentially larger, we need more complexity to be pulled in.
I am wondering if a study of the mechanics of attraction for social objects might be subject to the same kind of laws that Newton struggled to find?