Telepocalypse

Stand on my platform and talk loudly

Om points to an interesting use of the eBay APIs to extend and embrace their reputation service. eBay have done incredibly well by allowing value to be created outside of their company, but with their identity system acting as a hub from which nobody can unilaterally escape.

As some point, one of these co-businesses is going to grow to become a potential rival. At the very least eBay execs will be tempted to seize some of the value they will feel has been "left on the table". eBay will have to choose whether to ignore the threat, incorporate it (for a price) or fight it. Will partners be allowed to feed off anything more nourishing than the scraps on the floor?

Skype (aka "vBay") hasn't got the greatest of track records in managing partner relations, frequently squishing those who create plugins with duplicate in-house functionality. Fine in the short term, but ultimately it discourages new investment. Likewise, Microsoft is notorious for eating up "partners" before the poison has made their bodies stop twitching. The result has been an dearth of innovation in desktop applications, despite the AJAX/Web2.0 trend showing there's plenty of demand for rich, reactive UIs.

The same dilemma ought to be facing the telcos, many of whom urgently need to open up their platforms to allow a breath of new creativity and innovation. ("But the public don't want a better voicemail system!" Oh yeah...) Somehow, half a decade on, the lessons of i-mode -- easily the brightest "platform" star in the telco heavens -- haven't really sunken in.