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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS AND SOCIETY SESSION 6 – HOW COMPUTERS AND THE WEB WORK SEAN J. TAYLOR ADMINISTRATIVIA • Facebook Experiment: See Beibei Li in 8186 after class (3pm-5pm) to receive payment • Varun’s office hours on Monday: 2-4pm in 8th floor tutoring area • Assignment 1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Understand how platforms emerge due to network effects. 2. Think strategically about how firms use platforms for competitive advantage. 3. Explain how standards emerge and how standards are different from platforms. PLATFORM OR PRODUCT? • part of a technical system whose components come from different companies or organizations • relatively little value without complementary products or services WHY BUILD A PLATFORM? • Firm is unlikely to be able to provide all useful services or applications ahead of time • Brings more value to users by creating room for configuration, expansion (product fit, value) • Lock-in for platform users who make costly investments to use them • Platforms are useful abstractions, even for internal use PLATFORMS ARE INEVITABLE DIRECT NETWORK EFFECTS INDIRECT NETWORK EFFECTS PLATFORM BATTLES MUTUALLY INCOMPATIBLE COEXISTENCE (DIFFERENTIATION) MULTIPLE “MARKET SIDES” TO A PLATFORM PLATFORM STRATEGY NETSCAPE INTERNET EXPLORER STANDARDS: SOLVE COORDINATION PROBLEMS • governments • corporations • consortia • professional associations • standards-organizations (ISO) • volunteers or developers • de facto standards STANDARDS: HELPING COMPUTERS EXCHANGE INFO STANDARDS AS LANGUAGES STANDARDS AS INTERFACES STANDARDS AND IMPLEMENTATIONS Implementations and specifications have to do a delicate dance together. You don’t want implementations to happen before the specification is finished, because people start depending on the details of implementations and that constrains the specification. However, you also don’t want the specification to be finished before there are implementations and author experience with those implementations, because you need the feedback. There is unavoidable tension here, but we just have to muddle on through. TECHNICALLY, WHAT IS A PLATFORM? • A Hardware and/or Software system with an interface for applications • Typically, a platform has an API--Applications Programming Interface: an interface (i.e., a set of standardized commands) that the underlying “platform” can execute Software creators use the API when writing programs • Customized “programs” (e.g., Excel Macros) Application Programming Interface Application Software (e.g., Office) Application platform Application Programming Interface Operating System Application Programming Interface Processor (Hardware) O/S platform Hardware platform APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE PLATFORM EXAMPLES Hardware+OS platforms • ‘Wintel’ (Microsoft Windows + Intel/AMD) • • • • • Apple (Mac OS X + Intel, used to be IBM PowerPC) Sun (Solaris + SPARC, also moving to Intel) Linux (Linux + Intel/AMD) Windows Mobile (Microsoft OS + Cell Phones) X-Box, PlayStation, GameCube… • The Web is also a platform Amazon’s Web services • Powerful retailing platform that lets other retailers use the capabilities of Amazon’s retailing site Google’s many platforms • • Web search, desktop search Maps • Others? PLATFORMS ARE AN EXAMPLE OF LAYERING • • • • • • Think of each “layer” as software or hardware that can perform certain tasks Higher layers can use the capabilities of lower layers Each layer specifies an interface that defines how a higher layer can “call” these capabilities Layering underlies the progress in Information Technology by breaking difficult problems into smaller ones and allowing improvements in individual areas without worrying about implications for the rest of the system Software layers can be improved, or replaced by hardware layers Hardware layers can be improved, or replaced by software layers LAYERS THE CLOUD! THE ULTIMATE PLATFORM “THE AGE OF THE PLATFORM” BY PHIL SIMON NEXT CLASS: COMPUTERS AND THE WEB I • Read about Moore’s Law • How Computers Work video • How the Internet Works video