
Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Django Co-Creator, Talks Ecosystems at Heroku's Waza - DanielRibeiro
https://blog.heroku.com/archives/2013/3/9/jacob_kaplan_moss_on_creating_ecosystems?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+heroku+%28Heroku+News%29
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mkolodny
Such a good talk on why building an ecosystem is important, and how you can
build an awesome ecosystem. Definitely worth watching no matter what web
framework you like.

Some great points:

• Prefer extensibility over scratching your own itch -

Rather than creating a new feature in the core of your project, and making a
decision on behalf of your users, create an API that allows your users to do
"whatever". That way, not only can you scratch your own itch by using your API
to build your feature, others using your product are empowered to use their
own imagination to do interesting things with your product.

• Keep the core of your project stable -

Stable APIs and standards allow your community to build things that work
together. "Interoperability only works when the common parts [of your product]
don't change ... Every time your break something core to your platform...that
your ecosystem depends on, you leave a portion of your users behind."
(Definitely timely with what we're seeing with Twitter.)

• Encourage participants in your project -

The lower the barrier to entry for participation in your project, the broader
the pool of people who can add value to it. Every step that you force your
users to take before they can participate, you increase the likelihood that
they stop using your product. Great documentation, and transparency in the
process of participation helps your users become contributors.

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mjackson
Watching the video is so much nicer directly on Vimeo:
<http://vimeo.com/61059530>

