

Spolsky on Building Communities and More - worldvoyageur
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2011/05/07/spolsky-on-software-on-both-sides-of-the-table/

======
worldvoyageur
Select highlights version:

The era of software was a narrow period of time. Before 1980, customers
purchased hardware and software was bundled for free with the hardware.
Microsoft was brilliant because they realized they could sell software and
make a hefty profit from it. Today, we’re in a post-software phase. The
software isn’t the valuable asset, it’s the ability to tap into a community
that is truly valuable.

...software is not difficult to build and hosting element has become a
commodity; the hard part is building a community. That’s the unique element,
the people who you can convince to come to your site each and every day.

Lesson: Whatever you choose to do in your career, think about how you’re going
to capture a community. Stop blogging to your friends. Start blogging to your
customers and your intended audience.

StackOverflow wouldn’t have worked unless I had spent 10 years building a
community of programmers.

...skeptical about building on the iOS platform long term, feels that it’s not
a great platform for vendors because they have no control over whether Apple
allows your application in their marketplace.

Pageviews are so cheap to deliver that if you can monetize a small fraction of
them you can run a very nice business.

