The buzzword of the week is 'open'.
In the wake of both Apple rebuking flash, and Facebook rebuking the ethics of user interaction, everyone wants to embrace transparency and detailed analysis of what happens with data.
I'm of the firm opinion that everyone on this bandwagon is missing the point.
An open platform is good in my opinion. I made the comment that a progressive platform is a platform that developers can build upon and expand; that a progressive platform is one that evolves in the environment in which users find it most useful. An excellent example of this is twitter implementing the @username and #hashtag interactions, which began as user conceived concepts. But when Facebook decided it was going to announce to the world how you use it's services, critics raged.
When Apple decided it would mandate how Apps were developed, again critics raged. When Apple announced they would be metaphorically divorcing Flash, there was an uproar but there was the slight consensus "maybe this is for the better". Here's the common link:
After talking with a proclaimed software developer right here on HN, and seeing the response Apple published in the wake of the various App rejections and most recently the separation from Adobe, the rationals were both the same:
We're doing this for the users.
I call bullshit. Facebook has a track record of implementing incremental changes that despite what 80% of the non-tech oriented userbase thinks, is a 'good change'. This is crucial, because whether or not we actually like it, the conventional target audience of both Facebook and Apple are non-tech users who simply want a means to an end: communication/consumption of media. If they get that means, they're happy. Facebook and Apple realize this.
It's time we did too.
So here's what I'm here to say: Wired.com has issued a call to arms for developers to produce an open platform for networking and distributing user content. A democratic one, even. Here's what I'm asking:
Build for the customer. Yes, I understand how important it is that transparency and democracy have a place in an ecosystem where every voice has the capacity to influence the rest. But it's just as important that you listen to those voices and pay attention to the core principles:
We are consumers. We buy things, we use things, and when something better comes along we buy that. Focus on what matters to the people based on how the people use these products and stop trying to build a utopia. And when I say "based on how the people use", I don't mean make up your own ideals of what's good for the consumer. Interact, communicate and collaborate.
That's a thousand times more "open" and more "transparent" than telling users 'in an attempt to be open, we're going to disclose our activity'. Start from the bottom up, not from the top down.
