How should platform be defined? Official definition is that platform describes some sort of software framework, which allows other software to run.

Let me go ahead and attempt to capture the current broader thinking- Platform is the software/internet/digital medium possibility of reaching out to broad user base.

Microsoft Windows established some time back as platform of great scale. Microsoft guarded it with all its might for a very long time. Applications designed for this platform could reach out to maximum and also Microsoft’s marketing push helped the cause. Then J2EE came around and challenged with its build once and run anywhere appeal. The real shift happened though when Google established search platform- gateway to the web. This platform was open and the deployment here was ‘links’ just like application on windows.

Strategically or unknowingly, Google is moving towards a much bigger play as a platform- iGoogle (where widgets can be deployed), small business strategy and overall tool utilities, all point towards a broader platform. It’s Google applications are available at an amazing cost- Free, we at OuterJoin are also consumers here.

Are we now witnessing birth of another platform- Facebook which would be the Social Platform? Check out the campaign - Save Business 2.0 in Facebook. It is clear that such use cases of strong social affinities will continue to evolve in Facebook, now with the strong adoption by older folks as well.

That also brings to an interesting question, in spite of being number one destination on the web- why hasn’t Yahoo been ever considered as a platform. Is it because of diverse businesses and absence of single focus?

Clearly platforms will evolve at a more rapid rate than it used to. Apple’s iPhones have potential to become mobile platform and we will see more similar innovations.

The official WikipediadefinitionCrowds matter! Imagine misleading a handful of people as opposed to a crowd. Easier right. When the crowd decides what’s good for them, there’s more power in their decision. Wisdom of crowds is a conglomeration of varied experiences and knowledge backgrounds of all sorts of people. Therefore, wisdom of crowds is never equal to an individual.

A market judgment of crowds is more reliable than gratifying advertisements. Let us look at a few examples:

Firefox: Most people use Firefox for their browser. The masses have used it, benefited from it, liked it and hence spread the word. Hence, an open source company without many resources could stand to the might of a much larger company with huge resources at its disposal.

Recommendation engines: Amazon has pioneered this concept. Again, it essentially boils down to - since multiple people who read this book also bought this other book and since you are buying the first book, chances are high that you will find this other book interesting as well. Now web 2.0 companies are taking this concept further where they are building new customer buying experience on recommendations from the crowd. Check out Baynote, which is called “Amazon recommendation service on steroids”.

Review sites are gaining popularity. People want to plan their next vacation hot spot, book their next table in a hotel, buy clothes & accessories to even gadgets, based on popular review sites & the opinion of the crowds. Quickly think & tell me the names of three video sites, and I bet YouTube is one of them you named. See, the crowds like it and so it’s that popular.

Idea generation & validation: Again operates on the same concept that a crowd essentially can take a basic idea to next level and good ideas will always benefit from crowd action. Checkout Spigit, spigit simulation takes ideas through three lifecycle stages before they graduate and move on to become successful in the real world. The three stages are called Incubation, Validation, and Emergence.

So, Wisdom of Crowds can be summed up as bundle of private judgments turning into a collective decision and hence crowd’s power is greater than sum of mass. Now the question could be- can wisdom of crowds be process-ized? Hmm, interesting, maybe another blog topic.

Web 2.0 in simplistic terms is really just citizen’s media which is blogs, podcasts, videocasts, tagging created, mandated, reviewed and shared by ordinary folks like us. Now is the appeal due to the fact that people can relate more to amateurish fresh content than composed journalistic creations? Let’s examine in detail.

Citizen’s media is about all what we care about and what we want to talk about. With all the barriers of printing and publishing broken down by the internet, everyone has a voice re-discovered due to an audience waiting to be reached and ready to listen. It is the power of the virtual ink, the citizen’s keyboard. The focus has taken a quantum leap from the journalist telling about so & so and such & such, to every individual talking about first hand details and perceptions.

There is no specified language- its grammar and expressions the way one feels one should use it. Liberty at its best? People are not out there to view perfection. They just want to be as normal as can be- moving away from the stereotyped journalistic standards.

At OuterJoin, we have welcomed this change right from inception; in fact citizen media is inherent in our service & product offerings. Our fundamental philosophy has been that every corporate need to track the citizen media content on a daily basis and they are opportunities to interact with potential community. OuterJoin’s Buzz Tracker helps companies not only to track citizen media but also provide actionable insight into potential trends.

Is it a function of times that there are rumors of Business 2.0 (Time Inc.) close down while GigaOm Network’s popularity continues to increase (Om Malik was a senior writer for Business 2.0 magazine covering telecom and broadband stories)? http://gigaom.com/2007/07/19/business2-is-gone/

Checkout- http://www.spigit.com. Spigit is one of our clients. They went live early morning today. They have been working really really hard (and the website shows - great UI and great content). We have been working hard to ensure that their hard work gets all the spotlight it deserves
Spigit is a platform that provides professionals the ability to showcase new ideas and innovations and in the process build their professional network. Companies and Entrepreneurs can obtain feedback-contributions-ratings from employees, partners and customers. Spigit has a simulation engine which helps in building and refining an idea, find the right resources to contribute, create buzz, and calculate a multitude of targeted metrics to provide insight into viability and simulate the likelihood of success.

Cool, right! The simulation engine is great, gives people an opportunity to test their ideas against simulated market forces.

Digg + Second Life + Linkedin, Give your idea a spin!