Obviously everyone has drastically different opinions about the Facebook announcement and it has spawned some interesting debates.....
Owen Thomas of Business 2.0 and I debate a bit further on his "Business 2.0 Beta" Blog.
(Debate Below)
Kyle, thanks for the familiar paean to Facebook, but I fear you're the one stuck in the weeds. I know full well how loyal Facebook's audience is. And you've outlined exactly why any startup would be foolish to leap blindly onto Facebook's platform.
Facebook's users will remain loyal to Facebook alone, not to third-party application developers who happen to provide add-ons to the Facebook experience. If those developers believe that they'll get any number of users in the bargain, I'd say they're fooling themselves. The Facebook OS is a great platform - for Facebook, and Facebook alone.
Hey Owen,
Looking back I think I may have missed your point a bit. I guess in reading the headline "Facebook OS: Just Another Pretty Face" I thought you were coming down on the good of OS for Facebook itself as well. It will be a great thing for Facebook and the Facebook community and while I wouldn't go as far as you to say that developers should stay clear of OS, they should understand that Facebook users likely won't become loyal to their widgets and aps.
But why tell developers to stay away...Isn't this the same story as Second Life and look what developers have build that into...Look at what the One Laptop per Child project has created through open development and developer wikis. It seems to be the whole idea behind concepts like open source and from what I've seen it usually spawns some truly unique and innovative results...
Best,Kyle
Posted by: Kyle May 25, 2007 at 01:03 PM
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