Two posts ago, I outlined two concepts crucial to understanding the Internet… networks and layers. At the end, I mentioned how the current crop of “mashups” are really what I would consider the “platform” layer. In this blog entry, http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=2:
Now let’s step back and consider what it means to be a ‘platform’. I came across a definition I like in a comment Emil Sotirov made on Jeff Jarvis’ weblog. Emil said that in the context of his work at AidPage “we call platform the thing that we want to enable (”people aid people”)… and not the web media by which we would enable it.”
This is what I have been exploring in relation to Web 2.0. Developers building software platforms is just one half of what Web 2.0 means. The other half is what everyday people build on top of those platforms.
So Web 2.0 is the Web as a platform. But don’t forget that it’s not just about techies developing software on the Web, it’s about everyday people using the Web as a platform for community, business, media and life in general.
So, Google Maps as a platform is not just the tools Google provides users, but also the mashups people create, which can themselves turn into platforms of their own by allowing integration of other data formats and sources not natively supported by Google.
