(2015-04-13) Dixon Can Open Systems Win

Chris Dixon believes the OpenWeb will rise again contra the closed AppStore (Apple) and Walled Garden-s (FaceBook) as the closed services atrophy and entrepreneurs & developers go elsewhere.

Evan Williams is more pessimistic, quoting Tim Wu on the history of Radio and TV, and noting Maybe AOL losing to the Internet was just because it couldn’t scale fast enough.

John O. Lilly (ex-of-MozIlla) also refers to Tim Wu. I now believe that technology waves tend to go from closed to open and then back to closed again, with the dominant players becoming dominant based on their strength of network distribution (Network Effect)... The only thing that really unseats these entrenched networks is the rise of the next technology wave (Disruptive Innovation).

John Borthwick: The swing of the pendulum between open and closed — is driven by tension on either pole, as if there were physics to this — tension in the marketplace for ideas is like gravitational pull. And so long as the nexus of distribution isn’t controlled by either by single company or by law (an internet license like to the radio license) (Monopoly) the tension will continue to pull us back and forth... Scale, Strategy Tax and hubris start to eat at the company.

cf 2013-09-23-ThompsonContraChristensenApple