Talking about Platforms Platform participation strategies and collective governance with Rebecca Karp
Jan 4, 2023
Rebecca A. Karp, an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School, dives deep into platform strategies and governance. She illustrates how IBM's Eclipse platform opened up to accelerate development, balancing openness with quality controls. Karp discusses the implications for creators in today’s digital landscape, arguing that engaging them in governance could enhance platform appeal. She also highlights challenges for streaming platforms like Twitch and explores the future of creator economies, complementors, and ecosystem competition.
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Too Much Openness Can Backfire
- Extremely open platforms can reduce participation because quality and coordination collapse without shared rules.
- Adding communal standards and release rules revived contributions and increased participation.
IBM Opened Eclipse To Seed Use
- IBM opened its internally built IDE, Eclipse, as open source to speed development and seed usage across developers.
- They used a special license allowing contributors to profit from their code while still encouraging broad participation.
Design Governance With Competitors In Mind
- If you sponsor a platform, intentionally design governance to balance collaboration and healthy competition among participants.
- If you are a complementor, evaluate how changing governance over time affects your strategic position.
