Please give away your platform

There are a lot of ways you can create buzz and thus usage of your product or service. One of these ways is to open source your source code for everyone to deploy, use and play with.

Widget-kings Netvibes is the latest to do so through Netvibes.org. Their official hope is to help the community drive innovation within the widget and personal startpages space. If I was running Netvibes, my unofficial agenda would be through this to drive increased demand and popularity for the original - Netvibes.com.

Now here’s a thought: What would happen if media companies started to open source their platforms? I know some of them run on systems bought from vendors with licensing fees etc., so this would be confined to the inhouse developed systems. What would happen?

Would it drive adoption by others and thus both street cred (and increased usage of the original) and valuable feedback on shortfalls, great ideas for further development etc. back to the media companies? Would it provide inhouse developers with an even greater incentive to develop tools that don’t suck (which a lot of media publishing tools actually does)?

I think so.

Vad NU! is a consultancy company owned by Mads Kristensen and specialized in helping clients take advantage of the business opportunities created by new media. Click to learn how I can help you and your company.