The Center and the Edge of the Internet
March 25, 2006
There is a post on Archimedes Ventures LLC about the reorganization of Microsoft that addresses the more general issue of the paradigm shift to the Web as Platform. I liked the following passage, describing a short sighted reaction of those who are at the center now.
This isn’t the place for a full analysis of the emerging architecture of the network however one thing is clear, the edge of the network (a user, his PC and his publishing) is becoming more significant as a point of innovation whilst the center of the network is having to adjust to meet the needs of the new edge. A great example of this is the emergence of publisher tagging and the efforts of the search engines to take tags into account in providing relevant results. A bottoms up, edge driven, phenomenon is leading to an evolution at the center of the network. For the most part the center is trying to “bolt on� features that address the new edge, rather than reinvent itself around those changes. This can’t be a good long term strategy.
