Is the iPhone generative?
David Weinberger,
Joho the Blog,
Apr 12, 2010
David Weinberger links to a Steven Johnson column in the NY Times suggesting open platforms are not needed for innovation. "When Dan Gillmor challenged this in a tweet," he adds, "Steve responded with a terrific blog post, further considering the point." For a platform to support a lot of development it needs to be "generative", that is, frequently re-invented in a way that puts amateurs and professionals on roughly the same footing. And only open platforms are generative. But Johnson's suggestion is that Apple's platform is "generative", which is why we see 150,000 apps, which means a platform need not be open to be generative. I really don't think we should take that app count too seriously. Apple has created a platform on which pretty much every web site is its own app (talk about not trusting open platforms!) and in which, therefore, apps are simply recreations of existing websites, and while this represents multiplicity, it hardly represents generativity 9or whatever it would be called).
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