Andreessen on Web Platforms
Marc Andreessen has written a helpful post on his blog explaining what he considers the three basic types of Internet platforms. These platforms offer developers varying degrees of ease and economy in getting applications onto the Internet.First, Andreessen defines "platform" as:
a system that can be programmed and therefore customized by outside developers — users — and in that way, adapted to countless needs and niches that the platform's original developers could not have possibly contemplated, much less had time to accommodate.Andreessen then offers a detailed review of the three types of Internet platform:
Level 1
Access API (application programming interface) — The developer's code is outside the platform, i.e., "The application calls the web services API over the Internet to access data and services provided by the platform — by the core system — and then the application does its thing, on its own." Examples: eBay, PayPal, Flickr, del.icio.us.
Level 2
Plug-in API — Platforms that "let developers build new functions that can be injected, or 'plug in', to the core system and its user interface." Examples: Firefox browser, Facebook.
Level 3
Runtime environment — The developer's code runs inside the platform. "The platform itself handles everything required to run your application on your behalf. ...the level of technical expertise required of someone to develop on your platform drops by at least 90%, and the level of money they need drops to $0. Which opens up development to a universe of people for whom developing on a Level 2 or Level 1 platform is prohibitively difficult or expensive." Examples: Andreessen's own Ning platform, Salesforce.com, Second Life, Jottit.
Andreessen's entire post is well worth reading if you're interested in being up-to-speed on the nature of applications it is practical for you to develop and/or use on the Internet.
Labels: Learning resources
posted by Karen Nelson @ 11:15 PM
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