Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Review of Instaread Summary of "Platform Revolution How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You" by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Choudary



Review of

Instaread Summary of Platform Revolution How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Choudary 

Five out of five stars

 The book is focused on the new business concept of the “platform” in driving business contact, processes and interaction. It is loosely defined as a structure that allows two entities to connect and exchange something of value. The definition is rather broad, both in terms of the definition of platform as well as the “goods” that are exchanged.
 This is summarized very well in key takeaway number 2.
“The architecture of a platform relies on five elements: users, the item that users will be exchanging, currency, the filters that help the user select a producer, and the information used to make that decision.”
The example used in the explanation of the summary is the online video site YouTube. In this case, the currency is based on the number of “likes” and comments on the posted videos.
 The emphasis is on digital information, how it is transferred, used and reacted to. This is summarized in key takeaway eleven.
“Many industries, including health and education, are ideal candidates for platform business expansion because they rely on information exchange, have human gatekeepers, are fragmented, and have information asymmetries.”
 There have been many books and whitepapers produced over the last several years describing how the modern business can leverage social media to their advantage. From this summary, it is clear that the book is another that fits fairly well into that genre. However, it is a bit more academic in nature. Two of the authors are heavily involved in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Initiative on the Digital Economy.
 This summary makes a strong argument for this book as being one that should be read by all organizational people that make decisions regarding their online presence. 

This book was made available for free for review purposes. 

No comments:

Post a Comment