Software (#DLD Panel)
Live blogged session from DLD Conference (Munich, Germany)
Max Levchin (Slide.com)
Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software)
Daniel Ek (Spotify)
Suhas Gopinath (Globals Inc)
Hendrik Speck (University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern)
Moderation: Marissa Mayer (Google)
To offer you a better live coverage during this session I’ll focus on Max Levchin (Slide.com), Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software). At the same time Oliver Gassner will publish content related to Daniel Ek (Spotify), Suhas Gopinath (Globals Inc), Hendrik Speck (University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern).
User trends in platforms
Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): In the past majority of people didn’t care about their user interface (UI). Then Windows and Apple started to develop nicer and easier to use UI. today platforms are evolving and shifting to the web.
Marissa Mayer (Google): So are we going to see Photoshop online?
Max Levchin (Slide.com): Probably we are still far from having full Photoshop functionality on the web, but today development costs are much cheaper and it’s possible to over a much wider variety of products.
Success of platforms. Can it be predicted?
Max Levchin (Slide.com): Not easy to do but we can see trends among developers, like the ‘free distribution’ that we have seen lately through open social, open APIs etc.
The other side of it is that distribution needs to have a clear path. Once we distributed it needs to drive to business. Path to direct consumer monetization is the next step.
Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): We don’t have to focus on ‘Apple store’ platforms, that’s not the only model.
Max Levchin (Slide.com): Young developers are in posses of huge audiences. This can be an advantage point for smaller entities.
So far we talked about what can make a platform famous among developers, but what makes a platform popular among users?
Max Levchin (Slide.com): [linking to what Hendrik Speck pointed out about success related to platform business models]
Someone has to pay, either via advertisement or subscription models. Consumer oriented models are rising and ad models are gradually going down.
Portable devices and portable data. Which are the roadblock to portability?
Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): People don’t care about it as long as they can export data. We have to enter this new order of ideas in which we see the user as content owner.
About privacy violation.
With privacy violation there’s a lost of trust.
Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): Probably Facebook would be a great application for CIA agents. People should be educated to use different passwords on different networks.
Software development is about people. What do we have to keep in mind when we look at development teams?
Max Levchin (Slide.com): Drive it’s really important.
Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): Differentiation plays an important role. Why Facebook is so successful although it has many competitors? Because it’s fairly easy to plug with other algorithms, nicer/easier design (fonts, etc.)
Max Levchin (Slide.com): It’s really difficult to define what really will makes react users in the best way.
Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): Product managers have to provide guidance to engineers and developers.
What is your unrealized software dream?
Max Levchin (Slide.com): Understanding why Apple is so successful VS Linux.
Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): The idea of computer to disappear, something like and invisible computer platform.
Author: Andrea Vascellari
Andrea Vascellari is the CEO of itive.net. All thoughts and opinions on this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer or clients; neither past or present. If you liked this post feel free to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, or subscribe to this blog.
