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"You need ... a business plan." I don't agree. What is the business plan of email (by which I mean SMTP, not some webmail provider)?
by twtw 9y ago
"You need ... a business plan."
I don't agree. What is the business plan of email (by which I mean SMTP, not some webmail provider)?
- dymk 9y agoYou're confusing a protocol with a product (or in Facebook's case, hundreds of products).
- nasredin 9y agobillions of products is more accurate. Products in developed countries is much more valuable than products in third world countries.
- Kalium 9y agoYou're absolutely right! A protocol doesn't need a business plan. Of course, a protocol by itself isn't very useful. You need services using it and systems implementing and supporting it, which do cost money and require some kind of resourcing model...
- gregknicholson 9y agoYou don't need services when you can just use tools. Is Morse code less useful because of the lack of viable Morse code service providers?
- Kalium 9y agoYou're once again absolutely right! You can use tools without service providers. You can use Morse code without any service providers whatsoever! Though using it to send messages solely to yourself might not be the best of all possible uses, it's absolutely a viable use. Similarly, you could implement SMTP for yourself on paper. It might not be quite what was intended or maximally useful, but it's certainly a use. Some people might opine that it's far more useful with services implementing it widely and making its benefits available to many. I can't say they're being wildly unreasonable.
- scrollaway 9y ago> by which I mean SMTP, not some webmail provider Cheap cop-out. "some webmail provider" is what runs 99.999% of email. The people who run their own email, or run off hobby email servers, are insignificant. You can't turn a blind eye to where the majority of users are going to be if you're implementing anything that actually needs traction in order to be successful.
- kabacha 9y agoNo, there will always be a provider to webmail because there's demand for it. "Some webmail provider" is irrelevant, nobody is tlaking about people who run their own server here. Federated social networks are like email: each instance is like the "webmail provider" you can pick and chose and some of them even come with their own clients and bells and whisltes. Protocol doesn't need a business plan.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- scrollaway 9y agoEach instance needs a business plan (or a way for the user to benefit directly). Those that don't have one either disappear or never grow past a few dozen users which is not enough on its own to push the protocol's adoption. How is this so hard to understand?
- buoyantair 9y agoTrue! A protocol doesn't need a business plan!