Empires rise and fall. The same could have been said of Microsoft only 10 years ago. Every platform provider faces this issue of responsibility and power — whet

Empires rise and fall. The same could have been said of Microsoft only 10 years ago. Every platform provider faces this issue of responsibility and power — whether it be Facebook, Google, Apple or even Twitter. The really interesting, and perhaps more fundamental, issue is that the various independent domains of the past (entertainment, communications, enterprise, gaming, mobile, etc.) are no longer so cleanly segregated and have been converging quite rapidly in the last few years. This inevitably results in the emergence of superpowers like Apple. If we take this to be true, then the question becomes — what do we do about it? As entrepreneurs/developers/consumers, we fundamentally decide on the winners in these platform wars. But how do we counter superpower decisions? Lobby groups? Strategic pacts? Alternative, open, decentralised, systems?