Be In The Game

The rate of innovation within software development is a constant source of inspiration that modern marketeers can tap into.  For example, today Yahoo has announced a move that (in English) invites programmers anywhere to use the company's technology to build things that might encourage Yahoo's gazillion customers to spend a bit more time Yahooing.  And they will pay hard cash for the ones that are popular.  For non-techies, the only thing to remember is that this is all made possible by the advances in a technology called Application Programming Interfaces, thankfully known as APIs.  Those three letters, just like RSS a few years, ago are set to feature in a million marketing powerpoints over the coming years.  In this post, Alex Barnett, an old colleague of mine, delves a little deeper into the technical aspects of the Yahoo moves but also goes beyond the big widget-yawn: "Play, innovate, experiment, make mistakes but LEARN what it takes to succeed in the future - 'cause it's coming at us faster than we think.  This is not a time for analysis paralysis."  Now that's easier said than done but the companies that can create the type of culture where it's a bit easier are, at the very least, going to be in the game.  And, note, we aren't just talking technology.