Twitter APIs are a Move Toward 3P Uniformity and Creativity

There’s much a-Twitter this morning about the micro-blog/social net/news feed provider’s decision to effectively rein in third-party developers with its new API. There will be new limits for developers on the numbers of third-party apps, the numbers of users/Twitter clients per each app, and how apps are authenticated by Twitter. If the blogosphere is to believed, developers are up in arms, mainly aroused against Twitter’s effrontery in trying to dictate what developers do and how they do it.

It’s a symptom seen more and more in today’s loosely-coupled, everything-is-open, “boundary-free enterprise™” business and IT environment, borne of the increased sense of community involvement fostered by socially-adroit IT providers along with open source movements and a massive audience of capable developers/users. Users and developers are made to feel as if they truly are part of what the provider is and does, and thus feel and behave as if they have a significant voice if not control over the same.

The reality is that IT providers, whether Cloud-based, socially-oriented, or traditionally data-center-centric, will do everything reasonably possible and likely to protect their business, and that includes how other businesses – including single-party developers – build off of and profit from them.

Twitter, like Facebook and Salesforce before it, has created an outstanding sense of community and belonging that has both contributed to its own success and created massive opportunities for third parties to succeed as well. But the bottom line is the bottom line. Once a provider establishes a market, it must do all possible to protect and promote its dominance over that market, and Twitter’s push toward client limits and associated development uniformity is just such a move.

Should developers suddenly be wary of Twitter, or of other providers that might execute similar moves to control and manage how its services and software are accessed or built upon? Only the most naive ones, unaccustomed to the realities of software business. The most creative developers will find new and better ways of building on and profiting from Twitter, or other platforms, and the best will likely go on to develop other types of platforms and communities – and maybe win awards for doing so.

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Guptill’s research background includes several years as a VP and research director with Gartner, senior positions with TeleChoice and Robert Frances Group, and editorial work within the IDG companies, including four years as a writer and editor with NetworkWorld. His marketing business focus was honed as VP of marketing for firms ranging from custom development providers to non-IT firms in aviation and other industries. His sales and channel experience started by traveling with a sample bag, then working for IT VARs, then advising telecom and wireless carriers on partner choices, to developing partner programs for traditional and Cloud-based software development firms and ISVs.
Guptill holds an MBA in marketing and finance, and a BA in the psychology and business of mass media communication. He is licensed to fly airplanes, drive boats, and sell houses; he is also a certified baseball coach, serves on the boards of regional civic groups, and is a serial home renovator. Married with three children, Guptill resides on Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts, and is a lifelong fan of the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and the University of Connecticut Huskies.

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