Our Clients
Our consultants have managed third-party platform products and developer programs at eBay and Yahoo! as well as multi-million member social communities at BabyCenter and TechTV. Here's a list of our current and recent clients.
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Twitter is a short messaging service that brings together users from around the world to communicate and view information as it happens — from breaking world news to updates from friends. Platform Associates assists with the management of information resources for Twitter's third-party developer community and helped with the design and requirements for Twitter's developer web site launched in April 2010. | |
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Platform Associates provides strategic and tactical support to open data and online community initiatives for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART). We assist the BART web team with third-party developer outreach, an application directory, and the district's Facebook presence. | |
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Twilio provides a platform to make the creation of telephony applications easy. Platform Associates is a strategic advisor to Twilio. | |
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Platform Associates works with HP's Corporate Ventures group to formulate product strategy, create product designs and develop proof-of-concept applications pertaining to HP's web properties and integration with emerging social networking services. | |
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TokBox provides an innovative platform for providing peer-to-peer video chat in the browser. Platform Associates assists TokBox with platform strategy. | |
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Platform Associates serves as a technical advisor to Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), assisting with their student journalism Web site, The Loyolan. | |
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twentysix New York is one of New York City's leading solution providers specializing in Microsoft platform application development. Platform Associates advises twentysix New York on open-source strategy and supports its developer team with the adoption of new technologies. | |
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Alfresco is the leading open-source alternative for enterprise content management. The product couples the innovatio n of open source with the stability of a true enterprise-class platform. Platform Associates is engaged with Alfresco to provide strategic platform product consulting as well as advice and assistance regarding the creation and maintenance of a third-party developer community for their product. | |
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LogLogic is a market leader in log data management and intelligence. The company's award-winning appliances collect, store, and build reports using log data from firewalls, routers, servers, applications, operating systems and devices in near real-time for compliance and risk mitigation. Platform Associates assists LogLogic with the creation and management of platform integration products and strategies for use with their core log analysis products. | |
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The Code Project is one of the largest developer sites on the web, with more than six million users. The site is a wealth of technical content for developers. Platform Associates provides strategic advice to The Code Project, including assistance with site design and information architecture. | |
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Box.net provides a free online service that enables users to store and share files. Although many sites enable users to share files, Box.net provides certain key competitive differentiators, including an easy to use interface, a generous free storage allowance, and Box Enabled, a programmable platform that enables developers to integrate Box.net's storage and sharing capabilities into their sites or applications. | |
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Etelos provides an open application development platform that makes it easy to build applications that share the best of both worlds: software-as-a-service combined with the flexibility and openness of open source. Platform Associates provided Etelos with strategic and tactical consulting in the area of developer user experience, product management and go-to-market strategy. | |
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Songbird is a desktop Web player, digital jukebox and Web browser. It supports extensions and user interface customization. Like Firefox, it is built from Mozilla, cross-platform and open source. Platform Associates provides strategic product management and developer content services to support the community of third-party Songbird developers and partners. | |
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Breakaway Communications is Platform Associates' public relations partner. We work together with the Breakaway team to provide comprehensive product, marketing and communications services to our clients. | |
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Prosper makes consumer lending more financially and socially rewarding for everyone. People list and bid on loans using Prosper's online auction platform. Borrowers create loan listings and set the maximum rate they are willing to pay a lender. Platform Associates provides evangelism and platform product management services to the company and its community of borrowers, lenders, and third-party developers. | |
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Coghead provides a radically new way for tech-savvy business people to create, manage, and deliver their own web-based applications. The Coghead service enables the users closest to a business challenge to create customized solutions in hours or days at a fraction of the cost of large packaged applications or custom development projects. Platform Associates provides product strategy and developer ecosystem consulting to Coghead. | |
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Pageflakes provides a customizable homepage to make it easy for users to view all their favorite internet content and applications in one place. For developers, Pageflakes is a compelling and powerful content delivery platform. Platform Associates provides strategic product management and developer outreach consulting to provide powerful new tools to Pageflakes' developer community. |
BART Departures on Facebook
Late last night we released a new Facebook app, BART Departures. You can use this app to see when the next BART train is leaving from the station of your choice.
Once you've found the train you plan to take, you can click on the "I'm taking this train!" link and we'll post a little note to your Facebook profile to let your friends know you’re on your way. The application also displays the last few status updates from @SFBART on Twitter, so if there are delays or other unusualness with BART, it's easy to see what's going on.
This is one in a series of Facebook apps we've developed as part of our Facebook application development practice. Contact us to find out more about how we can help you with your Facebook strategy.
What Is A Platform Business?
The term "platform" is used in a variety of contexts. Early on, it was often a synonym for "operating system," but today it's used to describe a variety of scenarios.
Platform businesses create an environment of promiscuous integration as a way to accelerate operations, get closer to customers and partners, unlock innovation, and discover efficiencies.
Platform businesses have a number of attributes in common. These include:
- Platforms are open. A "proprietary platform" isn't.
- Platforms can be built upon.
- No one should have to ask you permission or pay you money to start building on your platform (although platforms can ultimately be both commercial and non-commercial).
- Platforms attract communities of builders. To thrive, these communities should be managed and nurtured.
- Building a community around your platform enables you to build your business more effectively with the enthusiastic help of customers, suppliers and partners.
- Platforms scale efficiently. Self-service access and low barriers to entry are cornerstones of this.
- Platforms do not discriminate between small and large builders. Some platforms enable small builders to compete on a level playing field and disrupt incumbent businesses.
- A platform is a two-way contract between the platform provider and the builders that utilize the platform.
- Platforms can be managed in a way that encourages positive outcomes for the platform business as well as customers and builders.
- Platforms can facilitate unexpected outcomes. This is usually a good thing, if it's managed properly.
At Platform Associates, we're here to help you build your platform business. Contact us to learn more.
LogLogic Developer Community Launched
Today our client LogLogic launched their first developer community site.
Platform Associates assisted with the strategic planning that went into the new Log Logic developer site, as well as the development of the site, inclusing content architechture and the implementation of the content management and community features for the site. The LogLogic platform enables third-party developers to use web APIs to create log management applications using LogLogic's line of log analysis appliances.
McManus: Develop iPhone Apps without the iPhone SDK
In the interview, McManus criticizes Apple's closed strategy and encourage developers to build Web applications that target the iPhone's Webkit browser. Since Web applications can be developed in nearly any programming language and don't require Apple's permission to deploy, they're an ideal way to support mobile devices without enduring vendor lock-in.
