Chapter Three: Both Sides Now

Two features of the technology we described in the last chapter shape the economics of software platforms. Software platforms are a written product of the mind. They are in effect documents, usually written in a high-level computer language. The code involved is malleable. It can be moved, altered, added to, and subtracted from with great ease. It is created almost entirely by people— “almost” because, like composers and writers, most programmers use computers for help.