A funny thing happened during Paul Ledak’s (of IBM) keynote at iDMAa today. He was ultimately talking about the promise of game spaces to become new distribution platforms. Of course he understood that this requires a very different model of production than the videogame industry currently opperates under. To deal with this, he mentioned an “emerging interoptability” movement that IBM is participating in. What I found so particularly interesting about this is that during the question and answer session I mentioned how console manufacturers are so invested in closed systems.
His response was to talk about how cable television companies were working together to create open systems. After the presentation I approached him, asking if I could get a copy of those slides. His response was that he couldn’t because they were closed. …
So, it’s a closed open standard? What in the world? Perhaps it will be opened later? The whole concept of open standards and platforms is that many eye are a good thing. Ultimately it is this same mentality that prevents the maturation of the videogame industry. So this emerging interoptability is going to kill itself before it is even developed by the vested interest in secrecy.
Now, I know that there are many companies which find openness troubling, but it is crucial to long term viability and stability.