Of Long-Tails, Innovator’s Dilemmas and Network Effects

A colleague of mine sent me this video to ponder.  I especially love getting stuff from a couple of years ago that reinforce my current thinking.  I’m so glad I didn’t think of it first, it means it might actually have a prayer of becoming reality!

If for some reason your browser won’t work with the embedded video,  here’s the link:  http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid9774584001?bctid=18884159001

I’ve commented on the parts I think salient according to the timeline.

It is interesting to note that what Dr. Flake is actually doing is a kind of post-mortem or lessons learned.  For those from cross’d the creek over yonder, it’s more liken a lesson learnt.  ;-)

If anyone’s interested, I just finished the Google Story which actually goes into a lot of detail about this.

11:00 Dr. Flake offers a great analogy to explain the concepts of a Long Tail. 

15:00 He gives a great overview of the Innovators Dilemma which I believe payments companies have faced multiple times. 

19:45 He explains the Network effect, also known as Metcalfe’s Law.

21:20 He talks about the multi-sided network of Payors and Payees.

27:30 He gives a great example of a Payments / Transactions –> Analytics –> Insights virtuous circle which one can draw back to customers at the top.

29:00 He too surmises that Payments eventually can and will be FREE.  A novel concept.  Listen carefully as to why though… He’s crazy, right?   ;-)

32:00 Will the Payment’s company go the way of the encyclopedia salesman?   Interesting question!