Platform Thinking: History Beats Jarvis' Edict by 170 years.

In What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis makes many great observations about the new rules of business success that have emerged in the last 10 years.

One example is platform thinking, in which products and services deliver the utility they were designed to, but which users go on to embrace and use for purposed well beyond the original intent.

Jarvis gives the example of Craig's List and Google Earth which have been adopted in new ways never originally envisioned. And with the dramatic popularity of apps for its handheld device, Apple's iPhone is perhaps the ultimate testament to platform thinking by delivering utility that have nothing to do with the phone at all.

We were delighted to find a historical predecessor to this digital idea by some 170 years.

An emigrant ship Niantic was moored and then marooned at a site now deep in the heart of San Francisco's financial district. It was covered in a shingle roof and housed offices and stores on the upper deck, while the hull became divided warehouses. A wonderful historic example of people taking an idea, making it their own and giving life to new uses, ones delivering valuable utility that was never anticipated by the original builders. Like their digital counterparts today, we're sure they were equally pleased.

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Drinking Beer Helps Make Decisions

Surprising but true. It was a delightfully counter-intuitive discovery, one that parallels what we found under the cap of a bottle of Session beer recently.


















There are many choices to be made while drinking is going on, whether at a club, bar or home. Rock paper scissors is an old parlor game that Session beer brings to the moment, and it helped decisions to be made as the evening wore on.


















For us, it took quite a few bottles before we amassed the complete set (we think this was not an accident), yet once armed with our prize it became a recurring theme woven into the fabric of the evening as it unfolded, and part of the stories that were shared long after.

"Great brands are no longer the ones that are the best storytellers but the ones that the best stories are being told about" so says David Verklin CEO of Carat America. We agree. Though we have a hard time imagining he was talking about this specific brand at the time, his sentiment is highly applicable to it.

More than pure entertainment, the brand delivered utility, albeit it in an unexpected way. A clever twist to a familiar theme, one perfectly suited to the character of a good time out.

Anatomy of a great night out

This study explored the night-time social life of young 20 somethings. Its goal was to understand what space there was for mobile devices to deliver greater utility.

The biggest discovery was how much unpredictability and spontaneity were the main experiential elements that defined a great night in the eyes of this cohort. The video gives their account of its value. An abridged report appears here