The Shifting Website Marketplace

This is one of several posts inspired by thoughts and conversations while attending the Spring 2010 Internet2 meeting in Arlington, VA.

News from Facebook about their new move to corner market opportunities in the web's social network - Open Graph - is yet another reminder that the web ecosystem can radically change in the blink of an eye. For WebLion, it's a call for us to review the shifting threats and opportunities in our market and determine whether our strategic and tactical plans are still relevant.


Building websites and creating publishing processes has been our staple activity. But we've always worked against headwinds, and have been successful despite it. We have weathered meaningless religious wars over technology, and have allayed many a doubt and fear over our business models. We survive because we offer services that offer value to our partners and the larger web community. But we are exposed, like everyone else, to the vagaries of shifting markets.

What if the headwind changes direction? The rise of the Software as a Service and do-it-yourself web portals is changing the market landscape. But does it also change our strategic plan? The announcement of Open Graph, and the homegrown/user-owned experiments creating Personal Learning Environments around SaaS collaboration tools is a new challenge that will force us to take a hard look at, and possibly reinvent, our portfolio of services.

To be sure, new cloud-based services present their own risks and challenges to institutions, and the benefits of ease-of-use (it's "super simple" in the words of one presenter) must be weighed against new threat profiles. It may, in the end, be a policy decision not to use cloud-based tools, but relationships on campus will be hurt if the policy is perceived as mere IT protectionism.

So, how will we adapt to, and thrive within, this constantly changing web ecosystem? One thing is certain - as an institution we had best get used to rapid change in markets and in peoples' expectations for services. Constant change is the threat (or opportunity?) that needs the focused attention of the IT organization to continue its service success.