From: Frank Boosman
To: Joi Ito <MI >, Epstein Jeffrey leevacation@gmail.com>
Cc: Rett Crocker cta>
Subject: udu Business Summary
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 21:07:46 +0000
Attachments: 2013-07-14_udu_Business_Overview.pdf
Joi, Jeffrey,
Attached please find a copy of our current draft business summary. We look forward to your questions and
comments.
As I was preparing to send this, and thinking about our conversation on Friday, I recalled some thoughts of mine
I wrote down a few months ago, contrasting what our industry currently thinks of as "software ecosystems" with
actual biological ecosystems. I thought you might find what I wrote to be interesting.
What we typically refer to as software ecosystems -- personal computer software markets, mobile device
app stores, and the like -- bear little relation to the real thing:
Natural ecosystems Software ecosystems
Levels / Many levels of organisms, Typically single-level
layers from viruses to apex
predators
Diversity Highly diverse, with most Much less diverse, with all apps closely related
or all phyla in every
ecosystem
Evolution Driven by natural selection Natural selection but highly vulnerable to top-down forces
Control No central control of any Ranges from none to complete central control
kind
Vulnerability Heterogeneity reduces Homogeneity (within single ecosystems) increases
vulnerability to threats vulnerability: analogue of a monoculture in agriculture, which
are highly vulnerable to delta in the environment, parasites etc.
Symbiosis Highly symbiotic Typically non-symbiotic due to inability to assume presence of
other apps
Of course, please take this with a grain of salt -- while my co-founders Rett and Richard have backgrounds in
biology (molecular and ecosystem, respectively), I don't. But I think I'm at least on the right track. And I think
that we at udu have a plan to build a software system that exhibits far more of the qualities of biological
ecosystems -- and to harness these qualities to make the Internet more efficient.
Best wishes,
-- Frank
EFTA00965278