微软的巨人之路

    上世纪80年代初，微软（Microsoft）发布MSDOS操作系统的时候不过是华盛顿州雷德蒙德的一家创业公司。但该公司从一开始就坚信其新产品非比寻常，MSDOS的设计允许其轻易兼容于不同的硬件，降低了潜在用户进入的成本门槛。而且微软鼓励参与者根据特定环境调整MSDOS，这意味着随着时间流逝，这个系统可以不断得到改进。

    不过，与其他任何优秀平台一样，MSDOS的价值在于其网络效应。尽管这个系统发布之初的用户基础不是很庞大，但微软很快就与IBM和英特尔（Intel）等科技巨子谈妥了合作关系，刺激了增长预期，推动更多先行者成为其用户。通过这种方式，这个平台迅速获得了临界质量，实现了网络效应。这种状态非常神奇，它意味着随着加入的成员日益增加，网络之于每个参与者的价值也随之提高。而随着这个网络不断升值，它就会进一步吸引更多的人参与进来。间接成本往往会拖累、甚至限制传统商业网络的发展，但由于微软依赖不断增长的经济效益来吸引、招揽参与者，从而显著降低了这种间接成本。

    或许，比微软的网络规模本身更重要的是，个体与MSDOS平台互动并对其进行调整的方式。从某些方面来看，通用平台使参与者置身于公平的竞争环境之上，使他们有动力去以改善性能的方式“保护自己的地盘”。随着参与者的数量持续增加，竞争压力随之加剧，赢得成功的回报也不断增长，永远维持围绕标准平台不断创新的良性循环。

    在许多情况下，不同参与者建立了协作，共同来改善网络，而另一些参与者则选择孤军奋战。无需微软介入调停，参与者之间的这些互动自发演变成了复杂的合作网络，互动不仅存在于个体与个体之间，还存在于不同参与者组成的集团之间。各种实验因此如雨后春笋般地涌现，许多前途广阔的点子很快被其他参与者采纳，而失败之举也成了众人借鉴的教材。如此一来，每个参与者以及作为一个整体的生态系统学习速度都比自己单独摸索要快得多。

    微软首个平台的发布似乎已经是远古时代的事了，但它已然彰显了我们所谓的“网络生态系统”的巨大潜力。我们在自然界发现的网络足以使人心生敬畏，而且无从解释。比如，一个结构精密的蜘蛛网可从其中心开始，不断蔓延到似乎不可思议的距离。就算风狂雨骤，临近的树叶飘零、枝条坠地，这张网依然安然无恙。因此我们不难理解，为什么很多领域都借用了网络这个兼具力量与精妙的象征符号（没错，万维网也是其中一例）。

    我们再来研究一下生态系统，也就是即商业参与者通过某种形式的合作组成的集群，我们发现这个了无新意的词汇完美地凸显了MSDOS和其他网络的微妙之处。这些生态系统格外有趣的地方在于它的可拓展性——网络拥有调动数十万乃至数百万参与者的潜力。网络的可拓展性不仅表现在人数方面，它们所能支撑的创新也比其他合作型生态系统范围更广。蜘蛛网的边缘往往出现错综复杂的图案，与此相似，特定生态系统的不同区域也会出现独特而令人兴奋的创新。

    Microsoft was still a no-name startup based in Redmond, Wash. when it launched its operating system, MSDOS in the early 1980s. From the beginning, however, the company believed that this was not your average product launch. MSDOS's design allowed it to adapt easily to different hardware, reducing entry costs for potential users. And Microsoft encouraged participants to tailor MSDOS for particular environments, meaning that the product could actually improve over time.

    Like any good platform, however, MSDOS was only as valuable as its network. While it did not have a large user base in its early years, Microsoft (MSFT) soon negotiated relationships with tech giants like IBM (IBM) and Intel (INTC), fueling growth expectations and motivating more early adopters to sign on. In this way, the platform was able to quickly gain critical mass and achieve network effects -- that wonderful position when the value of the network increases for all participants as more members join. This growing value helped to attract even more participants. By relying on growing economic incentives to attract and engage participants, Microsoft significantly reduced the overhead costs that often slow, or even limit, the growth of more conventional business networks.

    Perhaps even more important than its network size was how individuals interacted with and tailored the MSDOS platform. In some respects, the common platform leveled the playing field among participants, creating incentives for them to "protect their turf" by improving their own performance. As the number of participants continued to expand, both competitive pressures as well as the spoils of success increased, perpetuating a cycle of continuous innovation around the standard platform.

    In many cases, different participants teamed up to make the network better, while others chose to work on their own. Without any intervention from Microsoft, these interactions among participants evolved into complex webs of collaboration, where the interactions were not just one-to-one, but among groups of different players. This resulted in an explosion of experimentation. Many of these promising ideas were quickly adopted by other participants, and those that failed served as collective learning material. In this way, each participant, and the ecosystem as a whole, learned much faster than they would have on their own.

    The first release of the Microsoft platform may seem like ancient history, but it illustrates the powerful potential of what we call "web ecosystems." In nature, the webs we discover can inspire awe and defy explanations. A well-constructed cobweb, for instance, can span a seemingly impossible distance from its central point and remain intact even in heavy rains and wind that send neighboring leaves and branches to the ground. It is no wonder, therefore, that this image of strength and subtlety has become an oft-referenced metaphor in so many other domains (yes, we're speaking of the World Wide Web, among others).

    As we researched ecosystems (gatherings of business participants engaged in some form of collaboration), we found that the well-worn term perfectly characterized the nuances of MSDOS and other webs. These ecosystems are particularly interesting because of their scalability -- webs have the potential to mobilize hundreds of thousands, even millions, of participants. More than just scalability in numbers, webs also support a much broader range of innovation than other kinds of collaborative ecosystems. Just as intricate patterns emerge on the edges of spiders' webs, so too can distinct and exciting innovations emerge from different pockets of a given ecosystem.