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Build Your Business On A Foundation, Not A Fad

Open Standards vs. Proprietary Buzzword Technologies

November 16, 2010
No one but the companies themselves control tools like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. This means that they can do what they want when they want with your data.
We read an article today on the bickering and squabbling between Facebook and Google over who controls your data. This reminded us of an issue we’ve been meaning to raise for quite a while, standards vs. buzzwords.

We see so many people jumping neck deep into the latest buzztastic tool developed and controlled by specific companies, rather than investing in standards and technologies that can be relied upon now and into the future.



Standards
Take for example, email. Email is a standard and has been around for decades. It will be around for decades. This is why we all use email. This is why we all continue to use email and this is we all have so many different tools to manage our email.

You don’t have to worry about who controls your email, you don’t have to wonder if email will be there in the future. Email, because it is standards based, can be relied upon.

What’s more, you can go online now and find more information than you would ever care to know about the technical workings of the email standard. You too could write your own email software because there is a standard you can write to.


Buzztastic Proprietary Tools
Now, take for example Facebook, or Twitter, or LinkedIn, or MySpace...remember them?

These are all companies. They are not standards, they are not standards driven. This means that if they go away or decline in relevance, your investment in them also declines. The second they change their privacy policy, turn off a feature, or simply go away your time and money are gone forever.

No one but the companies themselves control tools like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. This means that they can do what they want when they want, and if you have a huge investment of time and corporate data, they can unilaterally do what they want with your business when they want.

This can never happen with standards. Standards are universally accepted which means they can’t just change. They don’t just go away. They are something you and your business can rely on.

Don’t believe us? Try to find the standard for Google’s search algorithm. Only speculation exists about Google’s search algorithm, there is no standard you can consult on exactly how it works.

Need another example?...ok, Flash. Not so long ago, flash was as popular as WordPress or Twitter or Cloud Computing or insert buzzword here. Everybody absolutely had to have a flash widget, flash interface, flash animation, flash something. Now, just a few years later flash is waning in popularity and standards like HTML 5 and CSS 3 are making it less relevant than ever.

Businesses that invest in standards don’t suffer the pain of losing time and money on whatever proprietary buzzword rules the day. Standards based businesses simply keep on trucking.


Everything GeekPAK develops is open and standards based, html, css, sql, php. Yes, we have our own tools for managing the data in our CMS, but at the end of the day, everything is standards based. The information and investment our clients made in us 10 years ago is just as usable and relevant now, just as reusable, exportable and shareable now. Our clients’ investments in us now will still be usable 10 years from now because they are investing in open standards.

If your business is heavily invested in the current MySpace equivalent can you say the same for your data?



Build On Strong Standards Based Foundations, Leverage Them To Make Use Of The Buzzword Of The Day
We’re not saying you shouldn’t engage in social media or any of the other sites that are popular right now, we’re saying that you shouldn’t lose control of your business and future when you do so.

At GeekPAK we give our clients tools they can use now and into the future. Those same tools enable them to engage in social media now, as well as whatever the next fad or innovation turns out to be tomorrow.

Are you as confident about your data spread among the corporate clouds? What happens when stormy relations between companies like Facebook and Google turn your clouds gray?
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