Joe Andrieu nails another super post (where DOES he find the time to write/draw all of these???), this time about what it means for a platform to really be open.

My favorite part is that he doesn’t just do it in words — he does it in pictures, deliciously simple and understandable graphics that make it really clear what he means by “open platform”. In short, it’s the protocol, stupid!

Or as Joe puts it:

Level 4 platforms allow developers to build applications anywhere–on a website, on your desktop, even on your cell phone–and those applications can talk to any number of platform providers without restriction, using standard open protocols. Many of us have heard of the most successful protocols: SMTP, POP, HTTP, HTML, TCP/IP, RSS, but most users know these by the applications they enable: email, the World Wide Web, the Internet, blogs.

It’s the perfect message before the VRM Workshop starting tomorrow, and of course it’s exactly what we’re driving towards with XDI. One day I hope Joe can say the same thing about XDI – most users will never have heard of it or the dataweb model of data sharing, but they’ll know the application – VRM!