On Platforms, the Future of TechCabal and Radar

by Chuba Ezekwesili

Let’s begin with the necessary disclaimers. I have zero experience managing a forum or in the broader sense of what I think Radar should become — a platform, so these points simply come from what my understanding of a platform is and how it should function. I’m certain the brilliant folks at Big Cabal (rabble-rousers like Osarumen) have asked questions like this about Radar. And judging from my quick conversation with Banks some months back, they are definitely on an upgrade path.

I’ve had this article penned down in my head since May last year, but let’s just say that it was a busy year for me. For those who hate long articles, here’s a paragraph summary. Tech Cabal’s release of Radar was a game-changer move that could transform Tech Cabal from a pipeline model to a platform model. Radar isn’t living up to its potential and is in danger of losing its prospect of becoming more than a forum.

Before we go any further, let’s distinguish between a linear value chain model aka pipeline model and a platform model. Sangeet Paul Choudary, author of ‘Platform Revolution’ defines a pipeline as “a business that employs a step-by-step arrangement for creating and transferring value, with producers at one end and consumers at the other.” The current Tech Cabal falls under this categorisation, it essentially sells Tech news in exchange for monetising your views.

In contrast, he defines a platform as “a business based on enabling value-creating interactions between external producers and consumers. The platform provides an open, participative infrastructure for these interactions and sets governance conditions for them. The platform’s overarching purpose: to consummate matches among users and facilitate the exchange of goods, services, or social currency, thereby enabling value creation for all participants.” Hence popular services like Uber and Airbnb fall under the category of a platform, and so does Radar with the ability to generate content through the interaction of users.

Choudary posits that “platforms beat pipelines because platforms scale more efficiently by eliminating gatekeepers. Until recently, most businesses were built around products, which were designed and made at one end of the pipeline and delivered to consumers at the other end. Today, plenty of pipeline-based businesses still exist — but when platform-based businesses enter the same marketplace, the platforms virtually always win.” Therefore you’d want to be moving from a tech site linear model to a more scalable platform model. I’d wager this is in the works at Tech Cabal.

What could potentially kill this future?

Radar has the potential to become an addictive platform, however, Radar’s current state attenuates that potential. The deluge of chest-thumping, trolling and invectives on Radar, if persistent, will kill it. I was genuinely excited when Radar launched, as this meant I had a place to organically check up on the Nigerian Tech scene (or at least a portion of it) and I was interested in seeing how Tech Cabal could grow it into a full-fledged platform. However, I’ve been largely disappointed considering that the noise to content ratio has increased with the number of Radar users. Poor curation leads to poor content leads to poor product leads to poor experience leads to no platform. Here’s Sangeet Paul Choudary, author of ‘Platform Revolution’ on the necessity of effective curation:

“The key to minimizing most negative network effects is quality curation, which increases the chances of a happy match between producer and consumer.”

“One negative network effect occurs when the growth in numbers that enables more matches between producers and consumers also leads to increasing difficulty, or impossibility, in finding the best match. To avoid this dilemma, frictionless entry must be balanced through effective curation. This is the process by which a platform filters, controls, and limits the access of users to the platform, the activities they participate in, and the connections they form with other users. When the quality of a platform is effectively curated, users find it easy to make matches that produce significant value for them; when curation is nonexistent or poorly handled, users find it difficult to identify potentially valuable matches amid a flood of worthless matches.”

Radar needs a full time moderator and/or volunteers. It’ll be up to them to figure out how that happens. This task is more than Tech, it’s about managing human interactions and whoever handles that will need to be on point. The entire experience rests on this.

Possible Improvements

Quality Interactions & Features

When Quora started as a platform, the majority of questions were asked and answered by Quora staff. They knew the quality of conversations they wanted on the platform, so they nudged users to ask questions of a similar quality and expect useful answers. They set a standard of quality content by first being producers of this content. Radar might need to adopt a similar strategy and guide users towards a higher quality of conversations that are productive to the Nigerian Tech ecosystem.

Another strategy to elevate the conversation is one they already engage in, but should ramp up in 2017, i.e. more AMA (Ask me anything) sessions with founders, policy experts, relevant government heads, and recognised persons within the global tech community. Huge value add-on.

Segmentation

User-generated content on platforms like Radar thrives better when they are curated for segments of the user-base. It also makes it easier for Radar to target selected sections of their users. Segmenting content on Radar would ideally start by figuring out what users on the site wish to take away from interactions. Radar will need to figure out what value different groups of users wish to take away from interactions on the site. For startups, it could be esoteric ideas relevant to their goals and processes. For the regular Tech enthusiast, it could be the knowledge gleaned from high quality interactions with experienced founders, Techies or others like themselves. We’ve already seen graphic designers use Radar to share their designs, day-to-day goals and seek advice on their work. Radar needs to look into how it deepens and scales these sort of segmented interactions.

Better Matching on Entry

Effective platforms give users value right off the bat by reducing or eliminating the friction needed to use whatever service or product is being offered. The popular ones do it by constantly tweaking their User Interface and User Experience based off the feedback from users. The power of a community stems from the ease with which new members easily feel welcome. Likewise the biggest obstacle for a community-focused platform is the isolation of new users. Nothing has been more of an impediment in Twitter’s user growth than the feeling of isolation for most new users. The value of joining has to be felt right off the bat. Radar can make this work by matching new users to their selected areas of interest rather than leaving them to search through troves of conversations.

Email Curation by Interest

Radar sends out the weekly summary of top conversations on Radar. I think it would benefit them to go a step further in giving users the ability to curate content by interest. FT (Financial Times) already does this for me and it significantly helps in taking me back to their site.

Offline interactions 

I attended the first and — I believe — only Radar hangout last year and saw the potential of bringing these interactions offline. In a society where offline interaction becomes scarce, it becomes valuable.

In less than ten minutes of my girlfriend talking to a founder at the meet-up, he had found someone for his project and she had gotten a new gig. Don’t underestimate these offline meet ups, they solidify and accelerate online relationships. Would love to see more of these in 2017.

Gamification?

Radar gives badges for actions, but they’re mostly hidden somewhere in the admin dashboard. It should be better integrated into Radar. I’m an advocate for incentive based systems and I can see a case where gamification could help generate and improve content, as well as naturally select individuals good enough to become moderators.

APIs

I noticed there’s no Radar app and I’m sure someone smarter than me on the Big Cabal team has a great reason for that. Here’s where APIs (Application Program Interface) come in. APIs democratise the platform further, create additional value where founders might be oblivious and entrench deeper hooks into how users interact and consume content from the platform. Twitter had that and the muppets lost it in an attempt to control how their content is served. Radar would be wise to remember this.

Esteemed ladies and gentlemen of the jury, with these few points, I hope I have convinced and not confused you…whatever, you get the point. There’s so much room for Tech Cabal to grow and I’m sure they’ve seen ahead of me. If anything, I’m just airing my perspective as a user, and starting a conversation on what others would love to see. We could be collectively wrong on what we think is important to the platform that is Radar, but that’s the whole point of it, innit? Starting meaningful conversations that move the Tech community in Nigeria forward.

PS: I have no official affiliation with Big Cabal…well, except that Banks now owes me amala. Best get ready to spend at the usual spot when I get back.

Excerpts From: Sangeet Paul Choudary. “Platform Revolution.” iBooks.

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