Mon, Apr 30, 2007

Does Comcast have the DNA to compete in a 2.0 world?

by Austin Govella

For every organization, how do you best change your DNA to adapt to new ages? Is it as simple as adjusting your organization's architecture to enable more participation from good DNA?

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In last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, Jeremy Allaire said Comcast lacks the DNA to compete in a 2.0 world:

To play a dominant role in Web TV, Comcast also will need to do more than simply accumulate the most mainstream content. Other sites have been focusing on amassing thousands of videos that appeal to ethnic groups, hobbyists and other niche audiences. Competitors also are adding social networking and other features to their sites to distinguish them from traditional television.

Comcast executives say they are developing such features, but others say the cable operator has a lot of catching up to do. “It’s not clear to me that [Comcast] has the DNA or the understanding to do something like that,” says Jeremy Allaire, the chief executive of Brightcove.”

(From “Cable Giant Comcast Tries to Channel Web TV” by Peter Grant, p B1)

I thought this was interesting because the article is pretty clear that content no longer comprises competitive advantage the way it used to, meaning this old web trope is gaining more ground in the mainstream.

Secondly, it made me think about “DNA”. Mr. Allaire’s a smart, smart guy. What does he see that I don’t? Is it an outsider’s myopia? A competitors anti-PR? A visionary’s wisdom?

And the more important question, for every organization, how do you best change your DNA to adapt to new ages? Is it as simple as adjusting your organization’s architecture to enable more participation from good DNA? What happens if your internal conversations propagate bad DNA?

This is my question for Andrew: how do you architect community spaces to engender good DNA and fight infections of bad DNA?

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