A friend asked me about the significance of Flock. Flock is a new Web browser based on Mozilla (the open source code base from which Firefox is also built) that includes support for shared internet bookmarks, blogging, photo sharing, and RSS feed consumption and remixing. The idea is that Web surfing should not be a solo and passive activity. Participating in today’s internet is (or can be) an interactive and shared activity.
I guess I see Flock as the release of a whole lot of pent up creativity. As with alot of the “Web 2.0” applications, developers no longer have to wait for an established business to develop the features they want. Development tools are efficient enough, and hosting is inexpensive enough that “the community” can bang out code faster than the professionals. Additionally, services that provide an open API (such as those utilized by Flock) are the only choice for the “public web platform.” Of course, the public web platform resides on someone’s server at the end of the day, and the incentive for giving away a free API is often only to build a community that can be sold to an established closed business.