Platforms for Participation

The mall. The supermall. Walmart. Do you remember the buzz when the Minneapolis super mall opened? Leveraging web services to create a new and better marketplace has the potential to do for business what malls did for shopping. There is also the potential, and I believe it is a real possibility, that small business owners in America could lose their identities, if not their livelihoods.

Even though Walmart advocates deny the claim, most people know of downtown businesses that closed as a result of the opening of a mall or a Walmart in their town. This is particularly true in smaller communities where the customer was more than willing to exchange personal service for convenience and lower prices. People say that is the price of progress, and that is true, as far as it goes. Perhaps the bigger question is how can Mom and Pop storekeeper compete in a global economy?

Perhaps the answer lies in marrying customer service, sadly lacking in most Walmarts and mall environments, with emerging technologies. The small town bookstore owner who goes the extra mile to locate and order a special book for a customer, and then invites the author to town for a book signing, may find themselves with a new service to offer. Or perhaps they ask a local college professor to give a class on publishing, or genealogy, or any number of local topics that will draw people into their business.

It is a quandary for the small business owner. But web business, and platforming, provide opportunities for the consumer to have more choices than ever. So often people fear change, but what they really fear is loss. If we can identify what we think that we are losing, perhaps we can work through the process of identifying what we are gaining. In the marketplace, there will be losses, but their is also the opportunity for economic gain if we open ourselves up to the opportunities.