Dave Winer:
I wish every product had a spokesperson and ego behind it like the Kindle and iPad do. Take Flickr for example. It’s way ahead of all the other Internet photo apps. But its egos, Stewart and Caterina, left years ago. Since then it’s drifted on with a little of the momentum they left with it. And even so, it’s way ahead of all the other photo apps, as a platform. And that’s proving to be really important.
Big time agreement here. I’m constantly worried Flickr will shutter (hah! amazing pun!) because of how (mostly) stagnant it has been in the past few years. But the work they did to build their platform has kept them alive. I know several people on the Flickr team and they’re all awesome people—the product just needs a new leader who can drive it and keep it moving.