As a student of Object Oriented Programming, I was always fascinated by the sentence that, to me, best described OOPS - "Classes are the first class entities in OOPS". Since then I have encountered the phrase "first class entity" in several walks of Computer Science like - Software Design, Architecture, Algorithms, Programming Languages, Web Programming etc. Each time when it is used in the right context and in the right way, it only enhances my understanding of the point of discussion and the views of the speaker/author.
I think it is worth trying to understand the first class entities of businesses, in order to clearly understand the value contributions, especially those of startups. In a constantly evolving world of entrepreneurship, where businesses with great potential go into oblivion, and others with sometimes, very similar models become run-away hits, I believe first class entities give third parties a hook at improving their understanding of the true potential. Once we understand these, a business model is just a set of interactions/relations involving the first class entities, while providing value addition to the stake-holders !
Here is what I think are some of the companies and their first-class entities:
Facebook - User, Information
Yelp - Restaurant/Business
Twitter - Message/Tweet, User
Google Search - Document, Query
Foursquare - Place, User
I think it is worth trying to understand the first class entities of businesses, in order to clearly understand the value contributions, especially those of startups. In a constantly evolving world of entrepreneurship, where businesses with great potential go into oblivion, and others with sometimes, very similar models become run-away hits, I believe first class entities give third parties a hook at improving their understanding of the true potential. Once we understand these, a business model is just a set of interactions/relations involving the first class entities, while providing value addition to the stake-holders !
Here is what I think are some of the companies and their first-class entities:
Facebook - User, Information
Yelp - Restaurant/Business
Twitter - Message/Tweet, User
Google Search - Document, Query
Foursquare - Place, User
