Apartment City

The working title was fittingly “Group Therapy.” Perhaps in a bid to throw rabid superhero fans off the trail, signs posted on streets denoting work on Marvel’s latest series, “The Defenders,” carried the fake moniker. The series, which was shot last winter and debuted Friday on Netflix, unites all of the heroes from the platform’s existing Marvel shows into one superteam. And in true Marvel fashion , the teammates do not always get along, occasionally bickering like Washington politicians — hence the winking “Group Therapy” title. Through the eight episodes, Luke Cage (Mike Colter), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Iron Fist (Finn Jones) and Daredevil (Charlie Cox) do cooperate long enough to take on a villainous group menacing New York City: the mystical ninja order known as the Hand, led by Sigourney Weaver. As with previous Marvel shows , New York is front and center. Jeph Loeb, head of Marvel television, has said that the city is so important to the atmosphere of the shows, it...

We all make choices — building companies or products or communities — around how much control and authority each of the participants has. Do we tightly control our users in order to streamline our product, or do we open up multiple interfaces and allow our users to drive? Do we share our data with others in the belief that a rising tide lifts all boats, or do we hide it to improve our competitive advantage? Do we allow users to deconstruct and reassemble our products, or does that void their warranty? Do we respect current norms of our industry, or do we see the need for disruption? In many instances, these are questions of centralized versus decentralized authority  — who has the right and ability to make choices. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. —  William Butler Yeats   In this post, we argue that we now have the ability to build more decentralized systems , and that these can often create a competitive advantage over existing solut...