%0 Journal Article %J Open Source Business Resource %D 2010 %T Keystone: Adjective or Noun? %A Michael Weiss %X The gopher tortoise is an unassuming land animal that inhabits sandy regions of the southeastern United States. Like many other desert inhabitants it needs to seek shelter from the heat of the sun. Gopher tortoises are very adept at digging burrows in which they can hide during the peak hours of the day. These burrows offer shelter to many other species that are not able to dig underground. Without the burrows dug by tortoises many types of rodents and snakes would not be able to survive. The existence of the gopher tortoise in its ecosystem affects the health of many other species. The gopher tortoise is an example of a keystone species or keystone. As in biological ecosystems, some companies or institutions in business ecosystems are instrumental for the better well-being of others. They play the role of a keystone. In this article, we examine the question of what makes a keystone a keystone. We introduce two perspectives on that question: one provided by ecology, the other by network analysis. We then review how the term keystone is used by the literature on business ecosystems. Two lessons that readers should take from this article are that the keystone concept, as used by the majority of the business ecosystem literature, is not clearly articulated, and that there are many unresolved issues in applying the concept to business ecosystems. %B Open Source Business Resource %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %8 09/2010 %G eng %U http://timreview.ca/article/376 %N September 2010 %9 Articles %1 Carleton University Michael Weiss holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University, and is a member of the Technology Innovation Management program. His research interests include open source ecosystems, mashups/Web 2.0, business process modeling, social network analysis, and product architecture and design. Michael has published on the evolution of open source communities, licensing of open services, and the innovation in the mashup ecosystem.