Platform Thinking

I usually don't like a middleman, especially I hate a real estate broker. They are the typical example of becoming moral hazard easily in the information asymmetry.

I understand that the middleman has information capability connecting with both seller and buyer, besides they are important information hubs. However, they are impatient of sharing their data because they are afraid of losing their dominant position. That's reason why they're easy to fall into greed for dominating.

Their fears are groundless. The world is changing. Our problems is much more complicate and fussier than before. It's hard to solve those problems by one brain. According to Wikinomics, people would like to contribute to the community.
Collaborationism blow up now.

At this state, what the middleman should do? Should they adhere to the old way keeping barrier or change to open it?

Here is a good example, instead of answering. Innocentive.com connects companies, academic institutions, public sector and non-profit organizations, all hungry for breakthrough innovation, with a global network of more than 180,000 of the world's brightest minds on the world's first Open Innovation Marketplace.
That's the platform thinking. Innocentive read both opportunity and risk on open innovation marketplace. But, they succeed in their business model by enabling solvers to receive professional recognition and financial awards for solving R&D challenges. It also works for ensuring organization sharing their difficult question to get a right answer. Innocentive satisfy both side with incentive and assurance.

Go back to the middleman problem. There are the billion of middleman on the whole kind of area. It means there are potential marketplaces if the middleman share their data to the public. Instead of commision, the middleman will get an advanced data from a bunch of traffic. The middleman can make higher value by processing the advanced data. I call it the value-up strategy.