Question: What new technology will change everything?
Jeff Jarvis: If I knew, I’d be rich, and so I don’t know.
I think that it’s constant surprise. Twitter is a simple little program that lets you put in a 140 character messages from your phone or from the web, it’s micro blogging. I looked at it and I kind of dismissed it. But my 16 year old son and webmaster and the genius behind me said, “You know Dad, no you gotta look at Twitter again. Stuff’s going on there.” And he was right. It’s really amazing because it’s social blogging, you choose whom to follow and who follows you. It’s public conversation, it captures a kind of zeitgeist of the time.
I just saw that Reuters and the BBC are trying to do constant searches on Twitter for words like explosion and evacuation because Twitter becomes the canary in the news coal mine, telling you that people are writing about, their lives. And if there’s an evacuation, right now, they’re going to tell you that, and they’re going to tell you that before any news reporter would ever know this.
So Twitter, this silly thing of 140 characters--what did you have for breakfast, I don’t care what you had for breakfast-- suddenly becomes a whole new platform for understanding what’s going on in people’s lives. Who could have predicted that?
Now the fact that it came from Evan Williams, who also was a co-creator of Blogger, which popularized blogging and changed my life and the world, means that I do pay attention to Twitter. But I wouldn’t have guessed it. I think that’s what the internet is about is that when you put out a platform and you see how people use it, and when you get surprised, you’ve won.
Recorded on: April 30, 2008
Discuss
Pieter Jansegers on June 24, 2008, 11:48 PM
Some microblogs worldwide
This list is a personal choice and based on three criteria: ease of operability, quality of service and experienced functional up-time.
general
twitter.com
jaiku.com
pownce.com
beemood.com
twoorl.com
yonkly.com
kwippy.com
microblogr.com
brightkite.com
plurk.com
secondbrain.com
Chinese
fanfou.com
zuosa.com
komoo.cn
Portuguese
gozub.com
Brazilian
telog.com.br
Indian
snockles.com
Singaporean
tiish.com
Italian
meemi.com
Spanish
khaces.com
Turkish
nolyo.com
French
noumba.net
poodz.com
tapioka.ca
Korean
playtalk.net
Japanese
feecle.jp
German
niimo.com
Polish
blip.pl
Dutch
numpa.nl
Portuguese
gozub.com
Russian
smspr.ru
Arabic
watwet.com
Romanian
cirip.ro
Mexican
mexicodiario.com
Czech
http://drbz.cz
special
tumblr.com
hictu.com
babl.nl
floort.com
help.com
justtell.us
talkaboutadate.com
adocu.com
multiple posting
hellotxt.com
The most exhaustive list I know about is the list made up by thw www.thws.cn/articles/twitter-clones.html
Pieter Jansegers
http://microblogs.ning.com
Pieter Jansegers on June 24, 2008, 11:51 PM
Microblogging, not just twitter, has become a worldwide phenomenon.
Microblogs are changing the world:
microblogs are the world's first instant global mass media.
They provide an immediate potentially worldwide feedback loop for important information.
Pieter Jansegers
http://microblogs.ning.com
Pieter Jansegers on June 25, 2008, 3:48 AM
Some microblogs worldwide
This list is a personal choice and based on three criteria: ease of operability, quality of service and experienced functional up-time.
general
twitter.com
jaiku.com
pownce.com
beemood.com
twoorl.com
yonkly.com
kwippy.com
microblogr.com
brightkite.com
plurk.com
secondbrain.com
Chinese
fanfou.com
zuosa.com
komoo.cn
Portuguese
gozub.com
Brazilian
telog.com.br
Indian
snockles.com
Singaporean
tiish.com
Italian
meemi.com
Spanish
khaces.com
Turkish
nolyo.com
French
noumba.net
poodz.com
tapioka.ca
Korean
playtalk.net
Japanese
feecle.jp
German
niimo.com
Polish
blip.pl
Dutch
numpa.nl
Portuguese
gozub.com
Russian
smspr.ru
Arabic
watwet.com
Romanian
cirip.ro
Mexican
mexicodiario.com
Czech
http://drbz.cz
special
tumblr.com
hictu.com
babl.nl
floort.com
help.com
justtell.us
talkaboutadate.com
adocu.com
multiple posting
hellotxt.com
The most exhaustive list I know about is the list made up by thw www.thws.cn/articles/twitter-clones.html
Pieter Jansegers
http://microblogs.ning.com
Pieter Jansegers on June 25, 2008, 3:51 AM
Microblogging, not just twitter, has become a worldwide phenomenon.
Microblogs are changing the world:
microblogs are the world’s first instant global mass media.
They provide an immediate potentially worldwide feedback loop for important information.
Pieter Jansegers
http://microblogs.ning.com
Maryanne Burgos on August 2, 2008, 6:41 AM
I think that Twitter and other microblogging sites take some getting used to. Here is a link to cogdog's wiki that shows when many bloggers finally "got" the usefulness of Twitter.http://cogdoghouse.wikispaces.com/TwitterCycle
Maryanne Burgos
Maryanne Burgos on August 2, 2008, 10:41 AM
I think that Twitter and other microblogging sites take some getting used to. Here is a link to cogdog’s wiki that shows when many bloggers finally “got” the usefulness of Twitter.http://cogdoghouse.wikispaces.com/TwitterCycle
Maryanne Burgos
Jack Mason on September 22, 2008, 2:04 PM
Twitter is hard to appreciate until one dives in, so here’s a best practice in terms of getting started.
Start by following someone you know who’s Twitter savvy, and the look at some of the folks who they are following, or being followed by. Build your list of people you follow gradually, and don’t forget to offer something simple but interesting. A link, a thought, a point of view.
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