What makes Twitter special?
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Yesterday, in an announcement about new funding, Twitter wrote that they see themselves as a "communications utility." I'd like to follow up on the blogosphere discussion (Dave Winer and Michael Arrington) and add my two cents.
First of all, I always think of water-cooler chatter as an apt metaphor for Twitter. Everyone likes to chat about small things that happen to be on their mind. In the digital age, however, many of us aren't working in traditional office environments, and we often have more in common with internet pals on the other side of the world than we do with our neighbors on the other side of the cubicle. So, we are naturally inclined to take advantage of a place where we can simply chat about what's on our mind with people who are interested.
On a more fundamental level, Twitter offers radical changes to the time and space rules of conversation.
What do you think? Is Twitter becoming a communications utility? Why's Twitter different than everything else we have?
First of all, I always think of water-cooler chatter as an apt metaphor for Twitter. Everyone likes to chat about small things that happen to be on their mind. In the digital age, however, many of us aren't working in traditional office environments, and we often have more in common with internet pals on the other side of the world than we do with our neighbors on the other side of the cubicle. So, we are naturally inclined to take advantage of a place where we can simply chat about what's on our mind with people who are interested.
On a more fundamental level, Twitter offers radical changes to the time and space rules of conversation.
- It's water-cooler chatter without the physical place of the water-cooler.
- Conversations can be seamlessly local (with people you know and see in the real world) and global (with people you only know online).
- Synchronous conversations can happen in real time without requiring synchronous attention.
- Conversations can adapt fluidly from one-to-one to one-to-many to many-to-many.
What do you think? Is Twitter becoming a communications utility? Why's Twitter different than everything else we have?
3 Comments:
Saying they're a communication utility is pretty amazing. It's also a clear dodge out of the way of being a community (and therefore not needing to abide by policing/moderation). Will be interesting to see this one continue to grow.
yeah, i feel like the label is justified, as long as they're unlike anything else; and so far, they are.
i mean looking back on the telephone, for instance, you would never think to judge them for not policing the community of telephone talkers, right?
eventually the Twitter brand/company will take a back seat to what the service does.
But when is anything that results in socialization not a "community"? Was it Twitter's responsibility to moderate itself right out of the gate; and if so, then when is it okay to create a tool and just float it out to the global community for self-regulated usage only?
I have to agree with the term "communication tool". It's functional and it absolves the owners from feeling as though they're under the gun. Best of all, in economics terms, it leaves doors open for others to improve upon this product if Twitter lets it falter too long...
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