Why Twitter Is Significant

TwitterMap

A number of blog entries have criticized Twitter as being an over-hyped fad. The mistake in this reasoning is seeing Twitter only in the realm of stationary computers whether desktop of laptop. Within that constraint Twitter is only a limited Web 2.0 version of IRC. With people talking about trivial, immediate events rather than worthwhile information in expertise channels on php, c++, microformats, etc. The result is that Twitter soon flames out when participants tire of the inane conversations

But Twitter is not significant on stationary computers, but on mobile devices. It is a more engaging implementation of SMS providing location, time and activity information. Coordinating activity by location. Robert Scoble and Andy Carvin make the contention that Twitter could save lives in situations like the earthquakes, the Katrina hurricane and the Tsunami disaster. Within a mobile environment that argument holds weight. Individuals untethered from stationary and on mobile computers can coordinate with each other, they can solve each other’s problems. A more mundane example is yesterday Starbucks offered free coffee from 10 am to noon. Around 2 pm Scoble posted a twitter, “Free coffee at Starbucks today. I’m going to get mine now.” A few minutes later Josh Leo responded, “@Scobelizer I think it was only from 10-12 today… I got mine”. Apparently Scoble wasn’t paying attention and some minutes later wrote, “Ahh, Starbucks in Palo Alto on Middlefield only gave it away 10 a.m. to noon. Outta luck again…” Now Robert Scoble could have bypassed the wasted time and disappointment of going to Starbucks without getting a free coffee by noticing Josh Leo’s twitter. As people notice the optimization to daily activity Twitter provides, they’ll wait for and notice such posts.

The significance of being able to coordinate your life in relation to what others are doing and know as you move along in your day is potent. This could be seen in SxSW twitters as people said where they were in the evening at various eaters and events and coordinated meetings. I’ve heard from several people that the important part of conferences like SxSW is the meetings in the hall and after the presentations. This is where Twitter removes the friction and enables coordinated and optimized meetings.

The argument that the discussion on Twitter is insignificant does not apply to mobile communications. Compared to cell phone discussions on the street, buses, trains, etc., Twitter’s messages are much more thoughtfully constructed and directed. And mobile phone small talk is not going away

Twitter is probably the first wildly successful and exploding mobile application. The question is will it scale as more people come on board. So far it’s had growing pains with the cute kitty image server down messages, slow message refresh response, duplicating messages, and such. From last I’ve seen, it’s built on Ruby on Rails — a new interpretive web language know to be slow. Unless Twitter works to scale to a likely exponential rise, other startups will probably see the opportunity and take it.

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