Opportunity, Creativity and Twitter
The room is filling up and this session is about to start
Biz is one of the co-founders of Twitter and there is a packed lecture theatre.
Wants to give us the inside story of how Twitter got going - and share how the business is developing
You have to be on the look out for mistakes that aren't actually mistakes. Ev saw this at blogger too. The little side project can blow up big and 'be the thing'.
Biz Stone (@biz) masterclass at #SVCO live blogging
bit.ly #media140
'Creativity is a renewable resource' and he's telling a story about a job shifting boxes he had when he was a student. Designed a book jacket he 'sneaked' into a pitch -"What the box guy?" - which led to him being recruited to work at the company.
This realisation led him to think about 'fun to solve' puzzles (or a major pain in the butt) - chose the former and stayed happy when everyone else was miserable (says he's a pain in the butt!)
"Entrepreneurism means becoming mortal
You have to go for it and either fail 100% and go back to what you're doing or succeed.
Humour and playfulness are essential for success
It's hard to make a start-up work without a sense of humour.
Social alchemy is taking place
Over the last 10 years people have moved to more communication being public - openness delivers value.
Biz Stone (@biz) masterclass at #SVCO live blogging
bit.ly "Social alchemy is happening"
This new transparency is leading to positive global impacts from the open exchange of information - this is what we believe at Twitter.
Biz Stone: Twitter guiding principle: open xchange of info has a positive global impact #svco
We've come to learn this as we see things happen across the world - Twitter is about being more informed, becoming more engaged and then becoming more empatheic. This leads to a greater sense of what it means to become a global citizen.
About Twitter
We took 2 weeks to build a prototype
Biz and Ev were competing; and Ev's company got acquired by Google. They left Google about the same time - to work on an mp3 RSS link type thing
The started a company which was about podcasting - but Apple introducing podcasting into iTunes turned them off; especially as they weren't passionate about 'listening to geeks talk for an hour and a half.
[Shows the early picture of how the interface might look]
The first interface design for Twitter #svco listening to @biz
twitpic.comTwitter is fun but it's not useful - and Ev said 'neither is ice-cream'
A lot of geeks in the Bay area started using it and criticising it. But we just wanted to have fun.
It really started to take off at South by Southwest - people started leaving a session - as if there was a PA announcement - there was communication that people were finding a different panel interesting. Example of later use of Twitter and going to a pub a SXSW
Rudimentary communication by individuals - that then looks like 'flocking'
Tiny bits of information can have a profound impact
Biz gives an example of a photographer arrested by police in Egypt - one word tweet "arrested" and his friends saw it and got him released - one word tweet "released"
Twitter is about the triumph of humanity, not the triumph of technology
Example of using Twitter for earthquake alerts.
Now the example of the hashtag for use in searching for particular terms.
Other examples of Twitter use - Mumbai; picked up from analysing trends on Twitter. Then the protests in Iran. The use of Tweets in the Moldovian protests.
What do you hope that people will say about Twitter - that's where the humanity quote comes from.
Organisations and companies adopted Twitter quickly
Comcast began using it to look at what people (bloggers) were saying about them. Huge companies using it for realtime responses to customer compliants. Each contact is a marketing opportunity.
Increased use of Twitter by NASA - for the Mars Phoenix lander. Got under the corporate radar screen because it was 'only Twitter' - 50,000 followers overnight.
Local businesses are using it for realtime promotion of products - example of hot cookies straight out of the oven.
"Little guys who don't create a website can use Twitter" - not just about big companies
what's inspiring to us is that little businesses and entrepreneurs can benefit from twitter, not just big companies - Biz Stone #svco
A rich and diverse ecosystem has emerged
They've been really open with the API - this has helped to spread the distribution of Tweets. When we go to market on the revenue strategy this will stand us in good stead - he says.
Companies are beginning to build companies on Twitter - it's a very rich ecosystem. We are launching new features - which we broadcast to platform developers - and they need to be able to take advantage of new features.
"We are one of the few internet companies that has mobile in its DNA" - @biz says at #svco which has speeded adoption he says
"We are one of the few internet companies that has mobile in its DNA"
The potential for impact increases with the focus on mobile
What does it mean to build a company today?
Biz Stone: to build a company today involves having a crack at global issues, eg access to clean water #svco
Biz Stone: deciding to take on a global issue doesn't mean you need to be arrogant enough to think you're going to solve them #svco
You have to be able to find a way to engage with global issues - example of clean water campaign and Twestival raising money for CleanWater charity.
Then they moved into literacy - and they moved into wine growing where the proceeds go to 'Room to Read'
It's not just altruistic - it's also about being a company that people want to work with because of what it does.
thinking about global and local issues builds a positive culture at work - Biz Stone #svco
Now he's sharing some things about Twitter - things they as new hires to 'assume'
#1 We can change the world, build a business and have fun
#2 We don't know what's going to happen
#3 There's a creative answer to every problem
#4 There are more smart people outside the company than within
#5 We will win if we always do the right thing for our users
#6 We can do better
#7 The only deal with doing is the win-win deal
#8 Your co-workers are smart and have good intentions
#9 We all have room to grow
#10 We're just getting started
"Twitter makes revenue right now but we needed to create value first before we could find a way to make profit"; we don't care where people consume or create Tweets - it's about the whole ecosystem. We always knew we wanted to do this - we are calling it 'commercial accounts' - which would include analytics about the Tweets especially for companies.
"2010 will be a revenue year but we have plenty of time as we raised enough capital"
Q re ecosystem - what is the relationship with those who build on top of Twitter "We think we can help them make more money. For now we get value out of the experimentation"
"It's a fundamentally different model from Facebook - but yeah I guess they are our closest competitors"
"Our thing is about being an information network with a fundamentally open model"
when Twitter goes to market we will work out a way to share the value thru the whole twitter eco-system @biz #svco
constraint does inspire creativity. constraint allows twitter to behave like water, can find it's way into networks&srch engines @biz #svco
[I asked a question and so stopped blogging for a bit - apologies]
Q re investors - first investor was Fred Wilson at Union Street Ventures because he was a Twitter user. Relevant and useful stuff Ferd was putting on his blog.
[Event ended - thanks for watching]
I'm using this site to liveblog Boz Stone's masterclass at Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford - please forgive any typing errors - will clean these up later
by thelastromantic via Yfrog 11/23/2009 3:52:55 PM
by brian_condon via Twitpic 11/23/2009 4:09:00 PM