

Evan Williams's Twitter talk at TED - mcxx
http://www.ted.com/talks/evan_williams_on_listening_to_twitter_users.html

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ashleyw
Twitter has a massive future...I just hope they continue to open up their API
(public XMPP, etc.) so developers can tap into the ever growing resource!

I'm not a big fan of the billion webapps created everyday which uses Twitter
in some way which doesn't dig deep under the skin of the ecosystem, I'm more
interested in the fact that twitter is (or will become) a live database of
everything happening in the world.

~~~
gnaritas
> I'm more interested in the fact that twitter is (or will become) a live
> database of everything happening in the world

That's the first description of twitter I've seen yet that actually makes it
sound like something interesting, however, I still don't see how it's any
different that calling IRC or NNTP a live database of everything happening in
the world.

Twitter still seems to be like something kids are all excited about for no
real reason other than they're too young know it's all been done before in
various forms.

~~~
derwiki
Blogging was possible before all the popular blogging platforms appeared; you
just had to deal with all the headaches of maintaining a site. I don't think
anyone has ever claimed that the technology behind Twitter is groundbreaking,
it's just dead simple to post an update over it from any computer or cell
phone. Because it's now so universally accessible, non-geeks can do it. Which
has made it trendy. Which is making it grow.

I think one of the most important lessons that developers can take away from
Twitter is to make cool or useful technology available to everyone -- lower
the technical barrier to entry.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
_one of the most important lessons that developers can take away ... lower the
technical barrier to entry_ This is one of those statements that is so
blindingly obvious yet insightful at the same time. I really don't know why
programmers don't get it: nobody cares about the technology, they only care
what you can do for them.

I'm building my first webapp. I'm an embedded software developer: what I know
about HTML, CSS & web programming could fit into a thimble. But it's enough to
build the app I want to do. The thing is, if I were to bounce the idea off a
few programmers I'd immediately hit with resistance: "so and so is already
doing it," "no, you need to add this..." "why would anyone use that when they
could use Excel..." etc.

My idea isn't groundbreaking or innovative. I'm just taking a common task that
many non-technical people need to do and simplifying it. And hopefully I can
make it easy enough to use that they will part with enough of their hard-
earned dollars each month to make it worth my time.

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godDLL
What's intriguing to me is that they started with less features. I'll explain.
When some new thing comes onto the scene, like IRC or KaZaA or whatever, it is
usually very shaped, the creators have a specific use patten in mind. And so
they stock up on all the features that _they think you're going to want_.
Twitter seems different (not using it myself). It comes with _less features_.
And now, having listened to that talk, I can see that originally it came with
no "features" whatsoever beyond the starter "hunch", a sort of an objectified
idea.

That is what's worth a ponder, IMO.

~~~
jamesbritt
I'm guessing you meant "fewer features" (but you might plausibly have meant
"lesser features").

Careful use of few/fewer/less/lessor makes for useful distinctions.

~~~
godDLL
I did actually mean _both_. They have less of simpler features, a clear and
focused solution to a problem that did not exist (or did exist, but wasn't
obvious). I really love that, the "less is more" approach, the "do one thing
and do it well" philosophy. Just like UNIX utilities can be piped together to
form a new solution, their service is participating in similar "chains" to
become a part of something more.

That last sentence is there just to mess with you mate. :) Thanks for pointing
out ambiguity in my writing.

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mcxx
My impression from the talk is that they still don't have any clue on what
they've built.

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gcheong
Speaking of his experience with first blogger and now twitter: "I'd learned to
follow hunches even though you can't necessarily justify them or know where
they will go". Great take-away. I also thought it was interesting how the
seeds for twitter had been a project Jack Dorsey had been apparently working
on for a number of years.

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ddelony
Williams is right. Users will always find more creative ways of using your
product than you can think of. The best thing to do is keep things open and
stay out of their way. The other tech company I think is great at this is
Mozilla.

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voidfiles
Anyone else feel he still learning how to present. His presentation was well
written, but he needs to practice his delivery.

In regards to not knowing what they have built, I think that's absolutely
right. They built a platform for emergence. Its turned out wonderfully.

~~~
cpr
C'mon, give the guy a break. He's presenting to a non-trivial fraction of the
movers & shakers of the world, and probably doesn't have a lot of presentation
experience.

I think he did great.

