What is Twitter?  Hear what co-founder Ev Williams has to say about it at TED, one of the most interesting conferences in the world.

Ev Williams, co-founder of Twitter, explains how Twitter came to be and how it continues to surprise him as it evolves.  Since it’s beginnings in the latter 1990’s The TED conference puts the most interesting people in the fields of technology, education, and design on stage before some of the smartest and most influential audiences.

TED - Evan Williams on Twitter

It’s still early, but I am convinced Twitter is a major phenomenon, not just a fad.  In fact it could be revolutionary.  Twitter is a new medium cobbled together from various preexisting parts that is much more than the sum of those parts.

The phenomenon is  hard to grasp at first, but that has no effect on it’s significance or it’s potential to revolutionize the way people interact. 

This isn’t as revolutionary as the web itself was, but it’s way up on the list.  Just how high Twitter will rank will be determined over the next 3 to 5 years as it spreads it’s tentacles into our connected lives.

I like to watch the frontiers of technology for new developments and I like to see if I can predict the effects those will have over time.  I started doing this way back when the first PCs were being marketed.  Not the IBM variety.  I’m taking the S100 bus and forward, but that’s another story.  (That was in the late 70’s during my college years.)

As a software engineer and then as a development manager, I always wanted to know where things were going.  I wanted to be sure our systems didn’t just meet current needs, but predictable future needs as well. As they say “don’t go to where the ball is, go to where the ball is going to be”.

During the 80’s I was working in a large company whose applications were based on mainframes.  I was always working to bridge the gap to PCs.  I watched as the PC revolution came through and peaked.  I felt left behind.  I focused on Windows-based systems, but I wondered if there would ever be another boom like the one that drove the PC.  After some consideration I figured that the pace of change was only accelerating so there should be at least one or two more major waves of change before I hit retirement.  Boy, was that right.

This interest in the future is what led to me starting my first major venture called Web Access in January of 1995.  The Mosaic browser that ignited the web boom, was just 6 months old at the time but I could see the potential.  I spent the next year evangelizing and educating people about the potential of the web and the rest is history.  The web grew from a tiny swell to a tsunami of unparalleled proportions in record time. 

Now we have Twitter.  It’s not as revolutionary as the web, but I see all the markings of a major innovation with far-reaching effects.  I will do more blogging to help explain the Twitter phenomenon and it’s potential.

So, stay tuned.

Stats released in November 2008 confirm that the influence of Mass Media is declining steadily due to the Internet in general and social media is accelerating the pace.

“Peer-to-peer authority is replacing mass media on all fronts. As information sources, family and friends’ advice rose from 44% to 47% as an information source, while coworker advice went from 23% to 30%.“

From 2006 to 2008 the mass media numbers are eroding steadily while social media is rising rapidly.  This is a classic pattern.  Think ‘buggy whips’.

Magazines down from 23% ro 18%.

TV done from 71% to 65%.

The only traditional media category that rose is Cable TV News - up from 47% to 49%.

But Social Newtorking site interaction grew by 98% during the same period. 

These and many, many other interesting stats can be found here - http://www.frankwbaker.com/mediause.htm

(Source: Ketchum Global Media Network and Global Research Network partnered with the University of Southern California Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center on this study.)

This is the continuation of a trend that started with the advent of the Web.  Newspaper readership dropped from 58% in 1998 to 52% in 2005.  That decline is accelerating.  Young people now prefer to read news online and never acquire the newspaper habit.

Personally, I never learned to appreciate newspapers.  They are bulky, dirty, and generally inconvenient.  I can read the New York Times on my laptop or iPhone much more efficiently, and easily.  I can start reading during my morning routine, and can continue whenever I have a few minutes of down time on my iPhone, or my laptop. Plus, now I can get better news from bloggers which are focused on the subjects I care about.