Twitter turns 5 Today- A retrospective

5 years ago today…Twitter was born…Consider the following:

• The very first tweet: “inviting coworkers by Jack Dorsey- 4:02 PM March 21^st 2006
• 2007, Twitter averaged 5000 tweets per day
• Today, Twitter averages 140 million tweets per day.
• Photo of Capt. “Sully” with passengers lined up on wing of plane was first broadcast via Twitter by @jkrums with the following text: “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy” Original Tweet- http://twitter.com/jkrums/status/1121915133#. This photo was then rebroadcast by most news media outlets.
• 2008 Hurricane Ike and Twitter
  • http://twitter.com/#!/hurricaneike
  • http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/09/12/liveblog-texas-coast-hangs-on-as-hurricane-ike-approaches.aspx
  • 2008, Twitter helps GOP convention protesters organize and elude police
  • Michael Jackson Dies. 456 Tweets per second were sent on June 25, 2009.
  • Russian President on Twitter- His account follows 15 other accounts. First set up during visit to US Silicone Valley Twitter campus. Check out who he follows at http://twitter.com/#!/KremlinRussia_E/following. You may need a Twitter account to view this. So, here are a few links to some of the accounts:
    • http://twitter.com/#!/ModernRussia
    • http://twitter.com/#!/davos
    • http://twitter.com/#!/EUCouncilPress
    • http://twitter.com/#!/BarackObama
    • http://twitter.com/#!/MedvedevRussiaE
    • http://twitter.com/#!/KremlinRussia (In Russian- http://translate.google.com)
    • 2009- The world watches and participates in the protests following the elections in Iran. Twitter also becomes the link to events in Iran for all main stream media as they were not allowed to report from the street. Here is a link to a presentation I have done on this topic. The first two weeks following the elections in Iran as told through captured in social media
      • Presentation Info and Links: https://bigenhoc.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/iste-2010-telling-stories-through-digital-threads/
      • Presentation at TxDLA 2010: http://salesdemo.mediasite.com/mediasite/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=03de4b55ebaa469cac08e5d6f8d77f29
      • 2009 Iran Elections: A Twitter Revolution? Actions by Iranian government highlight the importance of social media for connecting, organizing and passing information around the globe from within media oppressed countries.
      • 2011: Twitter Revolutions
        • Bahrain
        • Tunisia
        • Egypt
        • Libya
        • Yemen
        • Syria
        • 2011 Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Emergency in Japan. Twitter Japan quake tsunami hits record 1200 tweets per minute

And today…

• Japan: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23Japan
• Yemen: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Yemen
• Syria: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Syria
• Libya: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Libya
• Tunisia: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Tunisia
• Egypt: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Egypt
• Bahrain: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Bahrain

Question for the day: What single technology has changed the way the world interacts and passes information in such a short time?

I am amazed by the dynamics of these social spaces and the new ways that “the social” interacts within this media. This seems like classic Habermas— Theory of Communicative Action as the world makes bids of claims for truth in the public and dynamic arena of Twitter. This form of media has placed the power of communication back in the hands of the people creating a market of ideas where negation of truth and action now plays out in the public market. Again, I am reminded of Levine, Locke, Searls and Weinberger’s Cluetrain Manifesto and the first of their 95 Theses: Markets are conversations. Where are you in this global conversation? Where is your organization in this conversation?

Sources

http://blog.twitter.com/2011/03/numbers.html

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/21/technology/twitter_turns_5/index.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/06/17/DI2009061702232.html