Twitter is what the world wide web was made for!
Sunday, April 25, 2010 |
Sharing information. The web was pioneered by Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Calliau, Paul Kunz and others in the 1980s and 90s. Why on earth would they pursue this project?
“The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project aims to allow all links to be made to any information anywhere. [...] The WWW project was started to allow high energy physicists to share data, news, and documentation. We are very interested in spreading the web to other areas, and having gateway servers for other data. Collaborators welcome!" —from Tim Berners-Lee's first message.
Who knew then that the web would transform our lives the way it has. The above quote, by the way, is from Wikipedia, another incredible collaborative project that put a lot of encyclopaedia salespeople out of business.
The shift in society and culture that has occurred over these past 20 years is arguably the biggest change since the discovery of fire. The evolution of cell phones to smart phones, iPads, netbooks, to pretty much every other device; was possible because the world wide web taught us to think differently, and act differently. It opened up the way we communicate and enables us to hear firsthand the ideas and opinions of others.
We forget the organizational culture of command-and-control that existed in businesses and governments in the 1980s. “Share information?! Are you crazy?! How will I retain my power over staff, customers and suppliers??”
Fast forward to today, where information sharing and collaboration have proven time and again that the best results are achieved by the many, not the few.
Enter Twitter. The ultimate information-sharing platform. Instant. Accessible. No permissions needed. A place where famous people and everyday people exchange ideas, Twitter has moved far beyond Mr. Berner-Lee’s dreams for the web. It has proven to be such a successful force that people have developed ways to expand information sharing beyond 140 characters to include links to longer posts. Suddenly, citizen reporters are tweeting news hours before traditional media can catch up. This is not a failing of traditional media (after all, there are billions of people and only thousands of reporters), but an endorsement of the power of information sharing, instant access and word of mouth. People are now able to source their own information needs and hear directly from governments, manufacturers, companies, and non-profit organizations. We are smarter consumers, voters, citizens, employees, entrepreneurs...people.
These are my thoughts. And, thanks to the world wide web, and Twitter, I can share them with you. What do you think?
Posted in: social media, communication |
