140conf:
“Getting” Twitter at the NYC 140 Characters Conference
(picture courtesy of Brian Solis)
The Twitter 140 Characters Conference in NYC this week was for, by and about those who “get” Twitter. There were many different types of people in attendance—from bonafide celebrities and prominent business leaders to music critics, marketers and unemployed artists/internet philosophers such as myself. Yet as varied as our individual bios might be we all represent a growing community of power-users: early adopters and next level thinkers united by our passion and enthusiasm for the possibilities created by a new way of communicating.
What’s interesting is that while “getting it” was referred to in nearly every panel and presentation, there seemed to be little consensus about what “getting” Twitter actually means. For some, it was about using Twitter primarily as a conversation tool. For others, “getting it” was about listening. For still others it was about “broadsharing”—a term coined by Vincent Hunt that I quite like—and the power of retweeted links. During the spirited and already infamous panel, “The Effects of Twitter on News Gathering”, Ann Curry claimed to “get” Twitter by embracing it as journalistic tool for finding out the factual truth, while Tim O’Reilly referred to it in his presentation as a way to create “ambient intimacy”. Throughout the two days there were many mentions of the need to be authentic while tweeting, with warnings given to those who attempted to Tweet in a disingenuous way for the purpose of selling things or self-promotion—yet there were also discussions about the fun of Tweeting as a made-up character and using the medium to create a rich fictional universe.
So what does it really mean to “get” Twitter? I think it’s simple—getting Twitter isn’t about using it in a specific “right” way. Getting Twitter means being aware of being a part of a large, interconnected flow made up of millions of smaller conversational streams. The garnering of this awareness is the real power of Twitter. It has the effect of doing away with the dualistic, either/or thinking that most of the world still runs on and expanding it to an either AND or. This is to say that while there are proven best practices about how to make the most of your Twitter experience, there’s also an inbuilt flexibility to the application that can’t be whittled down to a single set of rules or facts about how to use the service. The awareness of this flexibility can translate into real life lessons as well. In a world fixated on results and returns, Twitter is a reminder to stay loose, open and free in your thinking.
Instead of thinking of it as either/or I think of Twitter as being simultaneously a means for disruption and engagement. It’s a tool for amplifying valuable information and a squawk box of incessant inanities. It’s a platform for being “real” by discovering that there isn’t a single “real” you: Twitter teaches us that we are all a million different people from one day to the next, just like in that Verve song, “Bittersweet Symphony”. In fact, we’re a million different people from one tweet to the next—there’s the business me and the personal me, the relaxing, goofy me and the serious, impassioned debater. There’s no need to whittle these selves down on Twitter just like there’s no need to whittle them down in real life—what is needed, however, is the awareness that this multiplicity is the case, as being aware will allow for better implementation of the crowd of characters in each one of us.
This awareness should extend to the management of the various streams we each dip in and out of all day long. There is certainly a value to using tools such as Tweetdeck and the new and improved Peoplebrowsr to keep track of trends and people that are important to us, but I would argue that getting too wrapped up in mining Twitter for “meaningful” data will eventually result in losing the awareness of the Twitter flow that connects everyone and everything. A looser approach to Twitter will allow for the kinds of happy accidents and discoveries that enables one to move beyond their current sphere of influence. Twitter is about expanding your connections—not limiting them. It’s about sometimes going “off script” and embracing the mistakes that are often the result of powerful passions. As its creator Jack Dorsey said on Tuesday at the conference, “Expect the unexpected, and whenever possible BE the unexpected.”
Special thanks to Jeff Pulver for inviting me to be a part of this spectacular spectacular!
(posted with tweetshots.com)
This is a Tweet from @btl my MC alter-ego on Twitter. I actually told Jack Dorsey, inventor of Twitter, that when I first found out about Twitter I had the idea of putting out an anonymous poetry feed into the ether. While it turned out that I became a character instead, I still enjoy busting out the occasional rhyme on @btl
The graffiti artist Swoon and her crew are bum rushing the Venice Biennale this week on a boat assembled out of pieces of NYC trash. A part of me wishes they were crashing tomorrow’s 140conf instead…I’m also hoping Russell Simmons (@UncleRush) will show up after all. I’ve been tweeting into the wind hoping he’d answer. It felt like destiny when I imagined him at the conference—it seemed so RIGHT that one of the main innovators behind the cultural ascendancy of hip-hop should join the crew brainstorming the next level of the Twitter revolution.
This is not to say that the conference is not already super star-studded…last I heard a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model had joined the eclectic mix. I just always like the possibilities that open up when even the best parties get torn along the seams…I like the idea of fences being jumped and tickets discarded. Like Woodstock…that great event that’s a part of a story that’s been handed down from generation to generation of a revolution built on peace, love and happiness. A story about the people vs. the state, David vs. Goliath—the many vs. the few.
It was a story we were told had already ended—but in reality is only just setting sail…
I’m really excited to be a part of a conference being billed as “the Davos of Twitter”. It will be a chance for me to discuss the ideas I’m exploring on this site with some of the biggest names in social media. Jeff Pulver is very cool to throw a renegade philosopher internet mash-up thinker like me into the mix.
The idea of a conference being made up of a cast of people playing (in whatever way they decide) a version of the character they are on Twitter is very intriguing to an unrepentant internet charlatan such as myself. Twitter is an example of how we constantly create selves—approaching everything we do not as a single “true” self but as a multiplicity—a crowded crew of eclectic possibilities for interaction with others and the world.
Living one’s life in social media garners an awareness for this multiplicity. The act of logging in and going online makes us more aware of the character we’re invoking—whereas in the “real world” our personality shifts might seem more seamless. Instead of trying to winnow down the selves to one, I want to explore how social media can help us engage as multiplicities—how we can communicate in forms of many-to-many—as networks and streams and ever-mutating organic groups.
