The Revolution in 140 characters are enough

The author and the founder of the idea of Twitter Jack Dorsey has said that

140 characters are enough with the help of which it is possible to change the world. It looks like he is right.

For many years, Twitter is a well-known online social networking service in Latvia. Here you can create your own profile and publish messages consisting of 140 characters, apply for receiving written messages by other users and hope that someone will also follow you. But what exactly is Twitter? What is it like today and what will it be like in the future? And what really takes place in this multi-million community?—?you will read about it in this article.

WHERE THE VALUE LIES ON TWITTER?

In April of 2009, the world first heard the news that the popular Twitter account @ CNNbrk which regularly publishes the latest CNN news, is not in fact governed by CNN, but by James Cox. The enterprising young man has recorded the profile by shortening the name “CNN Breaking News” and without making much effort during a couple of years, has been able to attach to the account nearly million followers. It seems a great business idea! After all?—?there is no shortage of cases where people at the right time manage to buy the demanded internet domains, and earns much money by selling them. As in the case with the incredibly successful Renata McGriff, who after getting to know about the Citibank-Travelers Merger, immediately checked availability of the domain Citigroup.com, and because it was not booked?—?bought it. After just three days, Renata became 270 thousand dollars richer. However, such primitive squattering schemes do not work in case of Twitter, as it is a privately maintained service and all the Twitter names belong to no one else but to Twitter. In addition, each user by creating a new account automatically subscribes to the terms of use, which provide that “any attempt to sell the account will result in the lock.” CNN circumvented the law by employing Mr. Coke as a consultant?—?and we can only imagine what an astronomical amount he received as an employment contract also provides for the transfer of @CNNbrk in the possession of CNN. There is no public news on trade concerning other Twitter accounts. And no wonder, because even though these transactions happen even here in Latvia, they take place “under the table”. Also, I, your humble servant, and the author of this article, have implemented such a project, and some powerful profile is still under my care. But neither I, nor anyone else, would say it aloud. After all?—?who wants his customers to know that by now he has talked with a fake personality? True, the account name on Twitter is far from conclusive. Price and value are implied in the number of followers, namely, the size of its audience, which is subscribed to receive your messages.

TWITTER?—?A NEW MEDIUM?

The history of mankind includes plenty of heroic stories about messengers who risk everything, including their life, just to deliver just to deliver the message as quickly as possible?—?they gallop through day and night, galloping their horses and themselves into foam and after delivery of the parchment they drop down, or even continue their journey, having received a mortal wound, but they fulfil their mission. In other cases, for faster transfer of the expected news even chains of people at the length of several hundred kilometres are formed, and the message is passed by yelling out the news to the next member of the chain?—?here the information is more important than human life. Rothschild also was aware of the value of the speed of receipt of information. Those who were the first to learn about the outcome of the battle of Waterloo acquired great wealth… Today, of course, we have the telegraph, telephone, internet, news portals, radio, satellites, and even digital TV. Eyewitness video of the scene on YouTube gets faster than the CNN news can tell in the nearest news release. But nothing can provide exchange of information more mobile and easier than Twitter. Today it is like a biologically-technologised neural network that is able to react to news within minutes, as the important news is spreading like wildfire, appearing in front of your eyes ten seconds after the event. Statistics show that currently 43% of the twits are written on mobile phones, but totally 60–80% (depending on the country of residence) users occasionally use mobile applications, which means that people create the news follow the news by being in motion, wearing them in their pockets.

At the same time, Twitter, of course, is not the site of the latest news site. 40% of the entries are classified as useless, 38% are the conversations between users, while another 8% are self-glorification. 4% are spam. And only the remaining 8% of the total twittering amount may be considered as valuable information. Moreover, women are more active twits than men. In fact, Twitter is the reflection of the ongoing processes in our minds?—?it is mostly insignificant daily mumble, irrelevant dialogues, of course, sometimes a bright idea, but at the same time, Twitter is able to mobilize for planetary-scale social actions?—?for example, the campaign against lawless actions in Iran’s presidential election , Egypt, etc. But the real Twitterolutions, probably are still to come. In any case?—?Twitter has the power to wake the dormant social consciousness, and this power is getting bigger not with each passing month, but with each passing day.