NESTA hosted a lovely panel discussion yesterday with Stephen Fry, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who discussed Twitter as a force for good - see a video of the event here.
Biz talked about the way Twitter was developed, like so many other interesting services, as a side-project, which then quickly evolved into something remarkable thanks to its sheer simplicity and malleability. He said that early reactions from potential investors suggested they couldn't see past this simplicity, and this was echoed by Reid Hoffman, who was told by VCs in 2003 that social networking would be a feature of dating sites, recruiting sites and other existing destination web sites, but not a meaningful service in its own right.
Talking about future social networking services, Reid said "You ain't seen nothing yet," and suggested we have only just begun to explore the power of people, connected. How we connect with other people gives us meaning in life, and he thinks there are many more ways in which we will explore this notion with future products and services - with the next wave of web innovation being about what we do with the massive amounts of data and insight emerging from the participation of billions of people.
Biz talked about his passionate belief that being better informed leads to being more engaged, which in turn creates empathy for others, and Twitter's ability to facilitate this is a triumph of humanity. With over 4 billion active mobile accounts in the world (compared to 1.65bn web accounts), there is a lot of growing still to do if we are to share this beyond the early adopters who have taken up micro-blogging in the past two years.
But I think Stephen Fry had the quote of the day:
writing makes us free
What I think he meant by this was that the constraints of short form simple text act create a level playing field where even the nerdiest, least confident communicator can express themselves and make connections.
There were also some good questions at the event, covering issues such as:
The danger of mobs: Stephen replied that all new technology is accused of prompting mobs and demagoguery, but that this fear would pass as people get used to it. Reid acknowledged the wisdom of crowds can become the madness of mobs, but was sure that individual expression is pretty much always a good thing and a key to democracy.
Twitter vs the mainstream media: Biz pointed out that the relationship is symbiotic, since much of Twitter's discussion is based on information from the media, and whilst the service can break news, it is not so good at providing the context and background that journalism can offer.
Is Twitter making us stupid? No, said Stephen, who pointed out that abbreviation and creative flexibility in language is a sign of healthy culture, citing for example Byron's letters that used abbreviations not unlike texting language to cope with the space limitations of the early postal service. He also reminded us that using services like Twitter, any of us can assemble a greater collection of information, insight and wisdom than was available to Napoleon or a similar powerful leader of his time. This is a remarkable affordance.
Politicians on Twitter: If they are truly open and honest then that would be amazing and help them overcome the spin and abuse of newspapers and the media, said Stephen; Reid added that they should also see Twitter as a two-way street where they can listen, as well as speak, to benefit from the collective and network intelligence created by others.