I have just watched a recent video presentation given by Evans Williams, co-founder of Twitter, explaining the explosive growth of this messaging tool, which was originally intended to be a side project. Twitter is based on a “very trivial and a seemingly simple concept,’’ allowing people to tell their friends what they are doing in 140 characters at a time.
And this ”seemingly simple concept” changed Williams’ lives and transformed ours as well. Can you imagine how this little tool has helped businesses grow, connect people as a natural disaster happens and help each other out, congressmen gain political popularity, and raises tens of thousands in matters of days.
Twitter didn’t set out to do what it has been doing for people. It was not set out for such accomplishments. But it did with its “seemingly simple concept.” Twitter allows people to share moments as they happen. It allows people to watch an event unfolds as it happens, almost real-time, which lure LA Times to use it as a reporting tool. It allows residents to find gas station and get an update on the cost of gas when there was a gas shortage.
“It seems like if you give people easier ways to share information, more good things happen,’’ said Williams in the presentation.
“I learn to follow the hunch and never assume where it would go,’’ Williams added. Maybe the hunch is to follow where the product adds value.
