Youth Engagement Summit 2009 - Part 2

This is the 2nd part of the Youth Engagement Summit 2009 sharing.

Biz Stone - co-Founder of Twitter
a) Twitter is a 10 years in the making, and not something that happened over night.
b) It is meant to be an agent of change and solve problems. Would look at Twitter as a social innovation/social responsibility.
c) Happy mistakes are the best kind. Twitter is a happy mistake.
d) Opportunities can be manufactured. Don't wait for opportunities. Initiate it. Create the opportunities.
e) Creativity is a renewable source. Biz is a artist first, and then only techie. He started with graphic design, before moved to web design (when he started Xanga).
f) Entrepreneurship means becoming mortal. In order to have dramatic success, need to have dramatic failure. Learn it the hard way.
g) Social alchemy is taking place. From blogging to social networking and now twittering. Started blogging on catcha and write about blogging itself, and was invited to write a book.
h) From a simple tweet "I am having a cup of coffee at Logan airport." People meet up and start a conversation and meet up with new people.
i) The open exchange of information has a positive global impact. For Twitter, all the info are public info and anyone can search, and it makes people more informed and more engaged. Hence, positive global impact.
j) Really love and use the tool that you build. Build it for ownself, and you will find it useful. Build a prototype over weekend and try it out.
k) Some says that Twitter is fun but it is not useful. In essence, build something that fun and thrilling and then would only think about business aspect.
l) Is Twitter just a rudimentary social networking or something more? In Texas, food operators tweet about the location they would be at, and can move large group of people around.
m) Tiny bits of information can have a profound impact. People help one another for instance during earthquake, when quick update on Twitter helps.
n) Twitter is about the triumph of humanity and not the triumph of technology. Twitter is what people do with the service, and not what it is meant to do.
o) A rich and diverse ecosystem has emerged. Twitter provides open source for its API. Allow people to create applications. Many companies are created to build applications or Twitter-related products.
p) The potential for impact increases with a focus on mobile. Hence, Twitter is created with 140 characters (as the total limit for mobile is 160 characters). There are 1.5 billion web users, but 4 billion mobile users. Twitter offer SMS access to users in many places, with no additional cost.
q) Giving back is in Twitter DNA. TweetOut was organized in 200 cities in the world, to raise quarter million on a Thursday evening.
r) There is special pinot noir for Twitter, and the profits are used to help to build library.
s) Indirectly, Twitter helps in literacy. If you can't read, you can't tweet.
t) Twitter allow companies to spend as much money as they want, as long as they get more back.
u) To start-ups, bootstrap first and show early sign of growth.

More to come soon. Stay tuned.

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