About noon Friday here in California, I happened to click on a Summize tab substituting for Twitter’s Track functionality and monitoring the use of my Twitter screen name. Someone named Scrabo had tweeted “Rumor here at NBC is that Tim Russert passed away”. A minute later another: “@stevegillmor Brokaw getting ready to go on air.”
Turning on NBC, then MSNBC, then CNN, I found nothing: reports on flooding in the Midwest, breaking news about a bomb attack in an Afghan prison, a strange obliviousness on the NBC outlets. Something about the first tweet resonated - “here at NBC” - and I went back to the computer and Summize, finding another tweet directed at me that said Wikipedia was already updated with the news. Jumping to the New York Times, a single line at the top of the home page. Finally, at 12:33 Tom Brokaw broke into programming with the news.
Today Summize has “Tim Russert” at the top of the Trending Topics list, with “Russert” third. The tweets continue to roll in 20 hours after the fact, even now at 9am Pacific at some 200 per hour. Twitter’s international audience lets the story follow the sun, but Russert’s fame is largely U.S. centric. Clearly we have lost what many consider the soul or conscience of our political process at the head of the stretch leading to November.
That same presidential race is the likely culprit in Twitter’s recent collapse and partitioning into minimal services. As the company scrambled to get some coherent strategy in place to keep users from tipping into a stampede away from the service, Twitter’s API was gated, the Web UI was dynamically stripped of pagination, @replies, and sometimes even the array of follow icons as event swarms stressed the servers. Most significantly, IM services over XMPP were the first to disappear and not yet fully restored, and with that the service known as Track that I was emulating with the third party Summize client when Russert collapsed.
We may look back at Monday’s Steve Jobs keynote at the WWDC as the point where Twitter stabilized enough to survive. Because of the intense developer interest in creating applications for the iPhone 3G product, the conference was sold out and, like Twitter services, the media gated to only a certain number from each outlet, whether blogger or mainstream. Missing the cut, I went to Plan B as I’ve often done when trips took me away to New York or CES during Apple rollouts.
As the event began, I followed Qik reports from Mike Arrington, page refreshes of photos and text from EnGadget, Techcrunch, Gizmodo, and Cnet, and a live video aggregation of various Ustreams and commentary from Leo Laporte’s TwiT Live. As Jobs took the stage, a video stream captured a murky view of the stage from too many rows back, but the audio proved unmanageable. Laporte’s chat stream produced a URL to a more stable audio feed that held up throughout the rest of the keynote. Arrington produced two short Qik videos of key sections that surfaced as Qik servers restabilized.
The net effect was exhilarating; a bootstrapped symphony of virtualized Steve Reality Distortion Field funneled through the MacBook AIR that I route every bit of my real time digital life through. Throughout, Twitter remained up except for a ten minute period when Jobs announced the 3G device’s price, and as the event retreated into the past Twitter services unseen for weeks began to reemerge.
Much has been made of the fanaticism spurred by social media events and seminal products such as the iPhone - the swarming of the early adopters, the trivialization of Twitter as a toy, you know the drill and the comments on this post will likely personalize the pushback. But an event such as Russert’s death and the emotional shock wave it produced put the lie to the notion that this stuff is echo chamber or A-List or whatever. 30 minutes before the world knew about this tragedy, someone I don’t know reached out and established a connection based on mutual affinity.
The magic of Twitter, and Ustream, and Qik, and all the social tools just now emerging, is this incredible, subtle, hacked, user-controlled information network, that in a million ways and micro-communities, performs as efficiently and professionally as the greatest media empires on Earth. In fact, the two have merged as we gain access to the tools of the trade while the trade gains access to our hearts and minds. Track will return, and with it a flowering of this new media revolution where the new boss is the same as the old boss: Us. And you’ll see Tim there in the front row, if you look closely.
Gosh, if we could channel 1/10th the energy people having trying to keep up with this flood of information into something productive like charity work, what a better world this would be. It’s like a drug to some people. *sigh*
FriendFeed.
I started reading this post thinking that it was going to be some kind of tribute to Tim Russert. I guess I was just disappointed to see that it was about twitter.
FriendFeed
This guy is definitely obsessed with Twitter.
FriendFeed
friendfeed
How come people keep commenting friendfeed
I for one loved this post. It exemplified the power of the publicly contributed in our new information space.
Thank you, Steve.
– dave
cause Gillmor hates FriendFeed and because it was faster than Twitter during WWDC.
This is why:
http://friendfeed.com/e/e46be7.....Home-Town/
This unending gushing over Twitter is really getting to be more than sickening. Equating it to some second coming of the information age is ridiculous.
Is it a very good tool when up and running - yes. That doesn’t mean though that it is now or ever should be the primary source for the Hot News.
And the harping on about “FriendFeed” isn’t doing it any justice either - you are only going to piss people off and creative a negative feedback against the service. And that is from a FriendFeed fan.
Good job Steve Gillmor. This was very well written.
Back to the Russert starting point, the news broke on Twitter 12 minutes (for me) before I could find anything about it on any news site. About 10-15 after it broke on cnn.com, cnn’s breaking news twitter account posted.
No affinity groups?
Jokes apart. BTW good article. I really appreicate this one
Steve Gillmor has provided an excellent analysis of the phenomenon of crowd sourced information delivery. While no one is sure what transport systems will emerge as stable, functional and widely adapted, one thing is for sure- we desire connection and real-time communication. I was tracking the Russert story and was amazed at how quickly it spread among the Twitter community. The networks “held” the story for some time allowing the family to be notified and for NBC to prepare for the first broadcast with Tom Brokaw. The networks exercised tremendous restraint. Drudge broke the story about 20 mins. before the first NBC announcement.
We are close to realizing the dream of citizen news patrol networks. The fear is now of only crowded messages that aren’t relevant. Community is what we strive for- a select group of trusted sources marks the transition from The News- to Our News.
Thank you Steve for this post, good reporting from your/our world.
Truly,
Michael Sean Wright
Director, Nice Fish Films
http://nicefishfilms.com/msw
http://twitter.com/nicefishfilms
FriendFeed
Steven: I don’t think Gillmor is actually far off on his love of Twitter. I’m watching Twitter right now and it really is the best place to compare news items in real time. My FriendFeed gushing? Well, that’s cause it’s the best place to see patterns and discuss them. For instance, it is where I saw this TechCrunch post first. I often see stuff happen there first, and get a great conversation going. During the WWDC a TechCrunch competitor was posting stuff in real time and getting a conversation going within seconds. It really was interesting to participate in and it was THE place to really chew on what we were seeing come through Twitter. The two are really joined at the hip (Gillmor says FriendFeed is a Twitter parasite).
Either way, these two services dominate my online time now. And that alone is significant.
I enjoyed this piece
@Robert - now that’s a better answer than you silly one word comment and one I can agree with. I just get irritated with “cutsy” type comments that aren’t adding anything to the conversation which is exactly what your original comment was.
just a guy that died, like everybody else
the media heroes suddenly feeling their mortality turn it into a big deal
it’s not
Steven: it doesn’t matter if we start out with a one-word comment. Don’t you remember the TechCrunch post that simply said one word? “Twitter.” That’s where I learned this style from.
By limiting your comment to one word often it gets a better conversation going.
I’m not sure if I should compliment Gillmor’s post, snipe a the worthlessness of twitter, or rag on the friendfeed fans, hmmm
Ok, I choose the latter:
- friendfeed reminds of usenet with threaded comments and open accessibility via http (and 3rd part clients).
-friendfeed is a bunch of text and links, and some thumbnails
-most people I know go cross-eyed at the CLI and they will look similarly at friendfeed
The point isn’t that the writer is obsessed with a particular set of programming, or that an individual passed away, but that political interests work with capitalistic interests to control and monetize free access to information, thereby trivializing the process.
My point is exemplified in part of Scoble’s comment, “it’s the best place to see patterns and discuss them”…
Nobody in the mainstream cares to do this and friendfeed will remain a tech-tool, not worthy of scaling to any degree unless they make serious changes.
I posted the story to Friendfeed on the NY Times confirm, only to realize that Robert Seidman (who’s sources I never question) had posted it 5 minutes earlier. The thread was there …. several times over in minutes.
As for Russert. Think it’s truly sad as I spoke to people today, that they didn’t find out what kind of guy he was until after his death … way too young.
A true journalist in a world where they are rapidly disappearing.
Frank: you only nailed about 1/5th of FF. Here’s the other four parts:
1. It’s the best place to mix your stuff from across a bunch of networks. My family knows that’s the place to see my blogs, my videos, my photos, my favorite music, my twitter messages, and more.
2. It’s the best real-time search engine I’ve seen because it lets me search across all of these. Summize, for instance, only lets you search Twitters.
3. It’s the best place to have conversations about all of these, particularly from an iPhone (signing into do a comment on most blogs is a real pain in the behind compared to FF).
4. FF’s rooms are quickly becoming interesting places to talk to people passionate about a single issue in a way that can be linked to, or joined in from the Web. Far better than Google’s Groups or Yahoo’s mailing lists.
And I disagree. I think FF will go mainstream a lot quicker than many of the things that it ingests. Want to do a two-year bet? How would we judge who is right or not?
Mainstream? The Financial Times and LA Times and Business Week just wrote articles about FF. That’s a good sign that you’re wrong.
Steve Gillmor has provided an excellent analysis of the phenomenon of crowd sourced information delivery. While no one is sure what transport systems will emerge as stable, functional and widely adapted, one thing is for sure- we desire connection and real-time communication. I was tracking the Russert story and was amazed at how quickly it spread among the Twitter community. The networks “held” the story for some time allowing the family to be notified and for NBC to prepare for the first broadcast with Tom Brokaw. The networks exercised tremendous restraint. Drudge broke the story about 20 mins. before the first NBC announcement.
We are close to realizing the dream of citizen news patrol networks. The fear is now of only crowded messages that aren’t relevant. Community is what we strive for- a select group of trusted sources marks the transition from The News- to Our News.
Thank you Steve for this post, good reporting from your/our world.
Truly,
Michael Sean Wright
Director, Nice Fish Films
Scoble, I am truly amazed you disagree
Actually, I just think you give too much credit to the mainstream to understand the value of friendfeed; yes, you know all the bells and whistles of the site, we get that (most of us do as well). Most people I know (~120 in person) don’t care to have conversations with strangers.
FYI, only geeks hang out in googlegroups, yahoo lists or usenet.
Let’s define mainstream to mean 10M monthly uniques. You place a “badge” on your site stating friendfeed will hit that number by May 2010. We’ll see.
Well, we can define mainstream as “more than three billion of the world’s people use it.” If we define it that way NOTHING we’re doing with computers is mainstream.
I will take you up on the bet. But not the badge. I’ll just post a post about it. The money will go to the Red Cross, if you win it’ll go in your name and I’ll pay, if I win it’ll go in mine and you pay. Cool? $100.
RE: Russert’s passing
I heard about it on NPR’s Talk of the Nation around ~12:35 PST.
1) A gentleman’s bet would have been fine
2) I’ll take the bet
3) I’m sure you’ll be ok if I prefer a different non-profit from Red Cross
4) You”l have to take my word for it
5) The bet doesn’t account for mainstream-friendly features friendfeed may add
6) I’ll still take the bet
Did anyone else get a headache trying to read that?
Very well stated. Just in time aggregation of tools that provide real time content appears to be emerging out of the trough of disillusionment while proving the Winer axiom that “the Internet destabilizes every hierarchy it contacts.”
Now that the countervailing force of Tim Russert has been removed, every corner of the universe will eventually turn into the ScobleShow–as did this comment thread. Bow before Zod!
Good piece Steve. Your a welcome addition to the Techcrunch family.
Frank: deal.
gillmor and I had lunch after I posted this. Here’s a Qik video where he talks a little more about the post above. Excuse the ordering of food at the beginning.
http://qik.com/video/102788
I must first pay honor to Ruppert’s life and career – RIP.
But once again, web 2.0 proved to be an effective tool. News travels as fast as you can type. Although sometimes I wonder if we use it beyond its productive point and more towards being addicted – this more important to evaluate from an enterprise or corporate point of view. Although if we, as individuals, become addicted to it - as many of us have - we still need to deal with it.
Who is this “Ruppert” you speak of? Pay honor? Indeed….
Where are you from? Doesn’t matter, you are fake.
And the prize for the most creative use of segues in a post goes to…..
Some thoughts:
- Steve, please get an editor.
- Knowing about Tim Russert’s death 12 minutes before the rest of the world is a monumental benefit… exactly how?
Too many people mistake reading for *understanding*, browsing for *actually doing something*, and that really makes me sad.
* * *
Oh wait, there’s a great bit of dialog from Ratatouille (hat tip, wikiquotes) that is amazingly apropos:
Mustafa: Do you know what you would like this evening, sir?
Ego: Yes, I think I do. After hearing a lot of over-heated puffery [...] do you know what I’m craving? A little… perspective. That’s it. I’d like some fresh, clear, well-seasoned perspective. Can you suggest a good wine to go with that?
Mustafa: With what, sir?
Ego: Perspective, fresh out, I take it?
[Mustafa is confused and stays silent]
Ego: Very well. Since you are all out of perspective and no one else seems to have it in this bloody town, I’ll make you a deal: you provide the food, I’ll provide the perspective, which would go nicely with a bottle of Cheval Blanc 1947.
Beautifully written. Thanks Steve!
Can we please allocate some of this ridiculous Twitter/Friendfeed/Facebook hype to other startups - known and unknown - that deserve more attention?
I’ll start with three - I’d love to see the commenters recommend others, though NOT their own venture:
-Iminlikewithyou, because despite a killer interface, fun games, and an interesting premise of casual dating around games, it has gotten little traction. Why? It can’t just be because their founder is an asshole. There’s a story there, TechCrunch, what is it?
-Tesla Motors, because it promises to further what the Prius started and make green cars sexy. Tesla has had some attention but I’d like to see more analysis of their recent troubles, potential solutions, and potential competitors.
-Blubet, because despite its sometimes spammy ways, it is building an impressively growing, free prediction market. At scale, this could be just as valuable as an at-scale Twitter. It could structure all that talk into powerful wisdom of the crowds. Shockingly, no such system exists yet that is popular (Intrade is paid and hardly popular).
Steve and Mike, aren’t these stories more interesting than the 1,001th article on Twitter stating the obvious?
What are your three under-hyped startups?
Plurk
the BOSS rulez
one thing that really just doesn’t seem to get much play - posting a 134 character [or whatever twitter's limit is] “tim russert is dead” is a lot easier than writing a real article on the subject that includes a lot of factual data. I saw it on the internet not too long after it happened (msn, yahoo, whatever) but it was a full article of the circumstances, his background, history, bio and other pertinent data.
So both mediums have their place and purpose. Breaking a fewly worded post a rumor a few minutes ahead of the full, factually laden article doesn’t seem like a huge accomplishment.
Friendfeed!
http://Friendfeed.com/
http://friendfeed.com/rooms/gillmorgang
C’mon Steve drink the koolaid already!! :*)
(just kidding… ok, maybe not)
Now Bruce…. There’s a REAL reality distortion field.
Russert