IGNITER

I loved this presentation on Discovery by the Mr. Tweet folks. And today Fred Wilson had a great post on the value of ‘status updates’ (I’ve been calling it micro-messaging).

I’ve been taken with the use of inline tagging as a way to enhance discovery and it’s power. On twitter the @ reply and the # tag are great examples. What we’re doing with VenTwits and GroupTwits (coming soon) is adding tags that identify entities, groups, and topics. I’m no semantic expert but I’ve been fascinated by how people are starting to use it. In Toronto, we’ve seen the #hohoto story and around the world we’ve seen the power of tags like #gaza.

By using a tag in a short 140 character message you are indicating something of particular interest to yourself. It links that message to any other message including the tag… the tag essentially creating a thread that links a common interest. By being able to tag entities, groups, individuals, and topics, we can weave a variety of threads together through a single message. The frequency of this weaving will create incredible patterns that will only get richer over time. Patterns that describe the flow of individual and collective interests.

There is so much more going on here… but I think the power of this is huge and somehow I think it has the potential to weave itself into the fabric of all our digital text messages and actually have a shot a shaping a usable semantic web.

I’ve written some before on our efforts to peer-produce Shouldess Inc. (^shldlss), the developer of VenTwits and the for-profit cohort of the Social Venture Commons (^svc). We’ve decided to launch early and iterate rapidly with VenTwits and its group focused cousin GroupTwits (to be turned on soon). We’re also planning to open source our code once we’ve rebuilt a core based on how people actually use it.

I believe in the principles and power of peer-production but am finding it a constant tension as we build the for-profit startup. A big part of that I’m sure is my experiential conditioning. What’s been most recently tested is how much of our business strategy and development plans should be in the public domain.

Taylor Davidson, who is stepping up to help on the financial modeling and strategy side asked me point blank. I fumbled some lame answer that didn’t really say anything. As I’ve sat with it now for a couple of days, I’m actually questioning what if anything should be kept private. It comes down to speed of execution and I also think that the more broader the engagement the greater defensibility we have – provided we execute. If people are a part of it, they’ll rally to support it.

What do you think? Is there anything that should be kept private? Why? What are the risks? What are the benefits?

Right now I’m feeling ready to open everything up and push this experiment even further.

Foolish or fruiful?

Whether you love it, hate it or otherwise, there is something unique enabled through Twitter. I think there is something interesting and potentially powerful happening and seem to have ranted well enough to get the interest of Dr. Frances Westley, co-author of Getting to Maybe – How the World is Changed, a member of Social Innovation Generation, and the Chair of Social Innovation at University of Waterloo. Frances asked me to articulate my hunches from which we’ll see what might be the most interesting research questions that someone from her team could dig in to.

Though this post, I’m hoping to refine my hunches and maybe provoke some more conversation in the comments.  The more we can feed into researchers like Frances the better.  It’s all part of helping us and others make better use of Twitter, spread the innovation, and realize the benefits.

My Hunches on Twitter Magic

1. The following features are the key enablers:

• Default public on account setup (tweets will be public)
• 140 character limitation
• Tagging (@ and #)
• Permission-less follow (you don’t need permission to ‘follow’ someone)
• SMS compatibility (tweet from your mobile phone)
• ‘Open’ API (anyone can build on top of Twitter)

2. This seems to nuture/result in:

• Unmatched discovery because of the public nature, short snippets, and tagability (@, #, url – and now $, ^, !) that generate high link density. No matter your interests you can find people and threads on twitter that will also lead you to new interests and places.
• Uncontrollable as there is no structure beyond voluntary tagging. Can’t even be sure a person that is following you will see your tweet. This is why ‘marketing’ fails spectacularly in Twitter.
• Humbling and leveling. Anyone can follow anyone and ‘reply’ to them by tagging their handle. Billionaires and others who are most inaccessible may respond to an unknown person on twitter. And just because you are a billionaire, it doesn’t guarantee that people will be interested in what you have to say. On twitter a big part of you is your last 20 tweets.
• Authenticity and rapid trust building. The 140 character limitation seems to promote a brevity and frequency that leads to a higher degree of authenticity. My experience has been that my experience of meeting people in real-life is highly correlated to my experience of them on Twitter. I think it must take too much energy to be something other than who you are on Twitter if you use it with any frequency.
• Collectively iterative. Again because of the brevity and uncontrollability things tend to iterate quickly among multiple people if they gain any momentum. Things only gain momentum when there is collective iteration.
• Speedy and Spontaneous. From the collective iteration and default to public, if something takes hold it can spread uncontrollably aournd the world. It is unknown where it will go and can die as quickly as it started.
• Loving and constructive. There are only so many ways to complain and criticize through 140 characters. What’s more, noone has to respond, and you can’t be sure anyone is even reading. What gets rewarded is intersting information, links, and action. Those are the things that people will invest their own 140 characters in.

3. This isn’t utopia, it just encourages our better parts:

• Human nature will always show through
• But, because of the key enablers it’s more likely to be the better parts of our nature.

I’d love to hear your comments, or get links to any other posts, reserachers that are exploring this topic. And if you are compelled enough to post, please link back here too. The more we can feed into the research engines that are interested in this the more it will help us all.

UPDATE: Btw… there was an interesting Twitter thread on this a week or so ago.

This really began back at the StartupEmpire conference on November 14th, 2008 in the midst of Howard Lindzon’s StockTwits presentation.  Today, VenTwits (^VenTwits) is live as a the first property in a series of initiatives to help things happen and create the world we want.

Developed by Shouldless Inc. (^shldlss), VenTwits is a site for people building things they care about. We believe there is something special about communications that happen in public, 140 characters at a time. It seems to encourage a unique breadth and practicality of engagement such as the #hohoto party in Toronto. #hohoto emerged through Twitter (see SlideShare preso) and within 18 days of the first mention was sold-out to over 600 people, raised $25,000 in cash and 2 tonnes of food for Toronto’s Daily Bread Foodbank. All this without any one leader or cash investment – rather it leveraged parallel leadership from over a dozen people and the contributions of countless more. What if we could leverage what happened there?

Well, VenTwits is the beginning of seeing where this can go. Already in the first day, we’ve had people visiting from around the world to see what’s going on, some of whom quickly adopted the new tags and jumped right in. We are already working on another property that will come at this from a different angle as well. Once launched, we want to see how people use them to help things happen and with a few months under our belts we’re planning on open-sourcing our core code and firing up the Social Venture Commons (^svc).

The Social Venture Commons is being established as a non-profit organization dedicated to coordinating the development and application of this concept for the purposes of social change and public benefit.  If what we believe about this mode of peer-produced organization is true, then we have a lot to give. If we’re wrong, we’ll have learned a lot from trying.

In the past two months, I’ve met some extraordinary people – all through Twitter of course – that have come together to make this happen. As we’re building we’re experimenting with how to peer-produce an organization, how we create and measure value, and how we deliver public benefit.

We’re inspired by the potential of people coming together and contributing to the creation of things they care about. We believe that we are building uniquely helpful ways that help that happen. And we believe, that together, we can use it to create the world we want.

Please jump in and give it a try. And if you have any feedback or want to get in touch – please do.

VenTwits is about people building the things they care about. It came from seeing the potential in Twitter as a medium for discovery, connection, and practical engagement. With VenTwits we hope it can help you find new ventures you are interested, give you an opportunity to participate, and simply help things happen.

To get started, simply login to VenTwits once using your Twitter user name and password. If you aren’t on twitter there is a link right there where you can sign-up quickly and easily. Once you’ve logged in for the first time, VenTwits knows to follow you and look for anything you tweet that uses a VenTwits tag. From that point on, you can tweet through the site, through Twitter, or whichever way you twitter best.

Tagging is simple. In any tweet you post, simply add a ‘^’ in front of a venture name.  For example: ^VenTwits.  In addition to showing up in your regular twitter stream, that tweet will now show up on VenTwits as well.  You can also add another level of tag that allows for conversations to happen around a venture.  For example: ^VenTwits !feedback shows up as a conversation around VenTwits feedback.

That’s it. You’re all set.

Now, the best way to get started is to simply explore.  Visit http://VenTwits.com and click on the links that you find interesting. Explore a new venture, jump into a thread, or see what the top contributors are talking about. What ever you do, follow your interest. And when you are ready, jump into the conversation.  That’s really when the fun begins.

And of course, let us know what you think.  We’re listening.