Twitter News
Further to my recent post about various twitter thoughts – in particular that historically whoever has the fastest method of transferring information has the potential to control a lot of wealth and power. As such I’m enthusiastic about twitter’s business potential despite some commentators doubting a business model exists. We see it already emerging with the election header (somewhat unsubtly) on the top of each of our twitter pages – a topical feed of what election issues are being twittered. This already is the business model. By putting that thin header on our pages Twitter are telling the world a very important message – that they can decide what is News. And while any of us with a blog can do that, none of us have the reach that Twitter does.
No surprise then the appearance of reportage in several news services that the CIA considers Twitter a potential terrorist threat. The appearance of the news header and the release of that report could be connected. Governments have a huge investment in the stability of (and their capacity to control) mainstream news services. The threat of twitter is not necessarily that it might be used to harm others – perhaps this would actually be very difficult as the fact that we have unknown followers regulates what is posted, in a similar way that Wikipedia self regulates accuracy. The release of the report signals that authorities may have decided that the influence of using twitter may be diminished if people fear it. Mainstream media has often reported negatively about the web (especially blogging) because of the threat it makes to it’s business. Let’s watch these twitter developments with a sceptical eye.
