140 Characters Conference

Ajit Jaokar is speaking at the 140 characters conference in Barcelona next week and a blog post of his drew in a comment from a reader, Alok Tripathi, who wrote:
What makes Twitter unique?
---- any magic sauce in their technology that can't be replicated?
---- a unique business model strength?

I don't see anything unique but fail to understand the hype and extensive media coverage.
http://ow.ly/16Cjr



Failure to understand the "hype and extensive media coverage" is to fail to understand that Twitter is not purely a technical and commercial activity. It is a catalyst for social media (i.e. people!) and that is where the real disruption occurs. If individuals engage big time then it has the potential to challenge established social, technical and economic constructs. I am not saying anything new here as many others articulate similar views - however part of the crisis we face at the moment appears to be that we are living in an interregnum between a collapsed communist system, a collapsed capitalist system and some new horizon yet to be determined. The conversations are being had but it will take many years for it to codify into something of our own history. Ajit: as Brian Eno would say it is a Long Now!