Twitter: 'It's the Internet'

Dave Winer and Jay Rosen on Rebooting The News No. 13 at 12:55:

WINER: So we've reached this conclusion that almost everything needs to hook into Twitter. It just does.

ROSEN: Because?

WINER: Why? Why? You're asking a leading question, why don't you just answer it?

ROSEN: (Laughs) Well, I wanna know what you think!

WINER: OK, so it's not a leading question. Well... why? Because it just does, Jay. That's just the way the world is right now. Twitter is the backbone. It's the messaging system. It's the... it's the ... the... It's the Internet. It is.

I mean, I was saying this in an interview I did earlier today on this podcast. It's that we've stuffed the entire Internet into 140 characters, and it does not fit, OK?

(laughter)

But we're making it fit, by hook or by crook.

ROSEN: Here's the way I would say it: We need everyone in the new system, and Twitter is the way we can get everyone into the new system.

Comments

[Mason Lee]

We should be clear: Twitter is the centralized, for-profit internet. Embrace at your own risk. (I found this post via Twitter, of course ;) )

[mcd]

History has patterns that can help frame Dave's urgency about what Twitter provides and what he really wants.

Twitter -> Compuserve (a walled garden community)

Dave says Twitter is the Internet but I think it enables what he wants the Internet to be more like: a real-time, everyone connected, user controlled messaging backbone - NewZ.

History indicates Dave will (eventually) get what he wants because Open always seems to trump closed given enough iterations, programmers and start-ups to "make it so".