On March 21, 2013, Twitter’s 7th birthday, Laura Sydell wrote a radio memoir, full of life and good sense, for US National Public Radio about the first days, evolution, obstacles, dreams and possible futures of a -for me magic- communication formula with already 200 million users.
The Transcript
It’s hard to believe, but seven years ago no one had ever heard of a tweet. Thursday is the anniversary of the first tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. It wasn’t profound: «just setting up my twttr» 8:50pm 21 Mar 06.
Since then the social media company has been an important communication tool in everything from the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, to its use as a megaphone for celebrities. Over the years, its relationship to its free speech principles has changed….
When it was founded, Twitter seemed rather trivial. I visited the company’s tiny San Francisco offices in 2007 and spoke with co-founder Biz Stone. He told me about his first tweet.
«I was at home ripping up old carpet and sweating,» he recalled. «It was terrible. It was gross.»
Then Stone’s phone buzzed in his pocket and he saw a tweet: «Evan Williams is wine tasting in Napa».
Sam Gutelle wrote on Twitter’s anniversary for his tubefilter’s followers a brief colourful piece, uploading a video from Twitters’s YouTube channel with Oprah Winfrey’s first message among other curiosities.
Twitter message to his users
Since @jack first tweeted in 2006, Twitter has become a global town square. Thanks to all of you, our open, real-time platform is thriving: well over 200 million active users send more than 400 million Tweets every day. Here’s to your creativity, curiosity and experimentation on our platform. We’re gratified that so many millions of you have made Twitter yours. Thank you.