Twitter

Earlier this summer the University of Iowa's Tippie School of Management made headlines by ditching the traditional essay in favor of __allowing would-be students to use Twitter__ to write a 140-character application. Now Columbia Business School is following suit by asking applicants, "What is your post-M.B.A. professional goal?" and limiting responses to just 200-characters—not words, //characters//.

Twitter has clearly had a profound influence on society, but it's barely five years old.

Here's a snip from Wikipedia on the origins of Twitter: Twitter's origins lie in a "daylong brainstorming session" held by board members of the [|podcasting] company [|Odeo]. Dorsey introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group. [|[11]] The original [|project code name] for the service was **twttr**, an idea that Williams later ascribed to [|Noah Glass], [|[12]] inspired by [|Flickr] and the five-character length of American SMS [|short codes]. The developers initially considered "10958" as a short code, but later changed it to "40404" for "ease of use and memorability." [|[13]] Work on the project started on March 21, 2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 PM [|Pacific Standard Time] (PST): "just setting up my twttr". [|[14]] > **"...we came across the word 'twitter', and it was just perfect. The definition was 'a short burst of inconsequential information,' and 'chirps from birds'. And that's exactly what the product was." – [|Jack Dorsey] [|[15]] ** The first Twitter prototype was used as an internal service for Odeo employees and the full version was introduced publicly on July 15, 2006. [|[7]] In October 2006, [|Biz Stone], [|Evan Williams] , Dorsey, and other members of Odeo formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo and all of its assets–including Odeo.com and Twitter.com–from the investors and shareholders. [|[16]] Williams fired Glass who was silent about his part in Twitter's startup until 2011. [|[17]] Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007. [|[18]]

Reaction
The [|tipping point] for Twitter's popularity was the 2007 [|South by Southwest] (SXSW) festival. During the event, [|Twitter usage] increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000. [|[19]] "The Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages," remarked // [|Newsweek] '//s [|Steven Levy]. "Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it." [|[20]] Reaction at the festival was highly positive. Blogger Scott Beale said that Twitter "absolutely rul//[ed]//" SXSW. Social software researcher [|Danah Boyd] said Twitter "own//[ed]//" the festival. [|[21]] Twitter staff received the festival's Web Award prize with the remark "we'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!" [|[22]]