Historical Context: Twitter co-founder Rabble's talk

Alanna Irving Public Seen by 388

As we're all considering the future of Twitter, I think it's quite useful to also understand its past.

Twitter co-founder Evan Henshaw Plath (Rabble) gave an amazing talk at the Open Source // Open Society conference recently about its idealistic, open, community-driven beginnings, and how it was taken over and went a whole other direction.

Evan Henshaw-Plath: How does 'open' make the world better?

After watching this talk, what are your reflections?

Brendan Denovan Wed 5 Oct 2016 10:25PM

That was great, thank you for posting it. I can't help but imagine @rabble would support a return of twitter to what was unique and successful at the beginning. That he mentions ag co-ops in the presentation is also really encouraging.

Chris Cook Wed 5 Oct 2016 10:36PM

Indeed. A Platform Co-operative has to be the endgame.

Intuitively the absence of rent-seekers (people expecting something for nothing) in a Co-op model actually gives a better exit to existing investors than any other model. It's what is known as the 'Co-operative Advantage'.

Tom McDonough Fri 7 Oct 2016 4:17PM

Wonderful. Everyone in the group should spend the half hour to watch this to know the evolution of Twitter and what it might have been.

Kirsten Lambertsen Fri 7 Oct 2016 6:22PM

Really really enjoyed this.

Sreeharsha Fri 7 Oct 2016 7:10PM

Rabble clearly explains how difficult and what efforts it takes to keep a community open in a market economy.
So does it make sense to try to take twitter what it was before it got shifted to centralised control ?
Giving a call to all those folks who were part of ecosystem ?
Is Rabble interested in being part of this #Buytwitter campaign @ntnsndr ?

Tom McDonough Mon 10 Oct 2016 4:44PM

Rabble on the team seems iike a good idea but I don't know his personality. AND before or after the Manifesto?

Priscilla Grim Fri 7 Oct 2016 7:13PM

Totally I watched it yesterday

Tristan Copley Smith Sat 8 Oct 2016 12:16AM

Thanks for sharing @alanna -- that was super inspiring, and amazingly relevant! x

Sophie Jerram Mon 10 Oct 2016 2:23PM

Thanks @alanna! Really good to watch this. What really inspired me was that Twitter started out in the podcast world. If anyone else thinks that narrowcasting could still be refined on more clear curatorial grounds I'd love to hear. Thinking about curatorial themes that are meaningful.

Poll Created Mon 10 Oct 2016 7:53PM

Thursday night meeting for Bay Area accomplices? Closed Mon 10 Oct 2016 8:07PM

Anyone in the Bay Area is welcome to join a friendly get-together on Thursday evening, to build on ongoing #platformcoop organizing and #coopbarnraiser events I've been co-hosting to help startups transform into co-ops. Location somewhere near BART, around 5:30–7pm.

Let's build some in-person camaraderie, talk Twitter co-op buy-out, and build some democratic power like Theda Skocpol would want us to!

Yay or Nay or Maybay - will you attend?