Is Twitter a Monopoly?

Image by Boris Veldhuijzen van ZantenLast week I read this Los Angeles Times article, and the author, David Sarno, begins by talking about a group of “Web subversives” who think that Twitter has a monopoly on a new, “full-fledged communications medium.”

"Those of us who are participating are pumping value into this closed system and trusting that Twitter will do the right thing with it," said (Leo) Laporte, referring to the tweets users pour into Twitter's databases every day by the million.

Wait. From my understanding, Twitter is an open, searchable and recordable API system. The whole conversation going on there is public (minus the very small percentage of direct messages). In fact, I assume that right now there are Twitter applications storing and analyzing every tweet that is made (certainly many applications out there could be doing this, with appropriate server space and maintenance).

By providing an open API, Twitter allowed developers to influence the brand and share in the power of the data it generates. There are plenty of Twitter users who never spend any time at twitter.com. Many argue that Twitter's growth is due precisely to its choice to relinquish control and allow others to develop robust applications for the platform.

Personally, I think there is so much buzz" about the Twitter brand that the media forgets to note that the actual powerful "medium" is SMS technology integrated with the Web. There were, and are, competitors to Twitter out in the marketplace right now. Twitter is the first widely popular platform in this arena, but it doesn't feel like a monopoly to me.  Am I wrong?

From my perspective, more power rests in the hands of mobile phone companies, because it is the delivery of SMS data (or any other type of data, really) to and from users in real time--in all locations of the planet--that is the revolutionary part of what’s going on (e.g., the way tweets began "breaking news" to the public sphere). The power of interconnected digital media, Twitter being one of the brands building this awareness, is the reason the net neutrality debate will be of growing importance in the years to come.

Not that I'm insensitive to the pressures on Twitter to monitize the service and provide a return to the investors who have poured millions into the platform. Some revuene generating tactics just launched in the last week or so--primarily sponsored aggregator applications. 

Here's where other power players--core users that drive the conversation taking place within Twitter--will come into play.  I suspect these folks, like me, will look closely at what changes occur in the next year. If Twitter appears to shut-down its focus on openness--say, by blocking a future independent application that tried to mimic a sponsored application--my guess is that some of its core users will move away from Twitter. Any technically effective open plaforms that were available would stand to become immediate, and likely powerful, competitors.

What is Your Fantasy Mobile App?

Today I'm just going to share a little something I thought was fun. Interactive only through a voting system, but worth a look and a thought.

During the South By Southwest Festival (SXSW), the folks at magnify.net partnered with Windows Mobile and created a little fantasy application microsite where 9 "players" in the online community have described their dream apps. The one to get the highest rating will be developed by Windows Mobile

My favorite is Steve Rosenbaum's idea for an app that allows you to stream live broadcasts from cell phone users recording video all around an event--a crowdsourcing effort.

I see two issues with this idea; IP concerns on the part of event organizers, and the still choppy nature of most cell phone video recordings.  But for events that approve of it, I see this as a great idea for the future.

What I find interesting is how some of the dreamed about apps already exist in some form--a great example of how the same idea can occur independently among different people (e.g. the development of calculus by Liebniz and Newton.)

Deborah Schultz asks for a "Find This" application so that she can take a picture of an object in the real world which would allow someone to shop for that object, or similar ones, online. Get yourself the Amazon Remembers app that already does this, Deb.

While Hugh MacLeod is hoping for an "Artists App" that allows him to develop a slide show of his art work, which can be updated, and allows users to share images with friends and purchase the art from a direct link.  It's not exactly the same thing, but a new Grateful Dead app was launched this month by Mosaic Legends which utilizes Jay Blakesberg's photography of the Dead to provide a photo history of the band, and also has a store link to purchase prints of the photos. Ok, so the sharing and updating features on there, but its just a step away.

So, this raises the question--what would your fantasy mobile app be?

Mine would be a nicely developed "Event App" (with a hit of Urbanspoon influence) that would aggregate event listings and allow me to select various styles of entertainment and, by location and cost, find out either randomly, or through search, what I might want to see while I'm on the go, or as a plan for the future. (There is an app called Eventful, but its functionality and listing of events isn't all that good - e.g. it has gaps from some major NYC clubs and often offers no link to purchase tickets.)

Anyone else got a dream?