Twitter is the world's real-time newspaper. In January 2009, within minutes of the US Airways plane landing in the Hudson River, a nearby ferry passenger had twittered a picture and comment—scooping the professional news media on a story happening in their own backyard.
Twitter has also turned out to be one of the world's best seismograph, as people twitter en masse about earthquakes the instant they happen. The blue line on the chart shows twittering about the July 2008 earthquake in Los Angeles, along with the first mainstream media announcement. What Obi-Wan Kenobi said first in Star Wars—"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out"—Twitter has now made true.
The service has thus become a great tool for sharing common experiences. Those include not only emergencies, like natural disasters and terrorist attacks, but also organized events, like conferences and concerts. While a surge of messages on Twitter can break news, the individual posts help people verify what's happening, connect with resources, and, during emergencies, let others know whether they're safe.
Get The Twitter Book now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
