VentureBeat - Latest Comments in Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

slow — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:30:09 -0000

yeah....this was posted like a month ago many news sites...long before twitter

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Anthony Ha — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:32:43 -0000

"Twitter and Apple seems to be all you're able to write about"

Duncan, if you click on MG's name in the list of VentureBeat writers on the right side of the page, you'll bring up a list of his recent stories, and you can see for yourself that this is a demonstrably untrue statement.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

MG Siegler — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:19:41 -0000

I write about five or six stories a day Duncan many of which have nothing to do with Twitter or Apple. I will admit that those are popular though. I'd be glad to send you links to other coverage.

As for Kara's comment, I'm happy to be one of those 14 giving early coverage to what could eventually be a mainstream phenomenon. If that happens (and I'm not saying that it for sure will), look for a lot of people to change their tune.

As someone who has coverage Twitter pretty extensively for the past year and a half, I can tell you there have already been quite a few naysayers (both prominent and not prominent) who have done a 180.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Duncan Schwarz — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:50:26 -0000

In an interview with iLike Kara Swisher says:

"Twitter is overhyped by 14 white male bloggers in Silicon Valley, who find nothing else to write about. "

OK, MG, you also write endlessly about Apple, but Twitter and Apple seems to be all you're able to write about. Kara called you out.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Livy — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:33:26 -0000

Enough already… we get it, you like Twitter. For me, it would be just another distraction and therefore less than useless (particularly given the character limit). From the other comments, as well as those that followed the earthquake, it appears that ‘being first’ is the point. The questions become “being first with what?” I received an EMail press release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that was time stamped 5:30 PT, which was very early. The release not only confirmed was on Mars, but also noted that the mission was extended. There were explanatory notes and contact information. It was just a press release, so it did not contain a massive amount of information. Still, compared to 140 characters… well you get the idea. If I try hard enough, I could come up with cases where Twitter makes sense, but I suspect for the vast majority it is just something to do between making cell calls or texting. Let’s face it, most ubiquitous communication technologies are not being used to take a call from Condoleezza Rice or Barack Obama, or even the doctor contacting you to tell you they have a kidney available for that transplant. No, 99.999% is simply people contacting each other just to contact someone. That’s OK, but could they be doing something else with all that time?

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Tim — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:51:59 -0000

Eww, I can't believe the self-respecting scientists who run the Twitter account actually used the term "ftw." Along with "fail" and "epic," there's three words that should've stayed among the Warcraft crowd.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Lewis Salem — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:29:27 -0000

This is where I believe the true power of Twitter actually is. Automated updates. The mainstream doesn't want to twitter it's minutiae every five minutes. I've never used it for that exact reason. What do I have to say?

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Duncan Schwarz — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:58:03 -0000

Fully agree. In particular with your last sentence: affective & obsessive.

Twitter is for the 5% getting fired after the next performance review.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Daniel Strickland — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:46:22 -0000

All the Twitter hype seems to be a little off: Isn't its utility as a breaking news source directly linked to how often one checks Twitter and who one is following on Twitter?

If you obsessively refreshed NASA's website every few minutes (or Popular Mechanics or the AP wires) then those places would be the first (for you). If a NASA scientist was a friend of yours then a text message or phone call might be the first medium that reaches you.

Where is the filter? What's to stop me from tweeting that King Kong is attacking New York as I write this? The news would get out fast to everyone that follows me and that follows them, but what does that mean? I'm sure someone at CNN follows Twitter and knew about the water when you did, but CNN has to (somewhat) confirm a story before running it.

Twitter is affective for a very small group of people that check it obsessively.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Gabe Yukzon — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:48:58 -0000

Is this actionable news?
I mean should we start preparing to move to Mars *now*?

If not: why should this info interrupt our work or our social interactions?

I'd prefer a well-researched and well-written piece on what water on Mars means for me and mankind in my Sunday paper, but -- since I don't suffer from ADD -- I insist on not being interrupted by this and having to put the pieces of the puzzle together myself.

Get a life "breaking" news junkies...

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

jondillon — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:39:19 -0000

@breakingnewson mostly pick up their stuff from the wires. AFP reported this one at 12:47 PST which was about 10-15 mins before it went to twitter. I love twitter and find it a very powerful broadcaster of information but if the wires just pumped real-time to twitter some of this stuff would get there much quicker

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

MG Siegler — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:08:16 -0000

I don't know, maybe it's just me but I like to hear potentially world changing events as soon as possible.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Jojo — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:01:24 -0000

MG Siegler said "I feel Twitter is much more powerful as a quick, massive communication tool than a blog. It got me and thousands of other people the news much quicker than I could have gotten it in the past on the web."

OK, I can see the utility in Twitter for things like natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, fires, etc. Also, I fell and can't get up or just got shot/mugged. But H2O on Mars??? So you got the news much quicker (say 5-15 minutes or so). BFD!

Then again, Twitter is probably good for media types and blog authors who are in a race to break some news, any news, first. But let me share a little secret: The vast majority of people don't care who is first and don't switch what they read because someone posts something 'new" first.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

MG Siegler — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:45:16 -0000

Right, which is why I say Twitter is a good disseminator of information, not creator of it. I feel Twitter is much more powerful as a quick, massive communication tool than a blog. It got me and thousands of other people the news much quicker than I could have gotten it in the past on the web.

The story is about Twitter here because we focus on web tech news. Of course NASA finding water is the huge news, but that doesn't mean we can't discuss other elements of that. Especially when we focus on that.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Eric Rice — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:36:16 -0000

NASA told us about water on Mars, not Twitter. If twitter wasn't around and it was this shiny new thing called a blog, find/replace. We *have* to keep perspective here, because Twitter is not a public utility, it's a startup company with a lot of funding and plenty of issues.

This shouldn't be a conversation about Twitter. NASA found water on Mars. Let's see some Space-oriented Venture Beats. But please don't put a web utility in the same grouping as one of the longest-sought after questions in our SOLAR SYSTEM.

Context.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

MG Siegler — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:17:42 -0000

Great list RD. Thanks.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Pierre Henri Clouin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:59:16 -0000

NASA is definitely at the smarter end of the Twitterspace. Very cool.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

ben — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:44:54 -0000

IRC could do the same thing 20 years ago. Get over it.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

MG Siegler — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:28:17 -0000

Certainly water found on Mars would be one of those, no? But I see your point Dan. I hardly think you're alone in that.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Dan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:24:20 -0000

For me, the format doesn't really give me what I consider "news", just headlines. Also, there are very few pieces of news important enough to me to want be interrupted just to read the headline. I'd rather sit down and be able to read the story at a time that is good for me in a better format so I can actually read some substance. So I think there are probably a few instances where I'd find it valuable but it would probably be very difficult to filter those and it wouldn't be that valuable - probably not worth the effort and the distraction and waste of time of non-valuable stories.

I can see how most people that religiously follow tech blogs or certain other blogs would love it, but I think it's just not my cup of tea. I think there are a lot of people like me but I don't know whether there are more like me or like you.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Rd — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:07:25 -0000

NASA is doing such a great job with Twitter. There are so many NASA missions sending out tweets...

LRO_NASA,
LCROSS_NASA,
NASA_SDO_HMI,
STS-126 (upcoming Space Shuttle Mission)
NASAKepler
ESA_Planck (well, not NASA but ESA!)
and so on and on...

One great step in the right direction, NASA!

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

MG Siegler — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:10:43 -0000

I fear that is true...

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

Jay Cuthrell — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:03:08 -0000

The revolution will be announced in 140 characters or less.

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

MG Siegler — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:58:56 -0000

And probably not til quite a bit after it was on Twitter :)

Re: Twitter tells me NASA has found water on Mars!

MG Siegler — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:58:21 -0000

So what would make it valuable for you Dan? If there was a way to filter it so you could get news much faster than any traditional site can put out would you use that, I for one, think that is pretty compelling. Or do you really just not care to use it in anyway?