“ It will always be about providing access to a communication network through the lowest common denominator. A farmer in rural India isn’t going to have the Web any time soon, but he can send out a text asking his network how much are they getting for their grain, and get an answer back from a few people, and maybe not get as screwed by a wholesaler. ”
Biz Stone. Twitter cofounder. He was asked in the Boston Globe where Twitter will be in five years. (via bijan)
Exactly. In explaining why Twitter was significant for an earlier iteration of DIYcity, I noted something similar:
“[Twitter is] currently useful because it offers a readymade, user-controlled, device-independent, mobile communication backbone. While email and Web-enabled phones/personal media devices are increasingly common, SMS is the lowest common denominator and Twitter does SMS (in addition to a bunch of other stuff).
Also useful for a slightly different class of project: you can do more with a mobile-oriented Web site, but that requires that the user actively seek out the Web site. SMS allows for opportunistic, active notification of users in more-or-less real time, enabling a fascinating and useful branch of thinking and development.”
(via whitneymcn)