After Twitter, where next?

I just returned from SXSW in Austin where I had a chance to participate in a panel about visual thinking with Lee LeFever, Sunni Brown, Dave Gray, and Tom Crawford. We had a huge crowd in the room, and there was a lot of Twittering going on, most of which you can read here.

Seeing all those fingers flying and tweets popping up got me thinking. In a few short years we've gone from individual website content authors writing thousands of words of text for big websites to lots of friends writing thousand of tiny notes to each other.

Seen visually, the progression looks like this Teeter-Totter diagram...

There is a clear trend here towards fewer words delivered with increased frequency. Given that each new web technology remains hip for a shorter time than the previous, we should pretty soon see Twitter's replacement in the form of a one-word blip that is constantly updated by everyone alive.

Let's call it -- whatever "it" is -- BLIPPER.

Comments

[Erwin Sigterman]

What's next: one letter?!!

[AKIN]

U ARE OK

[Sean (@SeanMalarkey)]

Imagine how consise language would have to become to convey an entire thought in a single word!

[Juan Pablo Villani]

pendulums!!!! It will get back to the middle but with better semantic things!

[Chris]

Agree!

[Lynn C]

Morse code, dots and dashes...why not? .-- .... -.-- / -. --- - ..--.. according to this site: http://twitclicks.com/3z9j

[Marcus]

replace "1 word" with "1 image"

[Sue James]

An interesting perspective! :-)

Though I agree with Charlie Gray about the fact that each of these communication methods still has its purpose.

Twitter has definitely added value to the range of ways in which we can connect and share information. But it's not replaced all other forms.

The advent of the motor car certainly to a large extent may have replaced the use of horse-drawn carriages and bicycles. But both horses and bicycles are still valuable for many practical or recreational purposes.

Perhaps not a great analogy, but it's the one that came to mind. :-) Just as each form of transport has its purpose, so does each form of communication from websites, to blogs, FB, Twitter and beyond ...

(Twitter: @SueJ1)

[Charlie Gray]

I've been thinking about this, and the next big thing for me I think will be the use of GPS mobile systems, suddenly you can take something like Twitter and be telling people in the nearest 20 mins. So say your in the mood to go to a film, you'd post it up and maybe you'd get someone to go with. Or find someone else who's going and comment about it. Twitter is too global, you localize it and i think you have something new.

[Alex Miller]

This is pithy and insightful but I also think it's wrong. At least for me personally, all those old forms haven't gone away, it's just that I can now choose the medium in which I want to express a particular idea. Sometimes it's a tweet. Sometimes it's a blog. Sometimes it's a full page on a web site. Sometimes it's a tweet linked to an explanatory blog backed by a tumblr log of links over time.

[Michael Montgomery]

Considering the depths to which discourse has sunk these days I would call this new tool "Bleeper" and the one word messages "bleeps".

[Vince Chew]

Tweeter is just a tool to encourage people to keep writing without having to worry about format or completeness. Along this line, there will be new social technology that can extract our thought faster than we can even type.

Project management these days need fast actions and responses. Eventually, I would hope to see an easier way to update documents and project plan while we are going through our project life cycle.

[X Wide P]

To be honest the future beyond twitter is among us we just aren't using it yet! It is themobile phone using bluetooth as a tool to briadcast and find like minded folk..

imagine, your phone buzzes , John so and so has just walked past and he loves this music and that book just like you, would you like to interact...send him a blipper to make contact!!

See what I mean?

[Matt]

I agree that's the direction we are moving. While it's neat to see more people using twitter, it does show that people's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.

If you talk too long, people lose interest very fast. Which makes using visual diagrams and interaction very important in this digital age.

[Paul Chaney]

Next thing, no written words, but video. It's here. 12seconds.tv

[joel]

Blipper already exists. It's a site for brief reviews of movies, books, etc. The domain name glbr.com is for sale. (Not by me, just pointing this out).

[Rizzo Tees]

The new service will be called SLOP. In fact, you can have that name, Sequoia Capital or whoever funds this. SLOP.

[Sumit]

these things are demanding.. thats it.. maybe sending smileys would be the period.. a smiley for anything u wanna say..

[Michelle Malott]

VizTwiz?
Vizer?
Viser?

[Michelle Malott]

Check out this visual tweet...many words, but needed the visual link:

Bradley Askew : Tweet #666 - Words couldn't express how I feel, thus an illustration, http://tinyurl.com/d2uuno

[evul jeanyis]

does not account for youtube

[Eric Wilbanks]

I think the future is in direct-to-brain low-jacking, ala The Matrix. Thus, we move from words to thoughts for all "virtual" interaction. I've already shaved my head in the back as prep for the inevitable.

[Larry Short]

I think you've forgotten that pendulums swing and teeters tot. The next big thing will be the web taking all those tweets and turning them into something akin to War and Peace.

[Gerold]

and after Blipper "it" will be Gibber

[dulk]

Dan, did you just blipper "SXSW" ?

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23sxsw+OR+SXSW

Twitter: @dulk