Evan Williams on what's behind Twitter's explosive growth

翻译人员: Xin Chang 校对人员: Tangos Chan

Four years ago, on the TED stage,

四年前，

I announced a company I was working with at the time

我在TED上，介绍了当时工作的公司

called Odeo.

Odeo。

And because of that announcement,

由于那次演讲，

we got a big article in The New York Times,

纽约时报为我们写了一大篇文章，

which led to more press, which led to more attention,

然后它又带来了更多媒体的报道，吸引了更多关注。

and me deciding to become CEO of that company --

之后我决定要当这家公司的CEO——

whereas I was just an adviser --

那之前我只是个顾问——

and raising a round of venture capital

并成功获得风险投资

and ramping up hiring.

同时招聘更多人才。

One of the guys I hired was an engineer named Jack Dorsey,

我招了一名叫Jack Dorsey的工程师，

and a year later, when we were trying to decide which way to go with Odeo,

当一年后我们商量Odeo的发展方向时，

Jack presented an idea he'd been tinkering around with for a number of years

Jack提出了一个他捉摸了好几年的点子

that was based around sending simple status updates to friends.

基本上就是个能向朋友们发送简单消息的想法。

We were also playing with SMS at the time at Odeo,

Odeo当时也在探索短信服务，

so we kind of put two and two together,

所以我们差不多是想将他们两结合在一起。

and in early 2006 we launched Twitter as a side project at Odeo.

2006年初，作为Odeo的一个业余项目，Twitter项目开始进行。

Now, it's hard to justify doing a side project

现在很难说搞业余项目是不是个好主意，

at a startup, where focus is so critical,

因为对于初创型企业，专注是至关重要的。

but I had actually launched Blogger as a side project

但事实上，我在前一家公司推出的Blogger服务，

to my previous company,

也是一个业余项目。

thinking it was just a little thing we'd do on the side,

我当时想这只不过是个随便搞一下的小玩意。

and it ended up taking over not only the company,

结果它不但占据了整个公司

but my life for the next five or six years.

也占据了我之后五、六年的生活。

So I learned to follow hunches

从中我学会了跟随直觉，

even though you can't necessarily justify them

尽管你不知道它是否正确，

or know where they're going to go.

也不知道它会发展成什么样子。

And that's kind of what's happened with Twitter, time after time.

这种情况又一次发生在了Twitter身上。

So, for those of you unfamiliar,

那么，对于那些不熟悉Twitter的人，

Twitter is based around a very simple, seemingly trivial concept.

它基于一个非常简单，甚至微不足道的概念。

You say what you're doing in 140 characters or less,

你用不超过140个字说自己在做什么，

and people who are interested in you get those updates.

对你感兴趣的人就会收到这些消息。

If they're really interested,

如果真的十分感兴趣，

they get the update as a text message on their cell phone.

他们甚至可以通过短信在手机上获得这些信息。

So, for instance, I may Twitter right now

例如，我现在就可以用Twitter发一条消息说

that I'm giving a talk at TED.

我正在TED上作演讲。

And in my case, when I hit send,

对于我来说，当我选择发送后，

up to 60,000 people will receive that message in a matter of seconds.

几秒内，将有超过6万人会收到这条信息。

Now, the fundamental idea is that Twitter

Twitter的基本理念就是

lets people share moments of their lives

让人们随时分享他们生活中的

whenever they want,

任意时刻。

be they momentous occasions

不管是意义非凡的场合，

or mundane ones.

还是日常世俗的时候。

It is by sharing these moments as they're happening

通过分享这些正在发生的时刻

that lets people feel more connected and in touch,

人们感觉彼此间的距离更近，联系更加紧密，

despite distance, and in real time.

尽管他们不在一起。

This is the primary use we saw of Twitter from the beginning,

我们开始时觉得这就是Twitter的主要用途，

and what got us excited.

然而真正让我们感到兴奋的是，

What we didn't anticipate was the many, many other uses

我们没有料到这个简单的系统

that would evolve from this very simple system.

竟然衍生出了许多其它的用途。

One of the things we realized

我们发现，

was how important Twitter could be during real-time events.

在突发事件中，Twitter可以发挥非常重要的作用。

When the wildfires broke out in San Diego,

2007年10月

in October of 2007,

圣地亚哥发生了严重的火灾，

people turned to Twitter to report what was happening

人们依靠Twitter报告火灾近况

and to find information from neighbors

并通过周围邻居在Twitter上发布的消息

about what was happening around them.

来了解自己周围的情况。

But it wasn't just individuals.

不仅是一般人，

The L.A. Times actually turned to Twitter to dispense information as well,

实际上，洛杉矶时报也依靠Twitter发布信息，

and put a Twitter feed on the front page,

并在网站首页上放了一个Twitter订阅地址

and the L.A. Fire Department and Red Cross

同时，洛杉矶消防部门以及红十字会

used it to dispense news and updates as well.

也通过Twitter发布各种最新的消息。

At this event, dozens of people here are Twittering

这场灾难中，许多人在使用Twitter发布消息

and thousands of people around the world are following along

Twitter上也有成千上万的人在关注着事件进展

because they want to know what it feels like to be here

因为大家都想知道亲临现场是什么感觉，

and what's happening.

也想知道最新的情况。

Among the other interesting things that have cropped up

Twitter上还有很多有趣的事，

are many things from businesses,

其中不少和商业或营销活动有关，

from marketing and communications and predictable things,

也有很多通讯报道或是事件预报。

to an insanely popular Korean-barbecue taco truck

比如，一辆很火爆的韩式煎玉米饼快餐车在洛杉矶转来转去，

that drives around L.A. and Twitters where it stops,

在Twitter上公布自己下一站停靠点，

causing a line to form around the block.

结果食客们都在那里排队等待。

Politicians have recently begun Twittering.

政客们最近也开始使用Twitter了。

In fact, there are 47 members of Congress

实际上，47位国会成员

who currently have Twitter accounts.

拥有Twitter账户。

And they're tweeting, in some cases,

有的时候，

from behind closed-door sessions with the President.

他们会在和总统开会发出Twitter。

In this case, this guy's not liking what he's hearing.

看来，这家伙并不喜欢自己所听到的事情。

The President himself is our most popular Twitter user,

总统本人就是最受欢迎的Twitter用户，

although his tweets have dropped off as of late,

尽管近来他不怎么在上面发言了，

while Senator McCain's have picked up.

不过麦凯恩参议员的Twitter使用频率却开始增加。

As have this guy's.

这个人也是。

Twitter was originally designed as a broadcast medium:

Twitter最初只不过被设计成一个广播媒介。

you send one message and it goes out to everybody,

你发送的信息能被其他人收到，

and you receive the messages you're interested in.

同时，你也能收到自己感兴趣的信息。

One of the many ways that users shaped the evolution of Twitter

但用户们还自己发明了很多Twitter的新用法，

was by inventing a way to reply to a specific person

例如，回复消息给特定的人，

or a specific message.

或者回复某条特定的消息。

So, this syntax, the "@username" that Shaquille O'Neal's using here

比方说，大鲨鱼奥尼尔在这使用“@用户名”

to reply to one of his fans,

来回复他的某个粉丝，

was completely invented by users,

这种用法就完全是用户们自己发明的。

and we didn't build it into the system until it already became popular

Twitter本来并不支持这种用法，直到大家都开始这么用的时候，

and then we made it easier.

我们才增加了这个功能，方便用户。

This is one of the many ways that users have shaped the system.

上面说到的只是用户帮助改进Twitter的众多方式之一。

Another is via the API.

还有一种方法是借助于API（应用编程接口）。

We built an application-programming interface,

我们提供了一些API，

which basically means that programmers can write software that interacts with Twitter.

这样程序员可以编写其他程序来和Twitter交互。

We currently know about over 2,000 pieces of software

目前大约有2000种程序

that can send Twitter updates --

可以发送Twitter信息，

interfaces for Mac, Windows, your iPhone, your BlackBerry --

他们可以运行在Mac，Windows，iPhone或黑莓上...

as well as things like

同时，

a device that lets an unborn baby Twitter when it kicks

还有的设备可以在胎儿踢腿时发出Twitter信息，

or a plant Twitter when it needs water.

或者当植物需要浇水时发出Twitter信息。

Probably the most important third-party development

这其中最重要的第三方程序或许要算来自

came from a little company in Virginia called Summize.

佛吉尼亚州的小公司Summize公司的产品了。

Summize built a Twitter search engine.

他们做了一个Twitter搜索引擎。

And they tapped into the fact

他们利用了这样一个事实：

that, if you have millions of people around the world

如果全世界有数百万人

talking about what they're doing and what's around them,

在谈论着他们正在做的或是他们身边发生的事情，

you have an incredible resource to find out about any topic or event

那你有机会从这些海量的信息中了解到

while it's going on.

任何事情的进展。

This really changed how we perceived Twitter.

这真的改变了我们对Twitter的理解。

For instance, here's what people are saying about TED.

例如，这里显示的是人们对TED的评论。

This is another way that our mind was shifted,

我们的想法进一步地改变

and Twitter wasn't what we thought it was.

Twitter并不仅是我们当初想象的那样。

We liked this so much we actually bought the company

我们非常喜欢它，以至于我们买下了这家公司，

and are folding it into the main product.

现在它成了我们一个主要产品。

This not only lets you view Twitters in different ways,

这不仅使你从不同的角度看待Twitter，

but it introduces new use cases as well.

同时也带来了新的使用方法。

One of my favorites is what happened a few months ago

我最欣赏的一件事情发生在几个月前，

when there was a gas shortage in Atlanta.

当时亚特兰大汽油短缺，

Some users figured out

一些用户想到用Twitter记下

that they would Twitter when they found gas --

他们在哪发现的汽油，

where it was, and how much it cost --

价格是多少，

and then appended the keyword "#atlgas"

然后加上关键字“#altgas”

which let other people search for that and find gas themselves.

这样其他人就可以搜索这个关键字并知道哪有汽油了。

And this trend of people using this communication network

人们这种通过现代交流网络

to help each other out

互相帮助的趋势

goes far beyond the original idea of just keeping up with family and friends.

远远超越了当初Twitter仅仅为了让人们方便地和家人、朋友交流的设想。

It's happened more and more lately,

这样的事情最近越来越多，

whether it's raising money for homeless people

有关于为无家可归的人筹钱的，

or to dig wells in Africa

有关于去非洲挖井的，

or for a family in crisis.

还有关于帮助处于危机中的家庭的。

People have raised tens of thousands of dollars over Twitter

有时人们在几天内就通过Twitter

in a matter of days on several occasions.

募集了数万元，

It seems like when you give people easier ways to share information,

这样看来，人们如果有了更容易的分享信息渠道，

more good things happen.

更多有益的事情就会发生。

I have no idea what will happen next with Twitter.

我不知道今后Twitter将会如何，

I've learned to follow the hunch,

但我学会了跟随直觉，

but never assume where it will go.

并且从不假设结局。

Thanks.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）

Chris Anderson: We're not quite done yet.

Chris Anderson：我们还没结束呢。

So, look, if we could have this screen live.

让我们来看看这屏幕能不能用...

This is actually the most terrifying thing that any speaker can do

这是一场演讲后，

after they've been to an event.

每个演讲者最害怕做的事情了。

It's totally intimidating.

真得很可怕。

So, this would be the Twitter search screen.

那么，这是Twitter的搜索页面。

So we're going to just type a couple of random words into Twitter.

让我们随便在上面敲几个字吧。

For example: "Evan Williams."

比如说：“Evan Williams”

"Evan Williams, give people more good ways to share information and follow your hunch at TED."

“...给人更多的信息同时跟随你的直觉@#TED。”

"Currently listening to Evan Williams." "Currently listening to Evan Williams." "Evan Williams --"

“...正在听Evan Williams演讲。”

Oh.

哦！

"Evan Williams is just dying on stage here at TED.

“...Evan Williams快死在TED的台上了。

Worst talk ever!" (Laughter)

这是我听过最糟的演讲！”

Evan Williams: Nice. Thanks.

Evan Williams：不错，谢谢。

CA: Just kidding.

Chris Anderson：开个玩笑。

But, literally in the eight minutes he was talking,

但是，在他演讲的8分钟内，

there are about fifty tweets that already came on the talk.

Twitter上已经有大约50条关于他演讲的消息。

So he'll see every aspect of the reaction:

所以他将会知道关于他演讲的各种反应：

the fact that Barack Obama is the biggest Twitterer,

他说到的奥巴马是最受关注的Twitter用户，

the fact that it came out of TED.

说到的Twitter最初源于TED...

I don't think there's any other way of getting instant feedback that way.

我觉得不会有其他什么办法能这么快得到反馈了。

You have build something very fascinating,

你做了个了不起的东西，

and it looks like its best times are still ahead of it.

而且看来它以后会变得更不得了。

So, thank you very much, Evan. EW: Thank you.

非常感谢，Evan。

CA: That was very interesting.

你的演讲非常有趣。