Twitter has long been an innovator in the world of social media, though they’ve fallen behind in recent years. First revolutionizing the scene with a concise updating format and introducing the now-ubiquitous hashtag, their recent list of innovations mostly include the acquisition of smaller social media companies that amend existing Twitter functionality. Contemporaries like Facebook, on the other hand, have tried to break new ground in the social world by introducing entirely new functions, streamlining the online experience by integrating more external apps, and sponsoring offline projects that somehow improve the world.
Now, Twitter appears to be retaking control of its own direction. According to former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Project Lightning is not an evolutionary change, such as improving an existing functionality, but rather a shift in the direction of the company. The project, which has been in development for years and currently bears only a temporary name, still has no formal launch date, but is nearing completion and will undoubtedly hit our news feeds soon. When the service launches, current reports suggest it will be called “Moments.”
What is Project Lightning?
Put simply, Project Lightning is a system that will aggregate information from individual tweets, photos, and videos of live events. It will algorithmically determine when something significant is happening, such as a festival, gathering, or even a breaking news event, and begin gathering data on tweets related to that occurrence. Using data from human engagers, such as shares, favorites, and replies, Twitter will select which pieces of information are most important to the event.
Twitter will then present this information to relevant users, or to non-users who visit the Twitter homepage. For individual users, this content may be customized—for example, Twitter could theoretically curate content for you based on your interests, or based on your geographic location.
A new era of journalism?
Depending on the robustness and technological sophistication of this system, it could introduce a new kind of real-time peer-created journalism. Rather than relying on a specific news source to get to an event shortly after it happens and then report on that event, the event will effectively be broadcast and commented on in real time by active members of the community. The recent acquisition of Periscope, an app which allows users to broadcast video in real-time, adds to Twitter’s capacity for allowing such a real-time broadcast.
Twitter’s area of expertise has always been the “now.” Its short-form message updates guide users to make shorter, more real-time status messages and replies. Its stripped-down platform allows for a more mobile, experience-driven functionality. Its photo and video options almost demand sharing in real time, and its trending topics have changed how we view the virality of content. It only makes sense that journalism, which demands a “now”-driven focus, would be a perfect area for Twitter’s potential exploration.
Experiences over messages
This real-time experience-based format of broadcasting could change the message-based nature of social media and online interactions in general. Content marketing, which relies on taking information from events and experiences and presenting it in a message-based format, could be replaced by simply presenting the events and experiences themselves. News stories would write themselves—but instead of being written, they would be shown.
Though the full details of Project Lightning, or as it will soon be called, Moments, are not yet available, the release portends a dramatic shift both in journalism and content marketing in general. The world may soon be driven by peer-aggregated snippets of information, and if you want to stay relevant in this ever-evolving social age, you’ll need to turn yourself into a contributor.
