By Heather Negley

The pace of technological change is increasing. This week, as I read the recent news from Neilson about Twitter growing 1,382% over the past year, and I was reminded of Moore’s Law which says that the number of transistors that can be integrated into a circuit doubles every two years. These implications are far reaching and thought provoking, especially when I think about the myriad of new tools that will be invented for information to flow faster. I also thought of the ideas from futurists like Ray Kurzweil who predict a technological singularity or theoritical future point of unprecented technological progress. As far as information technology goes, it seems like that future is here. Brian Solis of P.R. 2.0 has even dubbed this era the Social Revolution. He says,

The business of information creation and distribution has driven and defined our global economies. In the last century, the increasingly rapid pace of innovation has globalized, localized, and streamlined the distribution of information, what we thought about, and how we processed, news, trends and current events – and in turn, influenced how our societies evolved in the real world….

…Towards the end of the 1990s, the Web, and its architects, forged the tools that would spark a renaissance of influence and empowerment. These tools would inspire people to build new interconnected platforms for content that would collectively and ultimately ignite a social revolution and usher a new exchange for information that has all the signs and economic potential of a modern day Industrial Revolution.

 

Just a year ago, we were asking ourselves “why would I want to post what I am doing right now” on some site and in 140 characters or less? At least I was. But it turns out there are many reasons to do so. And businesses think so to. Many businesses have embraced this technology wholeheartedly. Quickly evolving past status updates, businesses are using Twitter and other micro media tools to grow their brands and connect with others faster than ever. Ingrid Catlin of the Cheeky Marketeer explains on her blog that businesses are using Twitter to broadcast news and events, provide customer service, promote sales, build communities around their brand.

Twitter was founded in 2006 and in three short years, it has lodged itself squarely in the middle of our collective consciousness. If the medium is the message, Twitter is loud and clear even if the message is only 140 characters or less. My only question is, if Twitter can become this pervasive in such a short time, what’s next? I can’t wait for tomorrow.

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Tags: Moore's Law, Ray Kurzweil, twitter