Twitter talks about upcoming Project Lightning with journalists
NEW YORK–Twitter’s Adam Sharp, Head of News, Government and Elections and Niketa Patel, News Partnerships Manager were the speakers at Conversations, a series of open discussion held by NY Daily News Innovation Lab, at Microsoft last September 9. It was also a way for Twitter to drum up support for its upcoming Project Lightning, a curated feed of tweets.
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/conversations-inside-twitters-news-strategy-tickets-18151142556
Host and moderator Jay Rosen asked the Twitter speakers the most challenging questions about how Twitter is going to work with publishers and how the company is investing in new forms of discovery as well as its impact in the 2016 elections.
In the roomful of journalists at Microsoft, Sharp responded how the site will not be influenced by advertisers or other business decisions. In the open discussion later, though, an intriguing question was asked, Do you feel that the average person is represented on Twitter?
In response to an audience’s request for a better Tweetdeck, Sharp pointed out “how 80 percent of Twitter usage is on mobile devices, which isn’t a practical platform for a Tweetdeck.”
Slated for a Fall release, the new Twitter will have a team of editors curating the content which is foreseen to be more visually driven.
Here are other quotables quotes from the Twitter meetup with NY Daily News’ Innovation Lab:
Sharp:
“Twitter at its core has always been real-time, public and conversational,” said Sharp.
“When there’s a major event and you dive into those tweets, you see a healthy cross-section of the country”
“There is no original reporting being done by Twitter’s Project Lighting team”
“Too much great content is Twitter’s biggest problem. That’s where Project Lighting comes in.”
Patel:
“We’ve come a long way from the days where it’s just headlines and links,” said Patel
“We have no plans to tinker with the main timeline, because we know that’s a core part of our platform.”
“Whatever the topic is, it is all about picking the best content that highlights the story.”
