VR comes to the rescue for those, like myself, who couldn’t make it to New York to experience the Presidential Pop-up Twitter library 

As the Daily Show’s Host Trevor Noah said, we live in extraordinary times, but even by today’s crazy standards, the installation that materialised in the heart of Manhattan last weekend was something else. Here we had a sitting US President’s social media diarrhoea, prominently displayed for all to see.

The President's social media diarrhoea was prominently displayed for our enjoyment
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As someone who has argued for the growing importance of Twitter this struck a chord, and was gutted to be stuck on the other side of the Atlantic for the short-lived event. So I was delighted when I found out there was a 3D tour for those who couldn’t be there in person.

The Daily Show has kindly made the pop-up exhibition into a 3D tour also available in VR
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Powered by Matterport, users have the option to either navigate around a 3D tour – which works on normal desktop and mobile devices – or if you’ve got a Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR headset handy, you can go for the 360 VR option, which I did.

Side rant: If we’re ever going to get consumers to embrace VR experiences en masse, they still have a long way to go to make the flow intuitive and easy. I do this a lot, and still had to spend about 15 minutes fiddling with downloading the app, then enabling Google VR services. My Samsung phone then didn’t remember my Oculus account, and when I finally opened the Matterport app, it didn’t take me straight to the experience, but rather a home page where you couldn’t search their library for content. I got there eventually, but can see how most people would just give up. But back to the experience:

Many interesting projects have already started cropping up around the popular culture phenomenon that these tweets represent, yet I somehow found the effect of this exhibition to be particularly shocking. Maybe it was the fact that it was housed just across the road from one of Trump’s towers, or perhaps it was the sheer quantity of – excuse the language – crap on display. Even in this heavily curated and pared down collection, I still found many tweets I’d never seen before, each more bewildering than the last. It was one heck of a rabbit hole.

Got to love the #MAGA-NETIC Wall
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The Comedy Central team also did a really good job of breaking up the exhibition with some interactive fun stuff, such as a wall (something we all know the President is fond of) with giant magnets where you could play around with popular buzzwords tweeted by Trump, appropriately named the #MAGA-NETIC Wall.

You can now experience what it's like to be Commander-in-Tweet
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By far my favourite, however, was the tiny desk which allowed you to become the “Commander-in-Tweet.” Basically you’re presented with a short video where one of your aides gives you a piece of news, and you (as the President) are tasked with crafting an appropriate response – on Twitter of course.

It's one heck of a rabbit hole, even if you're used to Trump's tweets
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It’s multiple choice, and I rather liked how my pseudo-presidential tweet turned out. Why not have a go and share your own? It’s as good a thing to do over the weekend as shouting at the TV that the world is a bloody insane place and can we PLEASE  just wake up now? #SAD

You can access the Donald Trump Presidential Twitter Library 3D and 360 VR tour here

From the Trump Nickname Collection. The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library. Take the 3D virtual tour: https://t.co/36RjBeNgnS pic.twitter.com/csh1iAotfI

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 22, 2017

For companies looking to gain a competitive edge through technology, Tech Trends offers strategic Virtual Reality and Digital Transformation Consultancy services tailored specifically to your brand.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Taking a Virtual Tour of Donald Trump’s Twitter Library appeared first on Tech Trends.

After the US government attempted to gag scientists who dissented from its official position, many of them went “rogue” on Twitter. 

What does Twitter’s blue tick of approval mean in a post-truth age? The coveted check signals a verified, official Twitter account, but in a media environment where the left is distrusting of “official” government decrees, the right is distrusting of “official” legacy media, and the most revealing information comes from clandestine sources and high-level leaks, verification no longer holds the same weight it once did.

What does Twitter’s blue tick of approval mean in a post-truth age
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We can no longer rely on third-party appraisal—whether it’s the government, news publications, or social media—to authenticate information for us. Instead, we must seed our own skepticism and verify our suspicions independent of a single source.

The rulebook that governs the relationship between the press and government was tossed out by Trump
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This is no more true than on Twitter. The rulebook that governs the relationship between the press and the US government has been casually tossed out, and for better or worse, the US president himself favors using Twitter to bypass the “unkind” press and speak directly to the public. So there was a poetic irony when Donald Trump’s administration issued blanket gag orders on US government agencies, and many of them turned to Twitter to keep their voices from being silenced. From NASA to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there’s an ever-growing list of so-called “rogue” handles run by agency insiders. These accounts are gathering millions of followers and are helping to galvanize a growing resistance movement.

Read the full article on Quartz

Want Twitter’s blue tick of approval? In a post-truth age, verification doesn’t mean trust https://t.co/q2CoKZ2unx

— Quartz (@qz) February 17, 2017

The post In the Age of Rogue Accounts, Does Twitter Verification Still Mean Anything? appeared first on Tech Trends.

Since its IPO, we’ve seen Twitter struggle with stagnant user growth numbers and monetization challenges. There was hope that Jack Dorsey’s return would help steer the ship back in the right direction, but no sign of that so far.

Now we’re seeing some industry commentators going out on a limb to say that if things don’t turn around pretty sharpish we could be looking at one heck of a dead dodo.

Since its IPO Twitter struggled with stagnant user growth numbers and monetization challenges
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“Large scale social businesses grow or die.  Flat growth means almost certain death,” says Victor Basta from Magister Advisors, a tech M&A advisory firm. “Yahoo and MySpace are two examples of social businesses that flat-lined and then rapidly become irrelevant.  In both cases, valuations didn’t just get cut 5-10%, they lost 80-90% of their value over a short period of time.  Twitter’s near zero growth in users and revenue, if not reversed very soon, is likely to lead to this kind of catastrophic valuation reduction. “

If things don't turn around sharpish for Twitter, we could be looking at one dead Dodo
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As a huge Twitter fan, it drives me mad how they refuse to work on things such as better search, but for all its flaws, I believe that it would be nothing short of a disaster if that came to pass. As Basta suggests, the company should look at ways of innovating rather than insisting on trying to make outdated models – such as monetizing adverts – try to fit

“When user growth has slowed, Facebook has innovated with new products (Facebook Live), new platforms (Oculus) and intensive machine learning/AI capabilities to continue to grow its presence. Snapchat is another more recent example of positive product and user momentum. We have already seen a sharp drop in Twitter’s value, but there is a lot more downside than upside now in the company’s valuation.  Crucially momentum has to reverse very quickly. We reckon the company has maybe a year or two to turn things around and re-establish momentum.  Unfortunately this kind of revival is a slow, and very painful process.  There is no ‘quick tweet’ solution to arresting Twitter’s decline.”

Twitter's importance goes well beyond its balance sheet, and it should be protected
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Another option, which I explored in more depth for this Quartz article and discussed in a panel hosted by CBC Radio is that Twitter’s importance actually transcends its balance sheet. It is, I’d argue, more akin to a public service than a commercial platform, and the public should not allow it to go under.

There is no quick tweet solution to arresting Twitter’s decline.
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Specially given the current political climate and the socio-economic impact that a tweet can have, Twitter is a powerful catalyst for democratic movements and a channel that must be kept open to facilitate freedom of speech. How we go about safeguarding it is a debate worthy of a trending hashtag. #SaveTwitter anyone?

The post Is Twitter Headed for Certain Death? appeared first on Tech Trends.

With Twitter stocks continuing to plummet and growth stalling, the future of Twitter is being called into question. I was invited to participate in a panel for The Current – Canada’s most listened to interview radio show on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation).

Hosted by Anna Maria Tremonti, the panel also included the Globe and Mail’s technology reporter Shane Dingman and tech industry analyst Rob Enderle . We discussed both the current challenges facing the platform and possible ways in which its important role as a voice for a global community can be safeguarded going forward.

Falling stocks and stalled growth are calling the future of Twitter into question
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Can Twitter remain a viable business? @shanedingman, @alicebonasio, @Enderle talk about the company’s biggest woes: https://t.co/Hglik7Svdg pic.twitter.com/Ayk0QdYRYl

— CBC-The Current (@TheCurrentCBC) January 17, 2017

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Pondering the Future of Twitter appeared first on Tech Trends.

As an avid Twitter user, I have been worried to see it struggle to conform to the expectations of its investors and shareholders.

In this Quartz article I set out the case for why those expectations are not only shortsighted but actually dangerous. Twitter is about much more than making a quick advertising buck, and if we – its community – don’t scramble to safeguard it, we could lose it.

Commercial pressure on Twitter may cause its community to lose what has become a vital service
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2016 has been a year of surprises and painful lessons that have taught us we must proactively defend what we value or face losing it in spectacular fashion. In 2017, Twitter’s future might matter more than you might think—and it hinges on keeping it in the hands (or, should we say, thumbs) of the public.

Twitter’s absence from US president-elect Donald Trump Dec 16’s meeting with top tech executives raised quite a few eyebrows. Despite using the social-media platform to regular and devastating effect throughout his campaign, Trump’s choice to not have Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sitting at the table with the tech big kids draws the importance of the company into question. The Trump team defended their decision to exclude them by saying the platform—which claims 317 million monthly active users, though that figure is not entirely clear-cut—was “too small.” (There’s also a rumor Trump froze Twitter out in retribution over rejecting a custom emoji he wanted to run during the campaign.)

Sure enough, judging by criteria such as market cap ($13 billion compared to Amazon’s $363 or Apple’s $618), number of employees (a workforce less than a hundredth of the size of IBM’s), and revenue (they’re still operating at a net loss), Twitter seems to come up short compared to the other tech giants. But it holds some serious soft economic power: Recently, Trump wiped out billions of dollars in Lockheed Martin’s stock value with a single tweet.

Regardless of how much money the company does or doesn’t make, there are still millions of people who use and need Twitter
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Twitter might yet find ways of making money from its substantial user base and the huge amount of content and data it generates. But the network’s true calling arguably resides in giving people a voice who would otherwise have been ignored. In that context, it makes a lot more sense to think of Twitter as a public service rather than a dividends cash cow. Yet the constant pressure it’s under to monetize leaves it vulnerable to a takeover, which could question its future integrity and neutrality.

 It makes a lot more sense to think of Twitter as a public service rather than a dividends cash cow. Twitter’s potential suitors—which include Disney, Salesforce, Alphabet, and Microsoft—continually frame the company in terms of commercial viability (or lack thereof) instead of its reach and influence as a media platform. For example, News Corp has been touted as a potential buyer, although they’ve officially denied it so far. If that did turn out to be true, what are the implications of its founder and executive chairman, Rupert Murdoch, openly endorsing Trump? In fact, there’s nothing to really stop Trump’s own company putting in their own bid, should they wish to.

Twitter is a unique platform in a very unique position
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Regardless of how much money the company does or doesn’t make, there are still millions of people who use and need Twitter. But if not through cash, how do we assign value to a platform through which the Pope (@Pontifex) chooses to ponder the rapidly declining state of our planet, and which allows little girls in Syria to reach JK Rowling? What price should we put on a tool that journalists, both professional and citizen, have come to rely on to source and disseminate news? If Twitter’s neutrality was to be jeopardized by a third-party purchase, we’d lose all that and so much more.

Over the past ten years, Twitter has become an essential service in global society—and as such, its future should be protected. But how?

Twitter might yet find ways of making money from user base and the huge amount of content and data it generates, but its true calling is arguably giving people a voice who would otherwise have been ignored.
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There are interesting precedents for sponsoring media organizations and information platforms through various forms of public ownership, and these solutions could very well be adapted to Twitter. Here are three possible alternatives:

Shareholder cooperatives

What if Twitter’s users were to mobilize and take matters into their own hands? After all, Twitter is a publicly traded company, and since its 2013 IPO, anybody can buy shares. While there is a group of key stakeholders who own large portions of the platform, if enough individuals decided to invest and collectively organize, it could make a big difference to its future direction.

Nathan Schneider from the University of Colorado Boulder set out how that might work in a recent Guardian article, making the case that, much like the Green Bay Packers NFL team, Twitter should be run by (and for) its fans. There is now an (appropriately hashtagged) #wearetwitter campaign and petition urging Twitter to work with users to find a way for them to buy it and turn it into a cooperatively owned platform.

“Another suggestion comes from Tom McDonough,” Schneider writes, “a blogger with a history in capital markets, who proposes that less than 1% of users—no small number, at three million—could each buy $2,300 worth of shares and vote as a bloc for a transition to cooperative ownership. They’d then be paid back through the transition process, partly through a membership fee that could average to $10 each year. Rather than giving the company a blank check to sell your data, would you pay a co-ownership fee?”

Contribution-based model

The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia and campaigns for policy change, has managed to finance its operations through an extremely effective contribution-based model where users are asked to make regular donations. It also receives larger gifts like the $1 million contribution made earlier this year by Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark. Twitter could also follow this path.

Katherine Maher, the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, explains how this contribution model helps to build trust with the community and ensures the credibility of the information posted on the platform. “Nobody owns Wikipedia, so everybody owns it,” she says. “We’ve got these very strict guidelines and criteria that articles have to meet, but users take a collective responsibility for making sure it all works. Anybody can use, it, anybody can contribute, but it is all done in a very transparent way.”

The most important aspect of what Wikipedia does is not that its information is perfect, but that it is transparent. You can check the provenance of any piece of information by looking at every single edit ever made to a page. Snowden argued that a similar feature should be implemented on Twitter, allowing people to edit their tweets, but making it so that the edits were flagged, visible, and traceable, much like they are on Wikipedia. That transparency then empowers users to make informed decisions about the information they choose to trust, perhaps helping us to avoid the potentially disastrous dissemination of fake news we’ve seen with Facebook.

Since neutrality could not be ensured, there seems little point (and frankly very little hope of success) in governments attempting to start new Twitter-like platforms from scratch
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Public ownership

It might seem counter-intuitive to suggest that some form of state funding might work for Twitter, especially considering that this would make it entangled in a very complex relationship with the next president. There are, however, many examples of publicly funded media platforms, such as NPR in the US and the BBC in the UK, that manage not only to thrive commercially but also to stand up to government forces and maintain their independence.

Some politicians have even argued for the creation of alternative nationalized platforms. For example, in his Digital Democracy Manifesto, the leader of the opposition in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn set out the need for a “Massive Multi-Person On-line Deliberation” platform to organize online meetings for individuals and communities to deliberate about pressing political issues and participate in devising new legislation.

As the New Statesman’s Amelia Tait pointed out, that “is Twitter. It’s just Twitter.”

But as neutrality could not be ensured, there seems little point (and frankly very little hope of success) in governments attempting to start new Twitter-like platforms from scratch. Instead, their financial support conceivably could be managed through 3rd-party collective organizations that transcend borders or the jurisdiction of any one government, much in the way that institutions such as NATO and the UN operate.

Twitter is a unique platform in a very unique position. Like Facebook, it isn’t a media company in the traditional sense, yet events such as Brexit and the US election leave no doubt as to its power and influence. We now need to figure out how to manage that power sustainably for the benefit of its users. That’s because Twitter’s unique problems are also a huge opportunity to bring the broader community into the conversation and give them a chance to have a say in the future of the company.

Twitter is failing as a public company, but there are other ways to keep this bird aloft https://t.co/AtfvWoCorM

— Quartz (@qz) December 21, 2016

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Why Twitter Needs to Go Public. Again appeared first on Tech Trends.