Earlier this month, Stone posted an update on what the company is doing at the company, which originally incubated Twitter itself. At the time, he said they had signed up their first “Obvious Entrepreneur”.

Now, Stone writes,”It’s important never to delude ourselves into thinking that technology changes the world. People are responsible for change—technology just helps out. At Obvious, our goal is to foster systems that help people work together to improve the world. Our approach is threefold: Build, partner, and invest. We’ve started working on some ideas ourselves, we’re researching how best to create an investment vehicle, and today we’re thrilled to announce our first official partnership.”

“Tony Stubblebine and Jon Crosby have created an interesting new application for unlocking human potential through positive reinforcement,” he adds. “We love this software for what it does, and because we’ve tried it and it works. Our plan is to build something extraordinary together. The Obvious Corporation will assist the talented Lift team with strategy, design, funding, recruiting—in general, we’ll be helpful wherever possible. In exchange, Obvious will own some equity in Lift.”

Not much has been revealed about Lift so far, but Stone says that will change soon.

Unfortunately, the Lift site at lift.do isn’t much help in the details department either. It just indicates that it’s invite-only right now and you can give them your email to get updates as they become available.

Once you sign up, you’ll be send an email from Stubblebine, which says:

Hey there, thanks for signing up for the Lift Beta!

Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb was able to dig up a little bit about Lift, in that it was previously called Mibbles, and at that point, he says, “users joined multiple groups with names like Happydog (as in “I want to keep my dog happy”), Love or Home. Then they gave themselves Awards when they achieved accomplishment leading towards the goals they were grouped around.”

“It sounds like Twitter in its simplicity and from what I’ve seen it looks a lot like Twitter too – but with more structure,” he writes.

Whatever Lift turns out to be in its usable form, there’s no indication of when it will actually be available.

They’ve been pretty quiet on just what they’re doing over at Obvious, but a message on the site read:

The Obvious Corporation makes systems that help people work together to improve the world. The proliferation of technology can seem superfluous, but with the right approach, technology can benefit individuals, organizations, and society. We are relaunching the company that originally incubated Twitter with a high level of commitment to making a difference and developing products that matter.

In more than a decade of developing large scale systems on the Internet, we’ve never been more excited than right now. The possibility to reach and connect expansive numbers of people fundamentally changes the nature of what’s possible when it comes to building businesses on the Internet. Also, there’s room for innovation in how businesses measure success and more meaningful definitions of ambition.

Now, Biz Stone has sent an email out providing an update on what’s going on with Obvious. Sorry to disappoint, but there’s not really a whole lot in the way of juicy product details. They have, however signed up their first “Obvious Entrepreneur.”

Stone says they’ve hired a few people, and are up to seven bodies now. Other than that, they’ve been fighting about calculus and sitting around a kitchen table in a San Francisco apartment “tapping away at laptops”. They’ll be moving to a “fancy” office downtown this fall, Stone says.

He says that in addition to building meaningful products and services, Obvious partners with entrepreneurs. “While the projects we’re working on are not yet worthy of your attention, we can share that we’re building something internally and we’ve already signed up our first, ‘Obvious Entrepreneur.’ Investing is still nascent at this point,” Stone says. “Our definition of success has three ingredients—positive impact, happiness, and financial reward. We love building products that benefit society in a fun environment that we look forward to heading towards every day.”

“When entrepreneurs move their budding team into our space, we help them finance, design, build, and market their company and product. When they are ready to move to the next step, we’re there to help them move forward,” he says. “There are only so many products we can directly build or foster, so our third effort is to invest in early to mid stage startups that share our vision. Investors are like employees you can never fire, so we are conscientious in this regard.”

Stone does mention in the email’s conclusion that they’re looking to hire engineers and designers.

Will Obvious be able to produce another Twitter? What do you think?

Now, Biz Stone, the other co-founder, has announced that he too is stepping back (not completely away) from Twitter.

Stone and Williams are trying their hands at a new (or resurrected rather) startup called Obvious, along with former Twitter VP of Product, Jason Goldman. Here’s what it says on the Obvious site:

The Obvious Corporation makes systems that help people work together to improve the world. The proliferation of technology can seem superfluous, but with the right approach, technology can benefit individuals, organizations, and society. We are relaunching the company that originally incubated Twitter with a high level of commitment to making a difference and developing products that matter.

In more than a decade of developing large scale systems on the Internet, we’ve never been more excited than right now. The possibility to reach and connect expansive numbers of people fundamentally changes the nature of what’s possible when it comes to building businesses on the Internet. Also, there’s room for innovation in how businesses measure success and more meaningful definitions of ambition.

Stone, Williams, and Goldman all used to work on Google’s Blogger team. Then, Williams left, and the other followed him into Obvious, and eventually Twitter was born. Now, it seems that they’re going back to where they can make new things, rather than work on their creation that proved to be a succes, which is now largely in the hands of its other co-founder Jack Dorsey and CEO Dick Costolo (also formerly of Google).

On his personal blog, Stone writes:

My work on Twitter has spanned more than half a decade and I will continue to work with the company for many years to come. During this time—especially lately, it has come to my attention that the Twitter crew and its leadership team have grown incredibly productive. I’ve decided that the most effective use of my time is to get out of the way until I’m called upon to be of some specific use.

As for the bulk of my time day-to-day, I’m thrilled to announce that Evan Williams, Jason Goldman and myself will be relaunching The Obvious Corporation as co-founders. Our plan is to develop new projects and work on solving big problems aligned along a simple mission statement: The Obvious Corporation develops systems that help people work together to improve the world. This is a dream come true!

When Williams stepped down from Twitter, he also noted that he would remain on the Board of Directors, so it appears both he and Stone will still remain close to Twitter, just not as hands on as they once were.

Twitter posted this pic to their Flickr account showing co-founder Biz Stone prepping their servers for the tidal wave of tweets by enthusiastic royal fans, and perhaps royal haters as well.  Funny pic – especially the jab at incessant Bieber fans.

Twitter’s Global Comms account tweeted the pic, but stated that they will definitely be able to handle tomorrow’s  big day:

Although the wedding isn’t until tomorrow, Twitter already has a promoted hashtag – #RoyalWedding and “William and Kate” is already an organic trending topic.  Here are two of the “top tweets” that involve William and Kate:

If the news coverage is any indication, U.S. Twitter users will provide a healthy chunk of the tweet volume.  Nielsen recently revealed that U.S. coverage of the event per capita, is greater than British coverage.  And remember, you can watch the entire event live streaming on YouTube.

The story talks about the “revolving doors” of leadership at Twitter and other issues. Specifically, the sub-title of the article pretty much sums its basis: “Boardroom power plays, disgruntled founders, and CEO switcheroos are clipping the wings of this tech high flier.”

“U.S. traffic at Twitter.com” has “leveled Off” in the past year, it says, though this is hardly indicative of user interest in Twitter, given that it’s wordwide (and instrumental in revolutions), continues to be nearly everywhere in the media (not just stories about Twitter, but the media actually using it), and a great deal of users access the service in ways besides going to Twitter.com.

Co-founder Biz Stone put up a blog post in response to Fortune. He wrote, “What took so long for somebody to write the article that says we are falling apart? The normal press cycle is to put a company on a pedestal and then knock it down. It’s much more interesting that way. Twitter has had so many ups and downs you’d think we would have had more negative press. To me, it’s like watching the movie Rocky—he’s up, he’s down, he’s out, he wins!”

Twitter continues to have “Fail Whale” issues on a regular basis, despite efforts to reduce them. But it doesn’t seem to deter users much. That’s a good sign. How many sites/services that you so often have trouble connecting to would you continue to use?

‘Fortune magazine finally stepped up to knock us down with a cover article, ‘Trouble@Twitter.’ Here are some examples of how this works,” continued Stone. “After mostly positive coverage of Facebook, Fortune finally published an article in April of 2009 titled, ‘Is Facebook Losing Its Glow?’ However, later that year they published, ‘What Backlash? Facebook Is Growing Like Mad.’ Google received similar treatment. In July 2010 Fortune published, “Google, The Search Party Is Over.’ Later that year, they published, ‘Google Continues To Gain Search Marketshare.’”

The bottom line is that big brands (this includes celebrities, politicians, etc.) will always get both good and bad press. That’s just how it works. The more attention you get, the more scrutiny you get. The bad is often exaggerated, but then again, so is the good.

As far as Twitter U.S. traffic leveling off, the recently-returned Jack Dorsey has made one of his biggest priorities getting users to realize why Twitter can be useful to them. Since his return (just last month), Twitter has already tested a new homepage and updated its search feature with greater focus on user discoverability. They’ve also made Twitter Search three times faster.

Morgan had co-founders Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey on, along with other guests including Martha Stewart, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Alyssa Milano, journalist Nick Kristof, the Wall Street Journal’s Katherine Rosman, and social media wine guy Gary Vaynerchuk.

Unfortunately, there was no juicy company-related news or any discussion about the new change in leadership. That’s not to say it was a bad show. It did provide an interesting look at how Twitter was intended, what it has turned into, and how it is used in different ways, from tweeting mundane things, to preventing brutality, raising money for causes, etc.

Some quotes from new Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey:

“It’s extremely humbling to see how quickly the velocity of the service – how it’s taken off.” (note: Dorsey seems to use the words “humbling” and “velocity” a lot.)

“Early on we knew how engaging it was and how magical it felt, but had no idea what the users would do with it.”

“It’s always been focused on the recipient. You can write something and it goes out to the world, and people choose to follow it or not….They follow their interests, what they’re passionate about, and then they talk about it on the service with their friends.”

“The amazing thing is it depends on the content. There was a man in a boat in the Hudson River. He had 20 followers. A plane landed in the Hudson, he took a picture, and suddenly he was in the national conversation within a minute. So it’s not so dependent on the followers The followers certainly help direct attention, but it really depends on the content and what you’re sharing with the world.”

On mayoral use of Twitter: “It’s amazing what people are doing with it, and they redefine the service every single tweet.”

Years ago, you may recall that the biggest Twitter-related topic of discussion was about what it is for. Interesting to see now that this is still being discussed, and that getting people to figure it out is still one of the main goals for Dorsey.

When asked, “Should you drink and tweet?” Biz Stone said, “Absolutely not.” Dorsey concurred.

The subject of Evan Williams did not come up. Square came up briefly at the end of the show as a simple, quick plug.

The development’s arguably a big win for the Huffington Post and AOL.  Twitter’s reputation as cutting-edge tech could do a lot to improve AOL’s image if any sort of partnership eventually results.  And Stone’s advice should be valuable on its own, considering his history of success.

That’s not to say Stone will try to make tons of money for AOL (or receive lots of cash in return for his services).  An official statement on the matter indicated that he’ll just “advise on social impact and cause-based initiatives, develop a platform to facilitate people doing service in their communities, rally other companies to invest in and deploy best corporate practices, and create and develop a video series spotlighting leading companies and executives at the forefront of philanthropy and corporate responsibility.”

Still, AOL might be able to put some of that information to use in other areas.

It sounds like Stone will have the ear of the highest-ranking person around, as well.  AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said in the same statement (which covered a few other topics), “I’m especially thrilled that Biz Stone will be helping us to refine one of our core goals: using innovative approaches to do good and give back while putting a spotlight on solutions.”

We’ll be sure to report anything interesting that occurs as a result of this development.

Stone wrote this afternoon, "Our goal is to instantly connect people everywhere to what is most meaningful to them.  For this to happen, freedom of expression is essential.  Some Tweets may facilitate positive change in a repressed country, some make us laugh, some make us think, some downright anger a vast majority of users.  We don’t always agree with the things people choose to tweet, but we keep the information flowing irrespective of any view we may have about the content."

Later, perhaps addressing the idea that the Egyptian government might ask his company to hand over protestors’ info, Stone continued, "Our position on freedom of expression carries with it a mandate to protect our users’ right to speak freely and preserve their ability to contest having their private information revealed.  While we may need to release information as required by law, we try to notify Twitter users before handing over their information whenever we can so they have a fair chance to fight the request if they so choose."

So although Egyptian authorities have largely made this a moot point for the time being, Stone’s blog post helps further establish Twitter’s stance on censorship and cooperating with repressive governments.

On a side note, it also indicates that the company’s still growing fast, with Stone inviting people who have a similar outlook to work at Twitter.

Co-founder Biz Stone told Reuters this week, "From the very beginning this has seemed almost as if it’s a news wire coming from everywhere around the world….I think a Twitter News Service would be something that would be very open and shared with many different news organizations around the world."

Should news organizations use Twitter as a newswire like the AP? Tell us what you think. 

According to Reuters, Stone says he’s "eager" to utilize Tweets to help create a news network. 

Update: Since the Reuters story ran, there have been some conflicting reports about Twitter’s actual plans. In fact, tweets from Twitter communications guy Sean Garrett indicate that Stone was just being imaginative, and that there are no real plans for a Twitter news service (via TechCrunch). 

But even Stone said right in the Reuters interview that the service wouldn’t be run by Twitter anyway. It would be partnerships with news organizations. The way he describes it in the video clip below, makes it sound similar to how other entities are already utilizing Twitter APIs:

The exact quote from Stone as seen above is: "A Twitter news network would not necessarily be run by Twitter, but would be in partnership with several news networks with all of them getting access to our data and doing different things with it…specializing in different ways. One news network may only want news out of Japan. Another may only want what links are people passing around today…"

This is actually not the first time Stone has expressed such sentiments. He wrote on the Twitter Blog nearly two and a half years ago, following an earthquake near LA, "Many news agencies get their feed from a news wire service such as the Associated Press. ‘Strong quake shakes Southern California’ was pushed out by AP about 9 minutes after people began Twittering primary accounts from their homes, businesses, doctor’s appointments, or wherever they were when the quake struck. Whether it’s updates from best friends, internet pals, companies, brands, or breaking world events, the real-time aspect of sending and receiving Twitter updates continues to motivate our work."

Twitter is Already a Big Part of News Reporting

Twitter has obviously come a long way in two and a half years, and news organizations have of course latched on. A recent Fast Company article by Ellen McGirt says: 

There’s also the possibility, of course, that Twitter is becoming the CNN for the 21st century. Sladden [Chloe of Twitter's Media Team] walks me through the Twitter activity around the attempted coup in Ecuador in late September. Following the sequence of bystanders uploading photos, she shows me people milling nervously, then police in riot gear, then smoke. "You can feel the growing tension and violence," she says. "I can see the Ecuador coup unfolding before my eyes in real time, with just a basic Twitter search."

This is just one of the ways Twitter can use its more than 160 million users worldwide to do news gathering. "Twitter is a democratic medium," Williams [Twitter co-founder Evan] says. "We can democratize information." And Twitter can package that content through its new interface to deliver not just real-time updates but also commentary, photos, and, yes, even video.

There are plenty of ways news organizations can tap into Twitter. Tthere’s no question the content is out there. It is already fueling and complementing news reporting to a great extent. What Stone seems to be describing would simply formalize and organize it. The interesting thing would be to see how news organizations could improve on what’s already there. I’m guessing this wouldn’t be much more than glorified versions of Twitter’s exiting "lists"  - a form of authoritative content curation and syndication. 

All we can do is speculate at this point, but  if news organizations could tap into an AP-like Twitter newswire, it could make Twitter even more of a mainstream news source for non-users. 

The Good, the Bad, and the Reality of Twitter as a News Source

The reality is that news often breaks on Twitter before it breaks by a traditional publication or even a blog or news website. See Stone’s earthquake example. Twitter is immediate, and it’s right from the source, whether that be a person in power making an announcement or an eyewitness report from a citizen. 

Another advantage Twitter offers is the ability to reduce spin. Granted, any single Twitter user has their own biases, just like any single reporter, but if it’s coming directly from the source, the content is at its root – it’s purest possible form, before it makes its way into the newsroom to be curated or elaborated upon by a third party. There’s something to that. 

Of course, on the flipside of that you get a lot of noise and a lot of credibility questions, and that’s where that curation comes in. It’s up to the news consumer to establish sources they trust, and Twitter can actually be good for that too, thanks to search – the crowd. Different perspectives from different users. 

However, there is a difference between a tweet from some random person and one from a well-known figure, in terms of credibility. For example, if John Doe tweets that Google is buying Yahoo, that’s going to require a higher level of scrutiny for accuracy than if Google CEO Eric Schmidt tweets the same thing. 

It’s interesting to see how Twitter is affecting not only the news, but journalists themselves. An article at the Daily Beast looks at the phenomenon of journalists bashing each other via Twitter in order to promote themselves as the more authoritative sources (although this isn’t much different than what some are doing on TV or radio). If this kind of behavior continues to run rampant, as it no doubt will, users may find that they’re better off skipping the middlemen and going straight to the sources anyway – many of which will be tweeting actual news while the "reporters" are busy bickering. Twitter caters to that much better than TV or radio.  

Hopefully any use of a Twitter-based newswire-type feed will be able to effectively filter through this kind of thing too.

Twitter spokesperson Matt Graves simply says, "We’re not thinking about creating a Twitter news service. It already exists — it’s called ‘Twitter.’"

Should Twitter start its own news service? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Related:
How Bloggers Can Find Journalistic Credibility
Can Twitter Make Google News Better?
How the Crowd is Changing the News (SXSW)

Stone originally appeared to indicate that the company was considering partnering with news organizations on some kind of new Twitter news service. Since then, the company’s communications team has assured us that the company has no plans to do so.

Twitter’s Matt Graves went so far as to say, "We’re not thinking about creating a Twitter news service. It already exists — it’s called ‘Twitter.’" 

Twitter’s Sean Garrett says Stone simply "pondered how news orgs could do this on their own (or together). Perhaps w/ direct access to Twitter data. all hypothetical." 

Another tweet from Garrett said, "Ask @biz a "can you imagine Twitter doing…" Q, & he’s going to get creative and imagine. Related: No plans for a ‘Twitter news network’". 

That does not mean however, that news organizations can’t use Twitter in different ways like an AP-like newswire service. For more on this concept, see my original (yet updated) article on the concept, which includes the embedded Reuters video interview and actual quotes from Stone. Here’s the video again:

The bottom line is that the company has no plans to create its own news service, and already considers Twitter itself such a service. When all is said and done, Twitter is an important source of news, and news organizations will likely continue to look for new and ineresting ways to present this news. 

Ben Parr at Mashable suggests that Twitter release some kind of news-based Firehose for news organizations to tap into. Twitter has made no indication that it plans to do this. In the meantime, all that public Twitter data is there to be consumed and distributed. It’s all in the curation of that data, and Twitter’s existing lists can aid this cause greatly.

Interesting that it took two days for Twitter to clear all of this up though, since the Reuters story was published Monday. And no clarification from @biz himself yet.