Twitter's head of product @kayvz just spent the past hour on Twitter Spaces, talking about the product, the competition, and the future of the medium, with a bunch of tech reporters—setting a pretty different tone from the anti-media sentiment of a lot of the execs on Clubhouse.
The most interesting part to me was @kayvz (who cofounded Periscope) offering his 20/20 hindsight on the obstacles to live video, and why he thinks live audio addresses some of those, and is ultimately a better fit with the rest of Twitter's product.
"For most people it's literally terrifying to be on live video," @kayvz said. "It's one of the early insights we had at Periscope I think we were not fast enough to act on, to lower the barrier" to going live. (I agree, & wrote this about FB Live in 2016: slate.com/business/2016/…)
"The reason I think Spaces Is resonating and why Clubhouse is having so much success right now is there's so much less friction to have a conversation w/o having to worry how you look on camera, what’s going on around you, whether a dog is barking." —@kayvz, whose dog was barking
Beykpour said Twitter could consider adding a video option at some point in the future, but "it's just not our focus right now."
Ditto the option to record and rebroadcast Spaces events like podcasts—he sees value to listeners but is wary of ruining the spontaneity for speakers
Beykpour even threw a little shade at Facebook at the end of his Twitter Spaces appearance. Asked by @Kantrowitz his reaction to FB reportedly building a Clubhouse clone 6 days after Zuck appeared on Clubhouse, @kayvz quipped "my reaction is I'm surprised it took him this long."
"I think Facebook has a pretty standard playbook here," @kayvz said. "I’m sure they’re gonna build the capability in a way that works as cohesively as it can within the big blue app, do the same in IG, throw a separate app at it just for good measure... "
"They’ve shown in the past that they’re very good at waiting for interesting things to happen and then shamelessly building their own version of it," @kayvz said of FB. "That has worked out well for them."
He added that he thinks the competition will be "great for consumers."
On moderation controls for Twitter Spaces, @kayvz said Twitter is pursuing both Spaces-specific options such as muting and "demoting" people from speakers to listeners, as well as how to integrate Twitter's existing mute and block mechanics in a way that honors user expectations.
Beykpour seems committed to strong host controls for Twitter Spaces. E.g. "If Rich (@RichLightShed, who was also in the Space) doesn't want Kayvon in his Space... Rich ought to be able to do something about that," whether that's preventing him from speaking or from joining at all
One thing I forgot to mention—@kayvz threw a bit of cold water on the idea that recorded Spaces (or Clubhouse rooms) could disrupt podcasts, saying he doubts most convos would really make for compelling listening ex post facto. (I agree—unedited podcasts are rarely very good.)
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just joined my first Twitter Spaces and it .... kinda sux?
not, like, the people, the people were fine but the UI was just... not good
here is my highly informed and carefully honed list of Twitter Spaces gripes after joining one (1) Twitter Space
☑️ cannot tell who's talking
☑️ cannot find out if there are people i know in the room
☑️ cannot see people's full names bc the UI cuts them off
A noted A.I. ethicist was abruptly let go from Google last night, after previously threatening privately to resign. My story: onezero.medium.com/noted-a-i-ethi…
"Your life gets worse when you start advocating for underrepresented people." Read the 🔥 internal memo from ousted Google A.I. ethicist @timnitGebru on how the company silenced its own marginalized voices even while giving them awards. onezero.medium.com/read-the-email…
In the Senate hearing just now, @jack says Twitter realized it was wrong to lock the NY Post's account over the Biden story tweet, but couldn't unlock it without the Post deleting the tweet because "we did not have a practice around overturning prior enforcement actions.”
Without implying any defense of the NY Post, the ability to overturn a mistaken enforcement decision seems like.... a practice that Twitter probably should have had prior to October 2020.
What are the chances both FB and Twitter have secret backchannels with U.S. intel sources, and that's why they both arrived at the same conclusion on the NY Post story so quickly and why neither will explain how?
To clarify, Twitter has flagged and hidden the tweet in which Trump claimed "they are trying to STEAL the Election" as potential election misinformation. Trump's "big WIN!" tweet so far has not been flagged under Twitter's policy on premature claims of victory.
The disconnect I keep coming back to is the one between the Trump that the news media has reported on for 4 years, and the Trump that 60+ million Americans just voted for. They aren't the same person. Those voters for the most part simply do not believe what we write or say.
I think all the media criticism about the need for NYT, CNN etc. to call Trump’s lies and racism for what they are was correct on its own merits. But the idea that the word choices of NYT, CNN etc. have any real *impact* on Trump or the GOP seems a bit deluded at this point, no?
To clarify, as some replies have noted, the issue obviously is not just that Trump voters don't believe the MSM, but that they hardly consume it at all, bc a right-wing media apparatus exists to serve them a very different set of facts and to reinforce their mistrust of the news.
Everyone's hating on the needles right now, but as analytical tools they should be judged on their stability & alignment w/ ultimate results, not the mood they put people in at a given time. So far, they appear to have been ahead of the curve on Florida and Georgia...
The NYT needles have consistently given Trump a slim lead in NC, while all the cable news channels show Biden leading in early returns and have made vague noises about "encouraging signs" for Biden there.
If Trump wins NC, the needles were ahead of the curve and thus useful.
If and only if Biden goes on to win one of Florida, Georgia, or North Carolina, it will be fair to criticize the NYT needles as having been premature and misleading in their predictions. The needles swung all three toward Trump significantly before any cable news pundits did.