140 Characters Conference (#140conf) Talks Twitter In London

I was invited to Jeff Pulver’s 140 Characters Conference yesterday at London’s O2 Indigo for a full day of presentations, exploration and discussion about the burgeoning social media slash micro-blogging platform, Twitter.

With over 60 speakers including actor/writer Stephen Fry (above), co-inventor of SMS text messaging Kevin Holley, as well as educators, police forces, aspiring filmmakers and musicians – #140conf, with the ambition of “Exploring the State of Now” managed to communicate opinions and experiences from Twitter and social media users across vastly different occupations and age groups.

Examining the platform’s impact in the now and also looking at the future ahead, stand out commentary included a cautionary warning from author Andrew Keen that Twitter’s democratization represents “a shift in power – not utopia.” Fry also ended with an insightful assertion aimed at commercial interests that “Twitter is human-shaped, not business-shaped.”

Many thanks and congratulations to Jeff Pulver for putting together such a large and interesting event and Francesca Rich from Ketchum Media for the invite.