What you’re holding in your hands is a set of guidelines. A collection of protocols which describe an approach to another protocol, something we call Twitter.

The amazing thing about this particular protocol is that it’s being defined daily. By you. Twitter was inspired by the concepts of immediacy, transparency, and approachability, and created by the guiding principles of simplicity, constraint, and craftsmanship. We started small. We built something out of love and a desire to see it flourish throughout the world. We defined a mere 1 percent of what Twitter is today. The remaining 99 percent has been, and will continue to be, created by the millions of people who make this medium their own, tweet by tweet.

I leave you now in the capable hands of a documentarian, storyteller, and practitioner of a new protocol of communication. Listen, learn, and most importantly, define it for yourself.

-Jack Dorsey Creator, Co-founder, and Chairman of Twitter, Inc.
San Francisco

Foreword to the book 140 Characters: A style guide for the short form (2009, Wiley). Available wherever books are sold, and on iTunes App Store.

The Worldwide Congress on Information Technology takes place this week in Amsterdam, Netherlands. As part of my participation, I was asked to deliver a keynote speech on Inclusion. The following research is not comprehensive, but is meant to explore  a new metric for technological and cultural progress.

I took a sample 24 hours of public Twitter traffic on May 16, 2009 (a Saturday) and May 16, 2010 (a Sunday). Twitter data is from Peoplebrowsr, population data from Wolfram Alpha. The resulting Tweets per Capita is an interesting economic indicator.

BEST 2010 Tweets per Capita

1. Singapore
2. Netherlands
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. USA
6. Canada
7. Ireland
8. Puerto Rico
9. Brazil
10. UK

WORST 2010 Tweets per Capita

1. TIE: Democratic Republic of the Congo & Ethiopia
2. Kosovo
3. Sudan
4. Bangladesh
5. Uzbekistan
6. Somalia
7. Nepal
8. Pakistan
9. Nigeria
10. BVI
11. Haiti

BEST Tweet Growth

1. Uzbekistan
2. Indonesia
3. Venezuela
4. Turkey
5. Thailand
6. Japan
7. Nigeria
8. Brazil
9. Egypt
10. Saudi Arabia

WORST Tweet Growth

1. Iran (decline)
2. Ethiopia (decline)
3. British Virgin
4. US Virgin
5. USA
6. Canada
7. Portugal
8. Israel
9. Australia
10. Aruba

BEST 2010 Tweet Output

1. USA
2. Brazil
3. Indonesia
4. Japan
5. UK
6. Canada
7. Australia
8. Netherlands
9. India
10. Germany

WORST 2010 Tweet Output

1. British Virgin
2. Gibraltar
3. Kosovo
4. Democratic Republic of the Congo
5. US Virgin
6. Ethiopia
7. Somalia
8. Uzbekistan
9. Sudan
10. NL Antilles

There were a few surprises here worth further study, some of which I examine in my presentation above: Iran, Haiti, Chile, Venezuela, and the Netherlands.

If anyone is interested in combing through the raw data, please contact me. We also seek sponsors to continue this research and develop a regular report on the topic.

[Published in Het Financieele Dagblad, the Dutch financial times, on the opening day of WCIT 2010 in Amsterdam.]

A shadow economy controls all of the systems of monetary influence in the world. This system derives value from sharing wealth, in the form of information. It is the economy of words, metered by our attention.

This economic system has the largest and most complex trading floor ever designed by mankind: the public commons. It regenerates in direct proportion to the number of people connected to it, which has no apparent limit.

We are limited by our ability to transform this wealth. Which is to say, the human mind has cognitive bounds, and can only process so much information at once. That is why the average number of words in a sentence is around 16, and the average number of overall characters is around 160. A German man once did that math, and wrote 160 characters into his global standard for mobile text messaging (GSM).

Twitter has a limit of 140 characters, in order to include the identity of the sender in each text message. This constraint has created a marketplace of ideas that may only be expressed in a short format of words, symbols, and hypertext links.

Currency in this system may or may not be persistent; what is written now is not guaranteed to grow in relevance over time. This currency is measured not only in numbers (follower count, mentions, click-throughs), but also influence and authority. In other words, it matters less how large your audience, but rather who is reading.

With Twitter we are each reporters, breaking the news of our daily lives. Individual messages may be profound or mundane, but taken in aggregate the public sentiment can be a powerful economic indicator.

Each voice has a distinct value depending on context. In the case of text donations to Haiti we have seen how valuable the space of one sentence can be.

As part of the Declaration of Amsterdam at the Worldwide Congress on Information Technology, we must to bring this “text-messaging Internet” to the places where literacy and commerce are most needed.

We literati are the gifted few in society with the responsibility to propagate access, extend the public commons, annotate, curate, analyze, and add value to it. Let us take information technology and enable electronic communities to form in the most desperate places on earth.

Give a voice to every man, woman, and child on earth. Then listen for the tweet heard ’round the world.

The following is an excerpt from 140 Characters, page 9.

There’s the story you wanna tell, and the story a reporter wants to hear, and somewhere in between is the story that gets told.

-@realizing

Real reporting can take place within social networks. There are two key principles to remember.

First: Public Twitter and Facebook updates are a part of the permanent record, and all searchable content is fair game for journalists.

Second: A direct relationship with your social sphere is fundamental; keep it independent of the media outlet that employs you.

Keep your professional identity as a reporter independent and portable because jobs can come and go. You will want to retain your readers during times of change.

Additional caveats apply to journalism. This list is not comprehensive, but is rooted in experience with corporate blogging and investigative reporting.

Ten tips, in order of importance:

1. Own your smartphone and a great set of mobile apps.
2. Determine your employer’s social networking policy. If they don’t have one, write up a policy of your own and submit it.
3. Check sources and attribute-[shakes fist] check sources!
4. Think twice before posting: once for your source and once for your editor.
5. One drunken, angry tweet could ruin you.
   

   some things can’t be said in under 140 characters. especially after some champagne.

   -@jack

6. Jokes can almost always be taken the wrong way; expect this.
7. Never discuss a story before its time, or tweet about something before it happens.
8. Be as clear as possible with your sources about when you expect your story to post so they know when and how to promote it.
9. Avoid writing about colleagues or the workplace.
10. Follow other journalists: @jennydeluxe, @michaelbfarrell, @mat, and the rest.

“Oh look, I sent you a link.” “Oh, I sent you a link, too.” “That’s great, we’re journalists!”

-@mantia

You think you want to be a Twitter journalist? You’ll need to check your facts, provide a truly unique perspective, and most of all lead with action. Do this with fairness, accuracy, and more than a single source, and you will always have a job.

Today begins my first book tour, starting with a trip to Canada for a presentation on the Hypertext Edition.

Speaking at:

• FITC Mobile, Toronto, September 12-14
• Bambou Design, San Francisco, September 15
• 140 | The Twitter Conference, Los Angeles, September 22-23
• Bookshop West Portal, San Francisco October 20, 2009 – BOOK PREMIERE
• The 140 Characters Conference, Los Angeles, October 27-28

Here are a few places I know I’ll be visiting, but have yet to be scheduled:

• Swarthmore College, PA
• Harvard University, MA
• New York City, NY

Want to add your city to this list?  Please contact press@140characters.com.

Here are a few ways to include a reference to “140 Characters” in a tweet, email, or article. Instead of a hashtag, just use the mention:

The Full Mention
@thebook by @Dom Sagolla. http://140Characters.com A Style Guide for the Short Form.

The Big Mention
@thebook by @Dom Sagolla. http://140characters.com

The Short Mention
@thebook “140 Characters” http://dom.net/1

The Tiny Mention
@thebook http://dom.net/1

The Nano Mention
@thebook by @dom

The Amazon
http://j.mp/140-chars

The Borders
http://j.mp/140-chbo

The B&N
http://j.mp/140-chbn

The List
http://j.mp/140-list

Facts.

Due to Ship: October 12, 2009.
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 0470556137

The book jacket code.

<a href="http://j.mp/140-chars" title="140 Characters in 3D by Sagolla, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2440/4009911664_f49ae378a1_m.jpg" width="175" height="240" alt="140 Characters in 3D" /></a>

Thanks for blogging, linking, tweeting, emailing, and generally promoting the work.

Catch an early glimpse at the Recommended Reading section of 140 Characters over on Amazon’s Listmania:

Mastering Social Media

This list contains books listed at the back of 140 Characters, as well as a few extras I’ve added since sending the book to print.

I’m honored to report some early reviews.

From a designer:

Inspired by new mediums of publishing, such as Twitter, this book provides a refreshing look at the breadth of linguistic techniques that shine with the advent of the modern short form.

Britt Selvitelle, Front End Engineering Lead, Twitter

A developer:

In the midst of all the conflicting hype about Twitter, Dom Sagolla has produced a veritable bible which will guide anyone in participating in the most interesting social networking phenomena of the last several years (without appearing to be a newbie). His deep insights will inform both beginners and long-time Twitter users alike, and his inimitable style makes it an enjoyable read!

Andrew C Stone, @twittelator of stone.com

An author:

With [140 Characters], @Dom has captured and conveyed the potent new short form language of the emergent 21st Century Twitterverse in a way that only a master practitioner and true pioneer can.

Bruce Damer, Virtual Worlds pioneer and author of Avatars (PeachPit Press, 1997).

And a business school president:

Reading 140 Characters, I found out how to create value and look cool using Twitter.

Gifford Pinchot, co-founder and President Emeritus of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, author of Intrapreneuring (Harper Collins, 1986).

Pre-order your copy of “140 Characters” today from these fine booksellers:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Borders
• Books-A-Million

I’m excited to announce that John Wiley & Sons have agreed to publish the book 140 Characters!

I’ve already begun to work with Shannon Vargo over at Wiley, to bring this work to print and digital download.

In addition, my company DollarApp is producing a companion application which should ship by the time the book appears in print this Fall.

This arrangement would not have occurred without the help of Erin Malone & friends at William Morris Endeavor, and Adam Jackson at the Internets. I’d also like to thank Jon Varese for encouraging me, and thank YOU for reading and commenting on this site!

The book is currently in development, but you may view a brief excerpt on the new About page.

Stay tuned!

Have you watched the video demonstration of Google Wave yet?

What we have here is shrinkage: shorter times to update, shorter updates themselves, by word in translation, or by character in live typing.

Any time we see an acceleration of realtime transmission like this, we witness a revolution. With the telegram, then email, texting, instant messaging, Twitter, and now multi-party live typing and translation.

So much more of which we have not yet dreamed awaits us.

The 140 character limit shaped Twitter and the short format. The limitations of this new “cursor presence” will shape Google Wave and the carrier signals that follow.

When you are typing in a Wave and your cohorts can see every action, the lessons of 140 characters matter even more. Your skills as a writer using Facebook and Twitter will shine in this new medium. Google Wave exposes your abilities even more clearly, and even helps you learn via playback, automation, and live translation.

Twitter is elemental.

Google Wave is atomic.

Be ready to learn from this new mode of writing and collaborating, and bid adieu to email as we know it. Nothing can really replace Twitter at this point, but we may soon have the perfect companion.

For the skeptics: watch to see if the experience degrades gracefully across devices. Consider Twitter or your service of choice to be your platform, the board that carries you across this wave. Don’t let go, but get ready for a wild ride.