The Origins and Vision of Twitter

Twitter began as a side project called Odeo, aiming to do for audio what Blogger did for writing. However, when Apple made it easy to move podcasts onto an iPod, Odeo became irrelevant. The company held a hack day, and that's when developer Jack Dorsey came up with the idea for Twitter, a microblogging platform inspired by instant messaging statuses. Twitter's early vision was to become the public town square and a platform for free speech. It gained attention for its role during the Iran presidential election protests in 2009 when the US State Department asked Twitter to stay up, believing it was crucial for protesters to organize. While some felt Twitter was shaping events, protesters on the ground did not see it as essential.