Twitter founder applauds Najib for embracing new media

2009/11/16

By Regina Lee

PUTRAJAYA: Twitter founder Biz Stone has applauded Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for being quick to embrace the new media. “If he’s really on Twitter, I’d give him a 10,” he said.

When told that Najib’s tweets (messages posted up on Twitter) were primarily his itinerary, Stone said they do not necessarily have to be “Nobel-prize-winning”.

“Sometimes if you want to wait until something really important happens before tweeting, you may never do it,” he said at the Youth Engagement Summit (YES) 2009 here yesterday.

New media tools including microblogging are fast being taken seriously instead of just “a fun thing to do”.

Twitter, which allows users to post 140-character messages sharing everything from mundane details about their lives to major news, has soared. The number of users increased more than 10-fold within a year to 54 million currently.

It can even be a life-saving tool.

Stone recounted that a young photographer was once arrested in a foreign country when trying to take pictures at a demonstration.

His mobile phone had not been taken away from him and he only had time to quickly “tweet” one word “arrested”.

“Soon after that, his friends back home immediately got the message and informed the authorities as well as the consulate.

“A few hours after that, he tweeted another word “freed”,” he said.

Stone also told the 2,000 youths who attended the conference to be make their own opportunities instead of just waiting for them.

“Start working on your own idea first, instead of just waiting for an investor to throw cash at it.

“It is only then that you have the luxury to choose the investor for your project, because having an investor, is like having an employee that you can't fire,” he said.

He also told the youth to believe and be emotionally attached to whatever they are building.

“Twitter might seem like an overnight success, but it really is a project 10 years in making,” he said.

Twitter founder Biz Stone speaks at the 'Youth Engagement Summit (Yes) 2009' at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre. Pix by Izhari Ariffin.