Malcolm Gladwell

How to Turn Your Twitter Avatar into a Force for Good — For Real

Liz Gannes in Social on April 19 at 6:00 am PT

Georgia Tech professor Eric Gilbert has come up with a clever way to add impact to what’s been labeled social media “slacktivism.”

Start-Up Byliner Thinks the Digital Ink Isn’t Dry on Long-Form Writing

Drake Martinet in Media on July 8, 2011 at 10:23 am PT

There are at least a few of long-form writing’s elite who don’t believe the Internet is out to kill the written word. In fact, they’ve gotten together and built Byliner, a discovery platform for fans of long reads to chat about at their next wine, cheese and turtleneck party.

Does Social Media Help Foment Revolution? A Theory From Within Twitter.

Liz Gannes in Social on March 18, 2011 at 2:00 am PT

This week, Othman Laraki, Twitter’s director of search and geo, proposed a “revolutionary equation” that can be tipped by a critical mass of dissent generated through social media.

Microsoft and Some Big Thinking Heads at Farsight 2011: "Beyond the Search Box"

Kara Swisher in News on February 1, 2011 at 8:15 am PT

Oh dear, BoomTown is still jetlagged from a recent trip to China and now Microsoft Bing is offering up a head-requiring event later this morning in San Francisco to explore the future of search. There better be donuts. A lot and with sprinkles, since speakers include the lugubrious investor and hedge fund philosophizer Peter Thiel and skunk-at-a-Web-garden-party author Malcolm Gladwell.

QOTD: Way to Mow Down That Straw Man, Malcolm

“It was a very well-constructed argument but it was kind of laughable. He pointed out that you don’t ever get much of anything done by just telling people you’re going to do it; you actually have to do it….Anyone who’s claiming that sending a tweet by itself is activism, that’s ludicrous–but no one’s claiming that, at least no one that’s credible.”

– Twitter co-founder Ev Williams shrugs off Malcolm Gladwell’s critique of the significance of Twitter and other social media in bringing about social change.