By Will Carlin
Near the end of 2005, a group of friends worked at a podcasting company called Odeo, Inc. in South Park, San Francisco. The company had just finished a major coding effort and shipped it off, but they were facing enormous competition from some of the major Silicon Valley companies, and they were trying to figure out how to survive.
The company decided to spend an entire day brainstorming new ideas for what they could do to remain viable, and they broke up into small teams to maximize the number and variety of potential offerings. One of these groups went to get Mexican food and continue their meeting outside at a nearby playground.
Sitting on the park’s slide and eating lunch, the leader of the group, Jack Dorsey, offered up an idea that almost immediately caused everyone to put down their burritos and listen: “I want to have a dispatch service that connects us on our phones using text,” he said.
Dom Sagolla describes the moment: “[Jack’s] idea was to make it so simple that you don’t even think about what you’re doing, you just type something and send it. Typing something on your phone in those days meant you were probably messing with T9 text input, unless you were sporting a relatively rare smartphone. Even so, everyone in our group got the idea instantly and wanted it.”
Twitter—though it was not yet called that—was first born on March 21st, 2006, and Dom’s first tweet of substance was: “Oh, this is going to be addictive.”
At that time, it was being used only by about 50 people, all company members and immediate family. As the development team struggled with what to call it (“It’s Friend-Stalker!” joked the team’s most prolific user), the company struggled to stay alive.
Over the next few months, seven of the originators were let go by Odeo and twttr.com was launched to the public. People mostly didn’t get it yet, but the company still thought there was value, and they created an incubator called Obvious Corp with Twttr as its sole project.
In short order, the group acquired Twitter.com, re-branded and established the now famous 140-character limit (the service initially was created without any limit). In February of 2007, Dorsey wrote something that has proven prophetic: “One could change the world with one hundred and forty characters.”
Well, the world has changed as a result of Twitter, and the sports world is one of the most prominent. Sports are live, immediate, suspenseful and fun. And it turns out that these are qualities that Twitter enhances. In real time.
People use Twitter to follow favorite players, favorite teams, favorite sports writers, and sports organizations. And they often use it to talk about events as they unfold.
In major sports, every touchdown, basket, goal, or home run causes immediate spikes in Twitter activity. During the late April Champions League soccer game between Chelsea and Barcelona, the world sent 13,684 tweets per second about the game. Yes, that is correct: per second.
Global soccer is king in this regard, but the same thing happens to a lesser extent in football, basketball, baseball, tennis and yes, it is even beginning to happen with squash.
Here is a brief selection of what you may be missing, if you haven’t yet ventured into the world of Twitter:
When you aren’t at a tournament or in front of your computer, Twitter can help you follow tournaments as they happen:
Prof. Squash Assoc. (@PSAWorldTour) 24 Feb
Wonderfully close first game between the No’s 2 & 4 seeds. Nick Matthew holds 3-gameballs but Ramy Ashour makes up the ground to win 12/10
Fans often chime in on events, building excitement even if you aren’t there:
Mike McCue (@mccuemike) 25 Jan
Willstrop is absolutely insane right now. Nearly delivered a first game bagel, and now 2-0 up in under 20 minutes. #tocsquash
There are lots of squash pictures on Twitter, and some snapshots from behind the scenes during tournaments can show a different side of favorite players:
Christopher Gordon (@gordosquash) 22 Jan
Shabana exhausted after an amazing effort to take down speedy gonzalas!!! #tocsquash #favouriteplayer http://pic. twitter.com/pRDukvkR
(The picture shows Amr Shabana lying on a massage table on his back talking with Ramy Ashour.)
James Willstrop first announced his book “A Shot and Ghost” on Twitter.
James Willstrop (@james_willstrop) 20 Jan
Check out my updated website and pre-order SHOT AND A GHOST, release on 4 February, 2012
You usually can get the inside scoop when bizarre things happen, like wind and sand on an outdoor court:
Prof. Squash Assoc. (@PSAWorldTour) 12 Apr
Willstrop/Darwish match will be moved to another site after strong winds make the court dangerous to play on. Willstrop does lead 11/7, 1/0… #ElGounaSquash
You can get what feels like special access to players beyond what you see when they play:
Nick Matthew (@nickmatthew) 24 Apr
Never been sick during or after a training session in my life but @conehead_ nz got me VERY close this morning #MRT #rumble
Things that you simply can’t get any- where else:
Nicol Ann David (@NicolDavid) 30 Jan
The Cunninghams treated us to a lovely steak dinner after my win against Annie 3-0. Onto the semis with Madeline…
And you may find yourself watching videos that make you gasp—these really are contenders for the title and worth seeking out:
Prof. Squash Assoc. (@PSAWorldTour) 13 Apr
PSA El Gouna 2012 – The BEST Squash Rally EVER? Example A: http://youtu.be/ ko6vgW2xMIA;
Example B : http://youtu.be/F744p7uoBXM
Twitter really has changed the world with its 140 characters, and it has done so partly by changing lots of little worlds— worlds filled with passionate people, worlds that are global communities, worlds with people who enjoy interacting with others. Like squash.
