TECH
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
DECEMBER 2012
•
ILLUSTRATION BY ALEX NABAUM
83
Earlier this year,
Web entrepreneur
Dalton Caldwell
posted what he
called “an audacious
proposal” on his
blog. He was looking
for roughly 10,000
backers to provide
$50 apiece to help
fund his new site,
App.net. The audac-
ity lay in Caldwell’s
endgame: He wanted
to create a paid alter-
native to Twi er.
¶
A few years ago,
Caldwell would have
seemed delusional. Twi er
is, a er all, one of the most
successful tech companies in
history, and one that has long
seemed immune to competi-
tion. Since its 2006 launch,
it’s been the social network-
ing site with the fewest
restrictions and the widest
potential audience (and the
greatest opportunity for
lapses of judgment and/or
taste). And it’s free.
(140)
CHARACTER
STUDY
TWITTER REVOLUTIONIZED THE WAY
WE COMMUNICATE BY ALLOWING USERS TO
DETERMINE WHAT IT SHOULD BE. BUT NOWTHAT
IT’S DECIDED TO BE SOMETHING NEW—HIGHLY
PROFITABLE—WILL TWITTER LOSE
THE VERY THING THAT MADE IT SPECIAL?
BY MARK MCCLUSKY
E
