Twitter's Major Publishing Dilemma

Twitter has the potential to be much more, and everyone there knows it. It has millions of dedicated users, but it also has tens of millions who can't quite figure out what the value is.

The problem, of course, is that while Twitter makes it nearly effortless for folks to publish their own thoughts, it has done far too little to help those same folks glean value from the thoughts of others.

At its core, publishing is about determining signal from noise. And that might be among Twitter's greatest opportunities. Traditionally, publishing has been able aggregating the "good stuff," the "stuff you need to know," from all the rest. Even online, even in the context of social networking, that mission remains. Twitter already is part of the "media" ecosystem. The issue is whether it can become a bigger part of that ecosystem.

Twitter's Major Publishing Dilemma