Exquisite Tweets from @jack
Collected by stop
5 years ago today we started programming Twitter ("twttr" for short). 8 days later the first tweet was sent: j.mp/19bhrr #twttr
jackI've been digging through all my drawings, emails, & notes from around that time. I'll share them over the next 2 weeks right here on #twttr
We were given the go ahead to work on the idea that morning. An IM conversation with @biz letting him know:
jacks.tumblr.com/post/384068320… #twttr
The team was small: @noah came up with the name & managed, @florian & I programmed, @biz designed, all under the roof of Odeo & @ev. #twttr
The name Twitter came from @noah Glass & the Oxford English: "a short inconsequential burst of information, chirps from birds." #twttr
However, we wanted to focus on mobile, so we dropped the vowels to get the SMS shortcode 89887 (TWTTR). Too bad Teen People owned it. #twttr
I drew out the original idea on this notepad around 2001, named stat.us. Just needed the right time & team.
flickr.com/photos/jackdor… #twttr
A week earlier, @biz & I worked on the design to show Odeo before programming. Here's the first twttr.com. gallery.me.com/jackdorsey#100… #twttr
A design for the logged in following page (then called "friends"): gallery.me.com/jackdorsey?vie… #twttr
A design for the public updates page (which didn't stick around long): gallery.me.com/jackdorsey#100… #twttr
A design for twttr.com settings. Note the "extra secret mode." That became protected mode. gallery.me.com/jackdorsey#100… #twttr
And the simplest sign up form ever. I wish it was still this easy. gallery.me.com/jackdorsey#100… #twttr
I build products by writing stories. An email to @noah describing the stories we needed to program day by day: jacks.tumblr.com/post/384294216… #twttr
An IM with @biz suggesting "twttr." I wasn't happy with the no vowels, but the domain was available... jacks.tumblr.com/post/384321897… #twttr
Before implementing anything, we had all the SMS commands thought out. The SMS narratives (again, stories): jacks.tumblr.com/post/384339822… #twttr
Originally I was going to program twttr in Python, C, & Ocaml. But, I got @florian who was a core contributor to Ruby on Rails. #twttr
I'm not sure if one counts the day of original programming or the first tweet (the 21st) as Twitter's birthday. Probably the latter. #twttr
We had 14 days to finish. But our excitement drove us to work non-stop. And we moved fast. More on Twitter's history tomorrow. #5 #twttr
Just a day later, we had login working on our staging environment, sms.odeo.com. @ev just bought twttr.com. jacks.tumblr.com/post/385692213… #twttr
At 5:33PM 5 years ago today, we had design, login, & update. There were only 2 people on twttr, me & @florian. gallery.me.com/jackdorsey#100… #twttr
Twitter has had a number of logos, but this was the first. Created by @biz on March 2nd at 2:20PM. jacks.tumblr.com/post/3860667197 #twttr
2 days in & we needed to move off our laptops. @jeremy helped. Odeo servers were named after SF streets: jacks.tumblr.com/post/387784708… #twttr
5 years ago today and 3 days into development we got following working on my laptop. IM between @biz & me: jacks.tumblr.com/post/390080435… #twttr
Almost ready to a server & begin working on SMS integration. @tonystubblebine was our Director of Eng at Odeo. jacks.tumblr.com/post/390126594… #twttr