When Biz Stone, a co-founder of Twitter, relates the story behind his iconic venture, he likes to use a picture of a flock of birds. The reason? As Stone tells the story, he first appreciated the power of social media a few years ago, when he watched a crowd suddenly arrive at a bar after exchanging messages on a phone. That event, Stone says, helped him to understand how social media enabled people to suddenly congregate with unforeseen speed and force. To put it another way, what 21st-century tools do is enable people to “flock” together – around ideas, emotions, places or events. Hence that picture of birds.
Twitter联合创始人比兹•斯通(Biz Stone)在讲述他的标志性创业公司背后的故事时，喜欢借用一张画着一群飞鸟的图片。原因何在？且听他慢慢道来。几年前，他第一次领略到了社交媒体的力量，当时他看到一群人通过电话联络之后，迅速到一家酒吧集结起来。斯通表示，通过那件事，他明白了社交媒体是如何使得人们能以一种难以预料的速度和力量聚集到一起。换句话说，21世纪工具的作用让人们能够围绕想法、情绪、地点和事件“聚集”到一起。这就是借用那张飞鸟图片的原因。