Video: How Twitter's spectacular growth is being driven by unexpected uses

In the year leading up to this talk, the web tool Twitter exploded in size (up 10x during 2008 alone). Co-founder Evan Williams reveals that many of the ideas driving that growth came from unexpected uses invented by the users themselves.

To build up innovation, break down your networks

I recently had the pleasure of attending a conference with quite a few interesting entrepreneurs and innovators. Several contrasts between innovators from large companies and those more accustomed to working within independent startups caught my attention. The starkest was the relative fluidity and ease with which the startup crowd circulated, made new connections, and exchanged ideas.

Entrepreneurs believe in the power of networking. Many are very good at it. They become good because they recognize that most people with interesting notions usually have only one piece of a puzzle. Often unexpected combinations of ideas, or chance meetings of people with complimentary perspectives, ignite genuine breakthroughs.
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Scorched-Earth Networking

Are you burning the very people you're trying to impress?

Find out how not to be the networker no one wants to do business with.

By Ivan Misner

In my more than two decades of developing business networks and coaching networkers, I've noticed some very different styles of networking.

One of these styles, which results in the ground smoking wherever these networkers tread, I call "scorched earth networking."

Let's talk a little about this style, so you understand how important it is to avoid this type of networking in cultivating a successful business networking model.

Just what are the hallmarks of a scorched-earth networker? Experience has shown me that this type of networker...

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