A Conversation With Twitter's Jack Dorsey

Dorsey, at left.

I have an item in this week's Observer about Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

It focuses on his visit to New York last week to meet with various V.C.s and tech C.E.O.s and engineers (and Mayor Bloomberg) to get a feel for whether he wants to base the new company he's launching here instead of on the West Coast. He also told us that a personal relocation to the city is in the works.

A little down the line, as Mr. Dorsey irons out the plans for his new venture, he'll be contributing some blog posts to NYFi. But in the meantime, here's a transcript of some of the conversation we had last Thursday, August 13, at The Standard Hotel. In it, he shares his thoughts about the ways city governments and agencies can use Twitter most effectively.

The interview starts after the jump:

What are some of the indicators that New York might be a challenging place to launch a new startup?

I think the Bay Area is really good for tech companies because there’s so much action going on around tech that people talk about it all the time, so that creates a pretty large support network. Whereas there are a lot of different things happening in New York. That’s both good and bad. It’s good in that you get to get out of your world. You get to be inspired by different things that you would not have thought of otherwise. But it’s also potentially distracting.

So one of my biggest questions is, with a city of this size, with as many amazing things as this city has, how do you focus your day? How do you structure your day so that you get a lot of work done and you’re not distracted by everything going on? People definitely do it. The work ethic is here.

The second biggest thing is scaling the company and all the mechanics of what that means. Finding office space. Making sure that people have a reasonable commute into where that office is. Making sure everyone feels comfortable. That the office space is inspiring. I think that’s a lot more difficult to find here in New York than it is in the Bay Area.

What have some of the people you’ve met with here been telling you?

It seems like the biggest concern for startups here is the lack of an angel network. It’s hard to find seed money for a venture. I’ve been talking a lot about that with various people. I think its just marketing, because those people are here, they’re just not well known. But there’s really good people here.

Can you tell us about your meeting with Mayor Bloomberg?

We talked about Twitter. We talked about my past. I worked at a dispatch firm here in New York writing software for taxis and 911, so that’s where a lot of the idea for Twitter came from. These entities go out into the metropolis, reporting where they are and what they’re doing. So I found out that the mayor is fascinated by dispatchers and taxis as well. I also gave him a demo of my new company. It was a great conversation.

Do you think he’s using Twitter as effectively as he could?

I would love for him to update it personally more. But Twitter is something you have to have your own pace to get into. I believe he’ll get into it more and more as it unfolds for him in whatever particular way he needs it to. It’s something that you personally have to find value in, and when you find value in it, you get into it.

How do you think local governments and city agencies could use Twitter most effectively?

I think in any sort of large organization or government, the most important thing is, you make these organizations feel more human. You make them feel more approachable. So the mayor updating about his day everyday, even if it’s the tiniest detail, even if it’s what he had for breakfast, that makes him more human. That puts him on the same plane as everyone else.

So there’s no such thing as a useless update?

I think the small details of life matter. They bind us as humans. When I see that the mayor is just as human as I, then I have a better approach to him because I have an understanding for his world. I think the world needs a lot more of that.

So for someone in his position, but also for companies like, say, The Standard Hotel or Jet Blue or Coca-Cola, it just allows people a thread into an organization that was normally on a pedestal and unreachable. Suddenly they’re replying to you. Suddenly they’re entering into a conversation with you, and that’s massive for engagement and understanding.

Even something like making the subway more personal. Who the drivers are, the engineers. I’m most fascinated by usages that peel back the curtain and expose a little bit more of how something works on a day to day basis.

How do you think Twitter can be used more effectively in terms of infrastructure?

I think it’s a good and easy way to dispatch information out, but I think the key aspect that organizations and governments could take advantage of is, you have all these people roaming about the streets who can suddenly report on any issue immediately, in real time. To have access to that sort of information can allow an organization to move more efficiently as it receives a mass of updates about particular things. Cultivating those reports into something that is actionable is huge. It’s really hard to get into and maintain, but it’s definitely doable and I think that’s a major step for government.

So what would that function look like?

I don’t know what it would look like. I think the greatest thing about Twitter is that the users are defining where it’s going, and the company is helping to enable that

Have you ever trained any politicians or city officials on how to use Twitter?

No.

Do you think that could be useful?

I don’t think so. I want to see how people approach it. The interesting thing about the technology is that you can approach it in 500 different ways, and I want all of those 500 different ways to exist. It’s really important for people to discover their own usage, because if you discover your own usage, then you feel an ownership over it, and if you feel an ownership over it, then you’ll continue using the technology and making it yours. If we limited it to a certain behavior, or pointed out certain behaviors, or just highlighted only certain things, it would set a precedent for the technology that may be incorrect.

Would you ever consider some sort of partnership with city agencies or local governments?

I think the best position for the company is that it remains a platform people can build on top of. The implicit partnership is that we provide the utility, we provide a public good, and people build on top of that. When I say we, I mean the company, but also users. I think that’s as specific as we should make it.

Do you view Twitter more as a civic tool or a social networking tool?

The tool changes update by update. It’s just as useful for my mom as it is for the mayor of New York City.

What are some innovative uses for Twitter in New York City that have yet to be unearthed?

There’s so many. I kind of feel like a lot of them have already been tested out and tried. For instance, there’s a Shake Shack Twitter account that lets you know how many people are in line. All the taco trucks and food trucks are using Twitter to tell the world where they are. The greatest thing is that I kind of want to be surprised. I want to see the unexpected and how people are using it.

Business obligations aside, what do you enjoy doing when you’re in New York?

I love walking, so whenever I get a chance, I just walk somewhere new on the island. I like walking down to Washington Square Park and Soho and the East Village. I love the High Line. It’s my favorite aspect of the city right now. It’s like this well structured chaos.

Aside from the mayor, have you met with any notable people outside of the tech world recently ?

I meet notable people everyday.