Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone have unveiled Medium, a new blogging platform. The Twitter founders wants people to share everything from photos to essays and to collaborate with others to create “collections” of content around themes. Medium is now open to sign-up with your Twitter account but still in preview mode.
In a blog post to announce the blogging platform, Evan Willams said:
Media is still the “connective tissue of society,” as Clay Shirky eloquently put it. And we think it can be better. Better for creators. Better for consumers. Better for the world.
So, we’re re-imagining publishing in an attempt to make an evolutionary leap, based on everything we’ve learned in the last 13 years and the needs of today’s world.
How it Works as published by Evan Williams
Medium is designed to allow people to choose the level of contribution they prefer. We know that most people, most of the time, will simply read and view content, which is fine. If they choose, they can click to indicate whether they think something is good, giving feedback to the creator and increasing the likelihood others will see it.
Posting on Medium (not yet open to everyone) is elegant and easy, and you can do so without the burden of becoming a blogger or worrying about developing an audience. All posts are organized into “collections,” which are defined by a theme and a template. (For example, this post is in the About Medium collection with a simple article template.)
Twitter users can read and give feedback on Medium . Posting is limited to a small invited list of friends and family.