Medium (service)

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Medium is a blog publishing platform. It was founded by Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone in August 2012.[1][2]

Williams and Stone decided to write the platform software from the ground up, with the idea of encouraging existing Twitter users to create longer posts than the 140-character standard of that service. Williams stated, "There's been less progress toward raising the quality of what's produced."[3] By April 2013, Williams reported there were 30 full-time staff working on the platform,[4] including a vacancy for a "Storyteller" role,[5] and that it was taking "98 percent" of his time.[4] By August, Williams reported that the site was still small, though he was still optimistic about it, saying "We are trying to make it as easy as possible for people who have thoughtful things to say".[6]

The platform software provides a full WYSIWYG user interface when editing online, with various options for formatting provided as the user runs over text. Once an entry is posted, it can be recommended and shared by other people, in a similar manner to Twitter.[5] Posts can be upvoted in a similar manner to Digg and Reddit, and content can be assigned a specific theme, in the same way as Tumblr. A specific difference from William's earlier service Blogger is that posts are sorted by topic rather than writer.[7]

Reviewing the service, The Guardian enjoyed some of the collections that had been created, particularly a collection of nostalgic photographs created by Williams.[8] TechCrunch's Drew Olanoff suggested the platform might have taken its name from being a "medium" sized platform in between Twitter and full-scale blogging platforms such as Blogger.[5] However, the service has suffered criticism from writers, with some confused about exactly what it is expected to provide.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Warren, Christina (14 August 2012). "Twitter Founders Want to Reinvent Digital Publishing - Again". Mashable. Retrieved 13 September 2013. 
  2. ↑ Hok, Yoree; Ovide, Shira (13 September 2013). "Twitter's Founders: Where Are They Now?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 13 September 2013. 
  3. ↑ Letzing, John (15 August 2012). "Twitter Founders Unveil New Publishing ‘Medium’". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 13 September 2013. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Taylor, Colleen (5 April 2013). "Williams, Biz Stone, And Jason Goldman Shift Focus To Individual Startups". TechCrunch. Retrieved 13 September 2013. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Olanoff, Drew (15 November 2012). "True Purpose Of His New Publishing Tool". TechCrunch. Retrieved 13 September 2013. 
  6. ↑ Stone, Brad (22 August 2013). "Twitter Co-Creator Ev Williams Stretches the Medium". Retrieved 13 September 2013. 
  7. ↑ Shontell, Alyson (15 August 2012). "The Cofounders Of Twitter Launch A New Blog Platform, Medium". Business Insider. Retrieved 13 September 2013. 
  8. ↑ "Twitter founders launch two new websites, Medium and Branch". The Guardian. 15 August 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2013. 
  9. ↑ Dalenberg, Alex (23 August 2013). "Mysterious Medium has writers moderately freaked out". Upstart Business Journal. Retrieved 13 September 2013. 

External links

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