Twitter Developer Conference Benefits… | App Law

Twitter Mobile Developer Conference: Flight

by Jovan A. Johnson, Esq.

Twitter is holding a new developer conference with and emphasis on mobile development. Dubbed “Flight”, the conference will be held at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium Oct. 22. Keynote speaker will be CEO Dick Costolo.  Afterwards, there will be several sessions geared toward assisting mobile developer to create additional things for the platform.

This is the first time that I’ve seen the initial announcement for a conference only a month before the conference is held. The conferences with which I’m familiar normally announce their event nine months early and send monthly email reminders. Why did Twitter announce its Flight conference a month before it takes place? I’d love to have been a fly on the wall listening to the meeting during which this was decided. 

Twitter remains wildly popular regardless of average monthly users, new users year-over-year, or profitability. I doubt there will be an issue selling to capacity but I’d love to have been a fly on the wall in the meeting room when the decision was made to hold a conference a month after its announcement.

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Why Twitter Has A Hard Time With Developers 

Flight is not Twitter’s first attempt at establishing a conference. In 2010, Twitter held Chirp, which was an Official Twitter Developer Conference that had no follow-up. The website has also had a hard time with developers due to its constantly shifting business strategies. These strategies have led the company to intrude on developers’ territory.

Having spoken with a few developers, my understanding is that Twitter has an easily accessible API. We know it also has a large audience. These two things will draw the attention of the developer community.

Twitter has acquired numerous third-party Twitter clients and apps, including both Tweetie and Tweetdeck. Popular third-party developer Twitpic , however, came close to shutting down in summer 2014 following an unspecified trademark dispute with the social media juggernaut.

I’m surprised Twitter didn’t purchase Twitpic given the report of a cheap asking price

What Twitter Is Doing To Show Developers Its On Their Side

Twitter recently unveiled a revamped developer website, a significant step towards showing that developers remain important to and continue to have influence at the San Francisco based company.

The blog post announcing Flight also described content reorganization efforts that will allow users to easily navigate the developer site and have their questions answered. On top of that, app developers are told that they will soon be provided with tools to help them flourish.