I’ve liked watching recent interviews and presentations by Evan Williams.  Notice a few things about what he is doing and saying:

1. He is constantly trying to control the hype.  Just like a band that gets over exposed too early, it sounds like Twitter is very conscious of keeping the expectations of their progress in line with what they can actually deliver.
2. It’s still really hard, even for the company’s CEO, to communicate the importance of Twitter and why it is cool.
3. People obsessed with a business model are nuts.  He won’t come out and say it, but they are.  There is low hanging fruit for these guys to monetize at any time.  They are a lean company with under 30 employees I think.  The question he raises is: “Is there a killer monetization opportunity here”.

On #2 - The main reason I like Twitter is because of the access it grants me to exceptionally interesting people.  Some of these people also have blogs, but many others don’t.  I don’t measure Twitter’s usefullness on the number of people that follow me.  I get special access to tech visionaries, athletes, politicians, potential business partners, and friends that I wouldn’t necessarily get without Twitter.  I get to see who they interact with, how they think, what they think about, what they do, and I am presented with an opportunity to engage them on any of this.  They might not respond, but I have the opportunity.  I know a lot of people use Twitter this way and I think this angle isn’t highlighted enough in interviews like these.  The answer to “What are you doing?” can be very interesting; but the answer to “What are other people doing right now that you think are awesome” is much more interesting to me at this time.

via bijan:

Evan Williams, cofounder & CEO of Twitter, on the Charlie Rose show.

Great job Ev!

(disclosure: I am on the Twitter board of directors along with Fred Wilson and Peter Fenton and we are investors in the company).