Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp spoke on Building Tools for Creativity Sunday at SXSW Interactive.
He shared how Tumblr has evolved and taken shape beyond what they could have imagined. Today, the blogging site has tight-knit communities that hold meet-ups in person, and users are finding creative ways to utilize the site outside of it’s original conception.
Karp shared that they were intentional about designing Tumblr for meaningful interactions. “The shape and design of the tools shape the way people use it.”
Users post different types of material to the site. Some create original work or content, while others curate the work of others creatively through their Tumblr accounts. Karp said that most of the meaningful content came to be inside of the site as more people began to use it.
Reasons include functions like the reblog button, which allows users to interact in more positive ways than the traditional comment trail of sites like YouTube.
“We thought having pages of “lol’s” was kind of icky,” Karp said of comments that lack substance. The Tumblr team was looking for a way to provide dialogue and positive feedback in a more meaningful way.
Tumblr continues to follow the natural evolution of the product as they develop features. “We’re constantly surprised by what people do and how they use it,” Karp remarked. Some of these features include posting an “ask” and a photo viewer for panorama shots.
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I really enjoyed reading through this post and listening to David Karp’s interview. What a great story about how a Tumblr page not only assisted a journalist with the story she was writing, but grew to include posts from everyday people who had something to say about the gender equality issue. Not only did the story turn into something much bigger than the writer could have ever imagined, the popularity of the Tumblr blog shifted the focus of the story – making it a cover story for Newsweek. So cool! These are the stories and examples I love to hear. There is always so much potential for social media to turn a story into something larger. Great piece, Emily!