Anna Liza Bella (Home)

Back in 2009, we at MTV thought that there was something compelling about the data that could be compiled from countless Tweets, posts, status updates and blog entries in the Internet universe. What if with clever design and strong visuals, this data could actually become entertainment?

Well, we got really lucky the first year we rolled it out. That was the Video Music Awards of Kanye West vs. Taylor Swift fame, when a drunk Kanye stage crashed Taylor’s acceptance of the Best Female Video award by grabbing the mic and proclaiming, “I’m sorry, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.” So, thanks to Mr. West’s antics, the first-ever VMA Twitter Tracker went down in history with his big mug dwarfing the other celebs for the first quarter of the show.

Several awards shows and iterations later, MTV won a Shorty Award for Best Integration of Social Media with Traditional Media for the 2010 VMA Twitter Tracker and the NY Times just featured Stamen Design (our partners in this endeavor) in their Business Section Slipstream article.

Now that it’s been proven as an entertainment vehicle, how else will this info be manifested into viable forms of entertainment? Is it only a matter of time before this can be the seed for a new reality show?