There’s been a lot of good debate around the use of Twitter at a time of crisis with the terrorist attacks in #Mumbai.  I think its probably going to be one of those perennial topics any time there’s a crisis until Twitter becomes as mainstream as blogs, although I knew something crossed the threshold when I noticed CNN regularly including Twitter chat streams in its 2008 election coverage.

Say what you like about CNN, but when a major cable news network starts using a single service as the “real-time” voice of opinion, I think its really says something about not merely “just-in-time” reporting, but opinion and news as it happens — rightly or wrongly.

So, if Twitter has finally hit it big time, it behooves me to ask the question “who will be the next Twitter?”  I think there are a number of contenders, but for the purposes of just-in-time video streaming from your phone, I think there’s no one else in the space except for Qik.

Check out this video on Qik of Mumbai trying to recover from the terrorist attacks one day later:

I may be wrong, but Seesmic, Phreadz, 12Seconds, Justin.tv are all great alternatives if you happen to be near a webcam.  Qik is the only application that runs on your mobile phone to not just record video — but stream it via 3G connection, so there’s a live recording AND watching component on Qik.com.  

For my money, Qik’s the next contender to the Twitter crown, and is the next obvious step in bringing real-time communication in the form of real-time streaming video, to the masses.  And it doesn’t even need to be during times of crisis, although I suspect that its probably where it will earn its spurs.  For young parents (such as myself), using Qik is so deliriously awesome it is hard to describe how “insanely” great it is to capture moments, and then be able to share them online pretty much instantly.

Check out this in-the-moment video when I just realized that my son had drawn his first “smiley” face.  He’s two and two months, so being able to draw a circle, a line and three dots in a co-ordinated manner was pretty awesome:

While I am very glad the boffins behind Qik are expanding beyond the iPhone to other wireless phones that support 3G, its obvious that a big stumbling block with uptake of the service is the necessary wireless plans that accompany it.  You need a 3G plan.  You also need a phone.  And even though the iPhone (for example) has had great penetration in the US and Canada, it hasn’t all over the world (India particularly) for a variety of reasons, you also need to jailbreak it, which is not for the faint of heart.  That video above from Qik live from Mumbai is the only video I can find on Qik so far, for example

With pimping by Kevin Rose and Leo Laporte, its obvious that its got its fans amongst the early adopter elite (and lesser fans, such as myself).  The interesting thing to watch is how its going to cross the proverbial chasm.  It may come in time, as prices and penetration both change in Qik’s favor.  As a fan myself, I do hope that it survives the recession long enough for Qik to take advantage of both factors, and perhaps one day, to hit CNN as well. :)

post script: Kyte.tv mobile producer also looks pretty rockin, and supports a ton of Nokia brands.  But not the iPhone so far.