By JOE GRIMM

SAN FRANCISCO — Tweets flooded the Twittersphere as Twitter founder and CEO Evan Williams described a new feature, Twitter Lists, announced days earlier, that demonstrates how curation is becoming the new agregation.

Williams spoke Oct. 2 in San Francisco at the 10th annual Online News Association.

Twitter Lists, announced Sept. 30 by Twitter List lead Nick Kallen will let users create, or curate, a list of Twitterers on any subject they choose, creating a focused tool for other users with the same interests.

I maintain two Twitter accounts. I Tweet announcements on both of them, but I actually follow people — a select list of 40 — on just one of them. They are my scouts. They are all ahead of me, learning things before I would and generously Tweeting about them. I tweak my list, but keep it under 40.

ANYONE WILL BE ABLE TO CURATE TWITTER CONTENT

Twitter Lists, when released, will let anyone create and share a list on any subject: the NBA, mergers & acquisitions, celebrity news, tech successes or failures.

“You know there’s stuff going on in there, but where is it?” Williams said. Twitter Lists will let users show each other and help cut through the clamor and control the floor. He referred to list builders as Twitter curators.

Many Twitter tools are developed and launched outside of the company, which is OK with Evans. “Twitter is an ecosystem and having a lot of in and out points is essential to what Twitter is.” He also reflected an open network when he told ONA registrants, “It is not our job to editorialize. Anyone should have that ability.”

But Twitter lists is an in-house project that will basically add a page to the flat, two-page structure of most Twitter accounts, the general feed and your profile.

“We don’t think of Twitter as a site. We think of it as a network.” It has evolved into something that can be accessed through all kinds of devices.

NEXT STEPS FOR TWITTER

Evans is interested in building more credibility and authenticity into Twitter. One options may be to let users who post with GPS-enabled devices more easily attach geotags to their Tweets, showing that they have the authenticity of location when they post about events where location is important. Think about how Twitter was used after the Iranian election.

A second way to raise authenticity would be trust or authority ratings for people who post. That could be supplied without revealing the poster’s identity.

The tussle between authenticity and the anonymity of Tweets — for those who crave anonymity — is one that needs to be negotiated.

Even as Twitter wrestles with the money question — how can a popular network generate revenue? — it seems that more innovations are likely to come from inside and outside of Twitter.

Williams said a guiding principle has been, “Assume you don’t know what will happen. Don’t get too clever. Plant seeds and see what grows.”