There is also an interesting parallel with the terms ‘operational data’ and ‘analytical data’ i’ve used in personal data store discussions. Whilst not precisely the same as those you refer to, the share some characteristics in terms of their persistence/availability for ongoing use.

Cheers

Iain

In my experience blogging has shifted a key portion of its value precisely because the lightweight pointers are much better suited to tweets or microblogging. That shifts blog posts to more substantive long form media, with a lot less “look at what I found” posts. That means a good portion of the “buzz building” that blogs used to drive is more in the realtime web than just the live web (twitter v blogs).

But I like the specialization. Blogs are a great format for the personal soapbox, allowing for grand oration… whereas tweets are good for brief exclamations and delightful surprises.

Highlighting the transience of tweets in your post, though, missed that key distinction that although the river is constantly flowing by, it is also fully indexed for posterity… or at least it could be, even when it might not be, a la the Wayback Machine.

THAT’s part of what is amazing about the web, the blogosphere, and the twitterverse. Not only can anyone say anything they want, linking into multi-faceted global conversations, but it can all be accessed forever (in theory). Newcomers to a plotline can scan the prior discussion and ramp up to speed on the key points. When the web is your primary vehicle for discourse, it makes for an incredibly transparent and accessible commons.

Now if we can just establish user choice regarding the permanance of contributions to the commons, we’ll have something even more amazing: not just freedom to say anything anytime, but the freedom to change our minds in the future, to change, to evolve, to become more or different from what we once were. That would not only free our future self from the questionable behavior in our past, but also free our current self from the oppression of worrying about future exposure. A huge win.

In fact, I wish the EFF understood this relationship between controlling future disclosure to enable freedom today. http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/13/1214244/EFF-Says-Burning-Man-Usurps-Digital-Rights?art_pos=1&art_pos=1

Not sure I’m underestimating the value of permatweets, though. My post was more about finding distinctions between social media and blogging, and giving blogging some respect it seems to have lost.

Still, it’s very early. Which is why there’s plenty of room for working on new approaches and improvements to old ones. You rock at that.

So keep going with it.