Web2.0 Wednesdays 3

Invitation to Twine

As Michele Martin has clearly explained, in our third  Web2.0 Wednesday we were supposed to invite someone that is totally new to the both fascinating and  somewhat demanding new world of web2.0. We should take in consideration that, often, newbies feel hesitant about “randomly joining online conversations”. Although this hesitation is familiar to me, I’ve tried to join an online conversation in the attempt of making it look confortable enough for a “different kind” of newbie.

Thus, I will adress this invitation to join Twine, first, to someone I admire and consider as a young friend: my ex-student Julia, that is just finishing her master’s degree for  Organizational Behavior master program at Portugal. Her interests are adult’s training, e-learning and b-learning; as for her web2.0 practice, she joined twitter some days ago.

Twine presents it self as a service issued from the semantic web as it is explained in the overview, were the key words are: Organize, Share and Discover , while Twine gets to know you trough your preferences and goes on making recommendations.

Its creator, Nova Spivack, calls it an “interest network” that synthesizes what we were aiming at with blogs, rss and social networks.

Which is the main difference Twine’s creator finds between “twinning” on one hand and blogging and social networking, on the other?

According to him, by interacting in Twine, he can better “participate in many different specific groups … around particular interests and relationships…” Not all different interest communities  can be blended together in a unique network. Or, in Twine, the author says it’s “very easy to create microblogs and microcommunities…”

Commenting this article inside Twine, Javed Alam adds:

“I think Social bookmarking/networking/media is an evolutionary phase of the “new Media” development. It will be very interesting to see who wins. The social networks like facebook, myspace where the members are the focus or the social bookmarking networks where interest brings people together.”

Howard Shippin says that Twine should also include blog features if it aspires to stand free above all the other interest networks:

“If Twine is to be more than a more clever and updated version of services like Ma.gnolia and StumbleUpon, I think that it would be sensible to place an equal emphasis on creating a satisfying interface for original authorship, since this is what would give the service vibrancy and genuine interest value.”

What do you think? The “new Media” development will give advantage to the services that both allow blogging and are interest centered? Do interest centered services bring more people together or, at least, in a more deeply way than member centered services?

Although it is still in beta under invitation version, the actual members have been asked to invite new friends to enrich the experience. I happen to be there by simple chance, I hardly knew where I was entering to when I first subscribed, but I’m enjoying it.

Thus, I feel encouraged  to extend this invitation to all the participants in Web2.0 Wednesdays as well as to all the members of edublogs and still far away, whenever there is someone feeling concerned by what is at stake. Just leave an email.

You could  come to Twine, have a look and judge by yourself. I hope you will come, Julia.

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