RodeWorks

I’ve seen a number of mentions of Twine, and I got an invite today, so I decided to give it a try. And after tinkering with it a littel while I’m not quite sure what it does. I thinks its one of those technologies that really starts to shine when you’ve got a group actively using it. For instance they mention features such as auto-tagging and auto recommendations. But these don’t really do much when you’ve only got a couple of items in there.

A twine can have all sorts of objects in it — images, sound, video, bookmarks of other websites, notes, photos or a document. And you can have multiple twines organized around different ideas. The interface is very slick, with a pleasing visual design. Its worth a look — look for my twine at www.twine.com/twine/rr-bookmarks .

For a business/educational setting I do wonder what happens to your stuff over time. If a group really takes the time to create a series of active twines you could start to have some really valuable intellectual property. Sharing it is probably OK, in fact the greater the sharing the more valuable it becomes. But if the company disappears, where does your stuff end up? You certainly don’t want to lose access to it. They do mention some import/export functions, but I don’t see those anywhere yet — maybe they’ll come as it passes through its beta phase.

Overview of Twine - Twine

Twine is a new service that helps you organize, share and discover information around your interests, with networks of like-minded people. You can use Twine individually, with friends, or with groups, teams and communities.

Powered by semantic understanding, Twine automatically organizes information, learns about interests and makes recommendations. The more you use Twine, the better it gets to know you and the more useful it becomes.