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Stocks and Flows in Online Communication

Posted by TimSlavin at April 13, 2004

"Communication is either in a state of flow or it is stocked, and sometimes in transit from one to the other. For example, the kind of communication that comes from an instant message is flow- its value is linked to the timeliness and context of the message. The information is used as it is created. People engage in a flow, like a conversation.

A message board archive is a good example of a stock- it is stored until needed or requested. Its value is linked to accessibility and organization as opposed to timeliness. People access a stock, they don’t engage in it. Stocks are generally static and presented when requested, like search results."

Excellent set of three articles from Common Craft, Lee LeFever's weblog about online communities. This is an elegant way to describe how people use technology. The other two articles are Introduction to Stocks and Flows (2 of 3): Weblogs, Wikis and RSS and Introduction to Stocks and Flows (3 of 3): Back to Basics.

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