Streaming applications are involved in communication, and are displacing the email models that typified Web 1.0. We all known how inboxes (a la email) work: people write an email, address it to one or more people (or groups, in some cases), and then send it off. The email infrastructure delivers the mail to those addressed, who receive it in their respective inboxes:

1. The inbox model is inherently private: the email is only delivered to a select group, and others cannot see it, even if that was desired.
2. The reach of the email is completely determined by the email’s author, and it is made on a piece by piece basis.
3. The ownership of the email shifts to the recipients when it is delivered: they have to delete, or file the email, which is no longer under the control of the author.

Flow apps work very differently:

1. Streaming apps are inherently open: the premise is that users create and share information in the open. This is about supporting open discourse.
2. The recipients opt into ’subscribing’ to certain people’s streams, so the decision about access to information is made by recipients, and this decision is general, not made on a post by post basis. I call this the ‘open following’ feature, meaning anyone can choose who to follow.
3. The handling of the streamed posts does not transition to the recipients: it is still under the control of the author. Posts can be deleted, for example, or edited. And posts do not have to be ‘handled’ by recipients: filed or archived. They simply slide from the top to the bottom of the stream, and march into oblivion, without the recipients having to manage them at all. While an archive exists, it is managed automatically by the streaming application. Collectively, these features add up to an anti-inbox model

He goes on to describe two Flow Apps, Twitter and Staction in some detail.

As I read this post I began wondering if the “flow” Stowe is talking about is similar to the “information flow” I discuss on this site. My first reaction is that the flow I talk about is different than what Stowe is discussing. Now this in turn makes me realize that I need to be clear about what I mean by “information flow”.