blogs vs mailing lists

one of the crucial questions i want to explore in the remainder of 2003 is whether blogs are better than mailing lists for collaboration. i believe they are, but need to try it to be sure. some data points:

  • persons with inadequate email archives are no longer crippled
  • categorization beats subject prefixes
  • linkability: prior art (older posts) are first class citizens as opposed to vanishing in the archives / trash
  • trackback: get more brains to attack the problems
  • it is easier to filter out “me too” posts

the klog mailing list (ahem!) has very good thinking on the issues.
related issues: blogs vs wikis. mailing lists vs wikis

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