There's also #MDchat, #RNchat and #FamMedChat

They've been around for a long time.

In fact #MDchat and #RNchat were the first clinical Twitter chats.

Big ones to miss ;)

Tried it myself and my All Friends column is wild (reminds me of Friendfeed's stream before Facebook purchased it.

But I think we need to distinguish between Real-time and Instant.

In the true sense of the phrase, Real-time media are media that deliver the right information at the right time in the right context. Twitter, Facebook status updates, etc. aren't true Real-time media. They're actually Instant media (save for the appearance of the Fail Whale).

On one hand, I think there's value in Instant streaming - as you described above. But on the other, I think we'll get a point when we'll more strongly demand true Real-time software.

When we use clients like Tweetdeck and set up columns, what we're trying to do is to get closer to Real-time.

So I think Twitter isn't totally the future yet. But it's a pretty fun approximation.

@PhilBaumann