When Metadata Comes to Twitter

[Commentary] Metadata -- data about data. I'd love for every tweet that's sent out to be categorized in some way by the tweeter. Tweets need metadata in the same way that books need a title. Is this tweet about an interesting new blog post by the sender of the tweet? Or about an interesting blog post by someone other than the sender of the tweet? A tweet about a useful free resource for educators? A new explanatory screencast about open-source software? A tweet about an inspiring video on YouTube? A tweet that'll make me chuckle? Sure, it takes a bit of extra effort for people to add metadata to their tweets, but the result is well worth it. More people would receive more of the information they're interested in – and less of the information they're not interested in. In a knowledge economy, that's a big deal, for time is more valuable than money. When more people receive more signal and less noise, knowledge is created, more becomes possible – and thoughts dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free.