Even though the news is relatively old at this point, I’ve continued to noodle the discussion Steven Hodson and I had Tuesday night in the aftermath of the widely trumpeted news that LinkedIn would offer the ability to sync user status messages with Twitter.

The discussion we had ran well past the usually designated 20-minute cut-off point, but aside from a minor existential breakdown we both had mid-podcast, the discussion is well worth the time it takes to listen to it all.

There were two key points in the discussion that surrounded the LinkedIn-Twitter story that I think bear enumerating.

1) We both found it pretty odd and a little bit silly that there was so much hub-bub around this announcement, yet there was absolutely nowhere near the amount of attention around the idea of MySpace doing the same thing several weeks ago.

2) Despite the fact that Twitter has very desperately tried to avoid federating their public timeline, they might just end up doing that if too many more partnerships like these are struck.

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Of Course, Here Comes the Federation Discussion

You know me – I’m getting to be as bad as Dave Winer when it comes to endlessly discussing the need and inevitability of Twitter going federated. I’ll try to take a different turn this time because it’s pretty easy to find my past rants on the topic, and I’m sure I’ll find ample opportunity to launch the rant again at some point in the future.

As Steven and I were discussing the LinkedIn deal the other night, out of frustration, Steven just exclaims at one point “What’s so flippin’ special about Twitter that everyone has to import it to their social network?”

It’s not necessarily Twitter that I’m an advocate of at this point, but the activity stream format (or possibly the “Real Time Web,” if you must). I don’t necessarily say I’m an evangelist for the format, but I try to apply it liberally when possible if for no other reason than it works when it comes to fostering community.

In fact, to just spill the beans on SiliconANGLE’s secret sauce, there are three things that have done more to foster a sense of community and communication at SiliconANGLE than anything else we’ve done.

1) Real Time Updates: People are sick of hitting the refresh button.  At this point, it’s trivially easy to design a page to update without hitting the refresh button. We do that wherever possible, and it makes people stick around and actually notice the activity on the site, rather than get an impression of how much activity might or might not be around here.

2) Aggregation: Aggregation is a term we use a lot at SiliconANGLE. We aggregate our member blog posts. We aggregate discussion from around the web on our blog. We aggregate opinion and analysis for our clients. It’s a key feature in what we do, and it’s a key driver for activity on Twitter.

2) Activity Streams: Activity streams are simply the best way to present aggregate data in a real time format. Everyone has their favorite sorting flavor – you may love Friendfeed, you may enjoy the rawness of Twitter, or the refinement even you’ll see at Facebook.  Whatever the case, the sorting algorithm of the activity stream is flavor that should match or attract the culture of your community.

These aren’t necessarily laws, but simple observations I’ve made running our community here that have been far more effective in increasing draw and engagement than I figured they should be.

Your mileage may vary, but if you’re a community manager or leader of any type, I’d welcome your input or insight as well.