In your post you state that the grand question is, “Which philosophy does Twine want to bring to the world?”.
The only visible philosophy behind Twine is to make a lot of money. The means for doing so is through the standard model, namely the collection and manipulation of free content which people generously contribute. Our selfish motivation for donating the free content is the promise that it (Twine) will make our content better.

The technological innovation itself is interesting and exciting, but it is not what I posted about.

Twine is an it. A collection of machines and processes which are owned by a corporation. That corporation is in turn owned by individual stockholders and backed by venture capitalists, all of whom stand to make a lot of money if a) we participate in droves and b) the services deliver on the promise. If a) happens and b) doesn’t, Twine still owns our content in perpetuity, and the financial investment could still pay off in a big way as long as fiscal practices are sound.

That is all fine, as far as it goes, on the basis that technological innovation has to be funded somehow. All actions, though, have consequences. It is the potential consequence of Twine’s ownership of your or my data, in light of the way their privacy policies are or aren’t presented, that I find disturbing.

When we hand ownership of our private data over to Twine, or Facebook, or any other company, we are transacting. Entering into a transaction with documented contractual rights and obligations without knowing what they are is ‘normal’ only on the internet.

Sharing personal data within a communal group for the benefit of all the members is an entirely different concept and process. Google attempts to straddle some shifting line between the two concepts. Microsoft is acting on its intention to own property on both sides. What Twine wants from all of us is pretty clear. The cost of the transaction (to us) isn’t.

Vera

Certainly Twine is not a Semantic Web application; at least it is not the Twine beta as we see at present.

I agree with you that trust is a big issue for any real world semantic web applications and it is a pity that Twine has not paid enough attention to it, at least based on your discovery from its “term of use”.

I have another analysis of Twine. Probably you would like to watch it.

– Yihong