Jon Udell: Instant Outlining, Instant Gratification

As useful and ubiquitous as email is, it has flaws when it comes to collaboration. It can be difficult in particular to recreate the context of a discussion--who knew what, where documents have been sent, what versions have been reviewed.

Instant outlining, a combination of instant message, blogging, and outlining, lets you maintain a list of 'buddies' and informs you when any of them update their outline. Outlines themselves are hierarchies of modes containing text.

It's persistent instant messaging.