Topics abuse, just like metatags abuse with search engines, becomes relevant when topics from several bloggers or news sources will need to be merged and categorized by aggregators. The way we thought to partially address these issues is by adding the cloud element to the specs, which should specify whose topics are in use and, thanks to topicRolls, allow to flow topics lists in every direction.

Here's how I see possible topics usage in the near future:

There are 3 main ways topics could be used:

1. Intranet Application. Weblogs are a great way to collect information and share it with other people in real time within a working environment. In our new product, a centralized aggregator will extract topics from users' feeds (each user can create new topics) and redistribute them on the network via topicRolls.

2. Topics communities. I couldn't say way, but I see these communities gathered around publishers, which already have experience categorizing contents. I could, for example, decide to become part of the NyTimes cloud, and use the NyTimes categorization system to markup my posts. Of course, all contents coming from weblogs belonging to the same cloud will be easily organized.

3. Local users. It's the position current LiveTopics users are: they can create their own topics and use them on their weblogs. A new generation of smart RSS aggregators will be able to use these topics, but I don't think that these "local" topic maps will be easy to merge anytime soon.