@Chip Bennett - I wonder that too, Chip. The closest to an answer I've seen was this comment on the CEUX plugin: http://make.wordpress.org/ui/2013/09/23/ceux-sept-17-chat-notes/#comment-23931

At least the people on that project see it as the next iteration of Post Formats, never mind that there wasn't really a first...

I'm pretty sad that it seems the project just up and died.