for example, this very post is not lifestreaming. It's a post on a topic. This entire site is a site that explores a certain topic area. I don't really care where you folks eat lunch, what you do on the weekends, what you're inner thoughts are, whether your friend just found a cool site or posted some new pictures on Flickr.

In fact, I just unsubscribed from a Twitter feed which talked of NOTHING but that person's personal life. She has a good rep in an area that intrigued me and her site's full of good posts on it... with the occasional post on personal stuff. That's cool. But her Twitter stream was nothing BUT personal streaming. And the sad thing is that she very rarely posts on her area of expertise on her blog. Yes, that's right - the medium that really got her name out there and one where she can express interesting thoughts in long form is what she's abandoned.

I don't mind lifesteaming, but ultimately most of us aren't going to care about the day to day lives of people we don't know. There will be the occasional exception and people might follow their friends... but in general lifestreaming is the Web 2.0 version of the initial navel-gazing blogosphere. The sad thing is that it's taking some very good bloggers away from writing about interesting topics where they have real knowledge to share.

The point of the conversations is 'thinking' not 'doing' (which, BTW, is the antithesis of most online design -- hmmm, haven't thought about that before).

Why wouldn't the blogging world be affected by the same thing? People are so busy blogging themselves, and keeping up with all the social media, that bloggers are going to have to find new ways to attract and keep interest.

I think you're going to see a lot of blogs fall out simply because people are burned out and stressed out trying to keep up, and people become bored with the content. They're going to be looking for the next new thing, and you may have found it.

I don't quite agree that a lifestream as you mention here is of any great use for publishers. There is not big opportunity for monetization. Also the search engines want content of many words, not snippets of one or two sentences or links. So, how these sites are going to rank is a question to ask.

Lenin

Lifestreaming will probably appeal to people who are less concerned about writing as their primary output and who do more with audio, video, and images. It may also be more suited to people who share freely and easily as opposed to saving up bits and ideas and then posting.

Traditional blogging is a more introverted activity, IMHO, and lifestreaming may be a more extroverted activity.

Building this on the FriendFeed API is not a bad idea, but even easier, at Soup.io we give you a hosted hybrid lifestream/tumblelog that you can point your own domain at: full, unlimited feed imports (unlike Tumblr), local multimedia posts, a bookmarklet plus full CSS customization.

For more feedback ask Richard McManus, he's a user :)

Another way to reveal the surface me and avoid any issues that might matter...

I use Twitter as more of a way to extend that personal connection and sense of community beyond the static bio of an about us page.

Considering I have a very technical blog - and not one that has much room for personal commentary - I use twitter to try and include that personal touch... like "blogging used to be"

When we get out there in the "real world," the penetration into the public consciousness of all of these things (blogging, podcasting, Twitter, FriendFeed, etc.), things that seem like second nature to all of us, is so mind bogglingly low, we would all do well to recognize. @tinu is right when they say it's more of a fork in the road.

I think we in the vanguard of all this stuff tend to jump on the next shiny, new thing instead of focusing less on the tools and more on how we're going to change the face of communication.

Lots of blogs are personal sites and yes lifestreaming will replace PERSONAL blogs, they will not replace informational/knowledge-based blogs, such as a tech blog, political blog, etc.

I can see where lifecasting would be compelling to read (depending on who the person is) but I'd rather share my thought & ideas in a blog than share what goes on in my personal life. It is okay to share it with a small group on Twitter & Facebook but not for permanent posting on the web.

I think it also has to do with whether you merge your professional and personal lives online or keep them compartmentalized. I tend towards the latter.

I am a Cannibal and my dinner is Virgins and Middle Class! http://seesmic.com/video/IgWXgK0B13

Case in point: Julia Allison. I'd never heard of her before this post, and I doubt that I'll be hearing about her again. She seems like this years' Kevin Federline. Next!

I was actually going to pick this Copy of Wired up but it wasn't on the Newsstands yet*

To my mind the Info presented is a lot more interesting than Plain Old Twitter*

;)) Peace*

definitely a work in progress and by no means is the content compelling for anyone but me, but to illustrate what I've been doing here it is:

http://ricmac.soup.io/

I do love http://cheslow.com/ , that absolutely rocks. It was kind of what I wanted to do, if I had the time and talent to design something like that :-)

And regarding the changing face of the blogging landscape, that's great new people come to express themselves on the Internet using easier tools than blogs!

cheers~ Kat

Makes sense, increasingly the conversation and commentary is happening in a mixed media, multi site mode. Aggregating an authors activity makes this easier to manage. One problem is that the feedsteam's tend to get like a firehose and noisy where a blog can be easier to control the quality and frequency of output.

Makes sense, increasingly the conversation and commentary is happening in a mixed media, multi site mode. Aggregating an authors activity makes this easier to manage. One problem is that the feedsteam's tend to get like a fire hose and noisy where a blog can be easier to control the quality and frequency of output.

Thoughts?

I don't think life streaming will replace blogging. Twitter for example is interesting and almost addictive but it has no depth. For myself one of the great things with twitter is when people I am following point me in the direction of a great blog or post they have found.

I do however agree there is a need to bring everything together, my blog for example, and especially my about page is a central hub of my Social Network. It links to most things I do online.

http://www.stephenbaugh.com/about

The future of corporate blogging may be more Work Stream oriented, but I'm not sure the "Next" model for that has been developed. Companies are embracing blogging, twittering and other social media that ultimately lead to better PR, better Customer Service, and better Sales. Perhaps the streams of these different elements pulled together will ultimately be the next web presence for companies. The Kodak Stream or Coke Stream have an interesting ring to it, but I doubt the "I'm heading to lunch at Potbelly's" tweets and "Tara just had a baby" Flickr album will provide a ton of value. Maybe it will be just a matter of intelligently filtering the streams.

The quickest way for a blogger to loose it's dedicated readership is to move to life streaming. I dont give a shit if you just took a shit on a train, I read a blog becuase there is something of value there (like this post). 6.5 billion lifestreams is nothing more than than a river of mud.

@modidlee RE: matrix and unreal blogger celebrities, see William Gibson's book Idoru ... you'll like it

1. a friend of yours; or
2. a celebrity of some sort

Otherwise, who cares about all the info in someone's lifestream? I certainly wouldn't keep up with one person's lifestream, let alone a dozen.

Julia is only interesting because she's pretty and charismatic. Most people wouldn't get an audience with the same type of lifestream blog.

I like the idea of using your social profile in replace of your about page. I may use my Linkedin profile badge instead but the combination of friendfeeds and comments is excellent.

twitter and these other tools that blast you with tiny bits of nothingness have actually helped to filter bloggers who weren't producing much of their own, real, original content. a blog was just "hey, check this out, via, via via, via..." a bunch of posts that reference each other in this giant linky circle and it very hard to figure out who was the original source, and sometimes what the original content even was. it's not easy to find a well thought out, well written post about ANYTHING anymore.

(but i glad found this!)

I do think there is a distinction between blogging and lifestreaming, and I don't consider the majority of my site a blog. However, I do also occasionally post "traditional" blog entries to my site and they are then inserted into my lifestream. So there is a bit of blurring between the two. To me, the major distinction is in the intended audience and purpose. The majority of my lifestream is meant just for me (to keep track of what I'm doing or finding) and my extended family (to share photos, memories, events, etc) -- although I recognize and welcome the fact that some things may interest other people too. On the other hand, my blog postings are generally targeted at a wider audience to begin with.

But that's just me -- the cool thing is that we all have a ton of tools to communicate with lots of people in lots of ways that make sense to each of us.

Alan

lifestreaming is not some new publishing platform. it's aggregation. so what is the point of this post? it feels liks the promotion of a fast food version of content publishing. the truth is, a nice well though out blog post is still the meat. whether or not people have time to read it or want to read it.... moot. thats their problem. fuck em. too much hype too little value.

i'm all for lifestreaming pages that merge your output. but i dont see how this trumps any single source of content that such a lifestream page would pull in. apple and oranges ot something like that is at play here. please, stop hyping juxtapositions of the new web just to have something to post to meet deadlines/quotas or whatever might be pressuring you (you as in anyone who is pumping out articles empty of insight and logic) to post. if the focus of such a post is to show how you can make a lifestream page, cool. leave it that though. no need to polish this up as anything more than data aggregation and presentation templates.

btw, people could just use tumblr.

sull

After reading this post, we took all of the official DNC State Blogger Corps members and arranged them into an eventfeed.

http://www.dncbloggers.com/

After putting it together, it seems like a good way for news reporters to be able to identify story ideas and breaking news.

As I see it, political bloggers need to maintain a separate identity so they can develop distinct identities, as opposed to a mishmash of "blue" versus "red".

I'd be interested in any opinions from RWW readers.

I do prefer the "blog stream" as it's always relevant to my audience. I'm not sure that my readers do care about the latest afternoon with my kids...

In fact, because there's so much content out there, I see things going in an even more focused direction, with better, tighter content in order to stand out from the clutter of lifestreaming/overly personal noise.