Originally published at Apollo Lemmon. Please leave any comments there.
The blogosphere is undergoing a shift toward lifestreaming. The efficiency and clarity of lifestreaming offers an alternative and a complement to blogging that enables time-strapped internet content creators and enthusiasts a better way to display, distribute and champion the content that matters to them. It’s a game-changer that also hints at the increasingly seamless way the internet is part of every aspect of our lives.
2008 has been a year of transitioning to lifestreaming for me. An increasingly time-strapped life has left me less time to devote to blogging, but my drive to share content with friends and strangers hasn’t relented. Lifestreaming has allowed me to point out more content and share more pieces of my life than I could have if I focused on longer pieces. I still love and appreciate blogging —I read dozens of blogs each day—, but lifestreaming is the future of how we share on the internet.
One of the clearest signs that ’streaming is becoming a mainstream force on the internet is the inclusion of rudimentary lifestreaming on Facebook and other social networking sites. We are coming to value quick shots from the attention of the people we care about and respect; a photo of a great meal, pieces of political discourse and a fascinating news article do provide real benefits in how we connect with others and how we experience the world. Even with the inevitable filler that comes from the speed of ’streaming, the data we create is going to reshape our interaction with the internet.
Lifestreaming heralds the next leap for the internet, the semantic web, by associating our important data with our online identities. This association enables data to be used to understand our lives, our interests and our social world. Marry this with emergent trends of location-aware software, cloud computing, and the still-rising tide of social networking, and you have a perfect storm of practical, sophisticated and exciting internet tools that will make our experience of the internet seamless within our lives.