I’m not exactly sure that “lifestreaming” is a real word, but in the grand tradition of embracing new words into the living language we called “English”, I will accept it for the moment. Asking the mighty Google to define “Lifestream” for us brings forth the following;
The term lifestream was coined by Eric Freeman and David Gelernter at Yale University in the mid-1990s to describe “…a time-ordered stream of documents that functions as a diary of your electronic life; every document you create and every document other people send you is stored in your lifestream.
Lifestreams are also referred to as social activity streams or social streams.
The tail of your stream contains documents from the past (starting with your electronic birth certificate). Moving away from the tail and toward the present, your stream contains more recent documents - papers in progress or new electronic mail; other documents (pictures, correspondence, bills, movies, voice mail, software) are stored in between. Moving beyond the present and into the future, the stream contains documents you will need: reminders, calendar items, to-do lists.”
Following the admission several days ago that I had bought, purchased or otherwise kidnapped the domain name of my own name (albeit the shortened form), while sat on a succession of trains earlier today the idea fermented in my head that the next stage in my blogging odyssey should involve a “Lifestream”. If you visit jonbeckett.com, you’ll find yourself looking at it.
What is it? Do you know, I’m not entire sure just yet. It’s longer form that Twitter, and shorter form than a blog. Whereas I might navel-gaze insufferably here, and contemplate that which doesn’t need to be considered at completely unrequired lengths, the lifestream should perhaps be viewed as crib notes of what’s really been happening on planet Jonathan - with multimedia whenever possible. I will of course also continue to pitch into Twitter from time to time - and continue to regard it as many others do - a vast, crowded, noisy room full of people shouting “have you seen this?” to whoever will listen.
So far (after a day or so) the lifestream idea is interesting. I’ll endeavour to continue snapping photos, and sharing odd snippets of video, and we’ll see where it takes us. I would like to say it will be fun, but of course cannot guarantee that at all. You’ll notice you cannot comment on the lifestream - this is by design. It’s not intended to be the beginning of a discussion - it’s more a journal of “what is” - with no comment invited (although you can ask questions, which I may or may not choose to answer - take a look). If I feel crap, and write as much within the lifestream, I don’t expect sympathy or comradeship. The lack of comments is oddly freeing.