How Do You LifeStream?

This is part 1 of a 5 part series on LifeStreaming.

Let me start off by giving you my explanation of Lifestreaming. To me, Lifestreaming is the collection and presentation of all the footprints I leave on or off the Internet. Things that may be part of a life stream are RSS feeds from your blogs, you bookmarks or photos. You may also collect things like web clips, video, audio, presentations, other blog feeds, chats and more. The amount of data you can collect in your life stream can be incredible.

My first introduction to LifeStreaming was justin.tv, this crazy guy who wears an always on video camera and streams it out to the Internet. I still think its a little over the top, but that's because I would never do it. But what I did learn was people are voyeurs. They want to know a little about you. They want to see what you do and how you do it. They want to see where you've been and what you did there. They might even find some type of social connection because of what you present in your life stream.

There are hundreds of ways to capture and present your life streams. I'm currently using Tumblr, which isn't 100% reliable, but does what I want. Together with Yahoo! Pipes I've created a Tumblr blog that reads a single RSS feed that mashes up all my blogs, links, social chats and photos. It's currently the number one offsite link on my blog.

So the question I'm asking, Do You LifeStream, is really something I want you to evaluate. First, is this for you? That's the big question. The second question becomes what will you present in your life stream? If you decide to create a life stream, you need to look at several things:

1. Where will I present my life stream?


2. What will I include in my life stream?


3. Who will I let see my life stream?


4. What can I do with a life stream?

Let's take #1. I suggest you take some time to look at lifestreamblog.com and learn about the various platforms available. It can be as easy as adding the links to your existing blog or building something completely separate. Depending on your blogs focus it may be worth creating a different site just for your life stream.

Item #2, What are you going to include? I would say start off small then build up from there. Include you blog posts, flickr posts, and maybe your Twitter tweets. Once you've had a chance to see how it works then you can expand to other options.

Item #3 is pretty important. If you are building a life stream that is public, you need to make more secure decisions on what you present. If this is a private life stream, maybe something only your family or friends have access too, you may be a little more liberal. In either case, just be careful what you present because once it's out there it's hard to remove it.

Item #4 is a great question. The initial thought of a life stream was just to collect all the various bits of information I created or was interested in presenting. But now I see people creating life streams on social sites where advertising or other monitization exists. If you're ok with someone else making money off your data great, if not find a solution you control.

LifeStreaming can be fun. I've learned a lot and am now expanding my life stream to include other data bits that create something I can make available as a personal journal for my family.

In the next couple of series we'll look at specific solutions and where you can find your bits to include in you life stream.

If you are already LifeStreaming, post a comment here with a link to your stream, or tell us how you life stream.