This is not a new concept. Most online communities or blogs stream status updates of some kind as apart of their over all content. The obvious examples would be Facebook’s news feeds, twitter’s status updates. There are also sites like FriendFeed which allows you to stream a combination of status updates from all your social networks.
Recently I came across a really neat site call Ident Engine, a JavaScript library which retrieves and aggregates profiles from across the web.
Almost every project I have worked on in the past year has required some sort of Lifestream component. Most of us have built identities across the web. We’ve filled in profiles, uploaded photos, videos, reviews and bookmarks. It’s a great way to build awareness for your self or your brand. That being said there are a ton of WordPress plugins available to add this feature to your site.
Here’s a few I’ve tried:
Lifestream – This is my favorite!
RSS Stream - Will retrieve from just about any network, but you ‘ll need to find the RSS link!
Profilactic
FriendFeed Activity Widget – You’ll need to setup a FriendFeed account first.
ComplexLife – This was built on SimpleLife and also uses RSS feeds.
Why am I discussing Lifestreaming?
This past summer I was speaking at WordCamp Montreal and was fortunate enough to to attend a presentation on Lifestreaming by Erin Blaskie (Don’t know who Erin Blaskie is? Check out some of her work; www.lifestreamingincolor.com , www.bsetc.ca , and www.askerinlive.com). This presentation was so inspiring I decided to start a Lifesteream of my own! Just this past week I quietly launched Brendan Sera-Shriar – A Lifestream. It was built using WordPress, the Sandbox framework, and the iBegin Lifestream plugin.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
It’s still in beta, which means I’m still playing with and will continue change over the next few months, so for now enjoy and hopefully you will be inspired to start a Lifestream of your own!
