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Tuesday
Sep222009
Lifestreaming Lessons - a 90-Day Report
Young Urban Professional
As many of you are aware, three months ago I did something that some considered virtual heresy. After five years and 5300 posts I shuttered my blog, Micro Persuasion, in favor of this lifestream. I set out to find a middle ground between a blog and a tweet. I longed for a new approach where I could post shorter items, more often and in more visual and creative ways. I wanted to establish a place where we could probe technology - like Da Vinci once did on his own - but do so together and daily. Posterous has done a great job on the tech side, but I want to elevate my game.
So far, I am extremely pleased with my approach, but I am never one to be satisfied. The basic formula is working well. I use this site as a launching pad to initiate many of my social streams and then I go and engage in conversations around these out in the hubs where it syndicated. Still, I am also posting content often directly into Facebook and Twitter without starting it here. I may play with the formula so that everything at least begins here.
So what's missing? Well, the content is still too text heavy. Posterous lets you do so many things with audio, video, photos and text. I keep a list of formats I want to try. However, I still resort back to text too often and, what's more, I haven't been able to post daily as I had hoped. I am close, but I can do better.
Last night on the Long Island Railroad I drew up this mindmap in Mindnode on my iPhone. I appreciate alliteration. How would you feel about a structure like this where I theme the content based on the day of the week? Monday we tackle models and/or mindmaps, Tuesday we talk trends, etc. I want to post more often and more creatively than just writing.
Reader Comments (25)
Whatever keeps you happy and productive my brother! We're counting on you.
@Vincent, thanks. You can bet that I will always strive for awesomeness. :-)
I really like following your escapades on the bleeding edge. I learn a lot from you. I've set up a Posterous account as well, though I've yet to really use it. The mindnote map is cute, but it seems to me it might be tough using the first letter of the name of each day of the week as your primary inspiration for generating more content. I appreciate the desire to try and schedule your lifestream, to increase output and establish some regularity for your readers, but I think you should entertain spontaneity and serendipity, cause you never really now what's going to stimulate you from one moment to the next.
@Eric, great point. Ideally I want to post 3x a day - one post/day in a lettered bucket (which you are right to assess is for structure) but then also spontaneously post bits as they come along. I may also experiment with SimplyTweet on the iPhone, which automatically sends your long tweets into Posterous.
So will you be blogging again on your birthday? (Sorry, that was just snarky.)I got a lot of value from your blog posts, Steve, but I'm not inclined to chase a proliferation of services to keep up with you. If it doesn't make it to your RSS feed (or Twitter) I probably won't see it. I love the idea of exploring new means of expression, but please don't do a Scoble and dilute your brand by abandoning your long-time subscribers - I know that's not entirely fair to Robert, but that's the feeling I get as a long-time subscriber to his blog. (Apologies if I'm speaking out of ignorance - I used to feel confident your RSS feed would catch all you had to say; I'm not sure that's the case anymore.)
Hey SteveI just recently started visiting your blog. Now that I know its shuttered...will am checking out Posterous. I find the mindmap cute. Its kind of...... inviting; It has a childish whim to it and hence approachable; it takes you into the teeny world of organizing and hence, like a breath of fresh air; and its coming from you, so it's credible. I hope I am making some sense here.Cheers!
Steve, this is a nice graph but it probably helps you more to organize yourself than your readers who just want to read your great content irrespective of the day you posted it. By the way, I think that posterous is truly liberating. These people really understand the importance of user experience and I think describing it as "microblogging" does not do them justice. In my mind, it is Blogging...as it should have been right from day1.
Steve, great example of a mindmap on your iPhone. Made me look into these applications. Mapping out my thoughts like you did is a great way to communicate.
I think you are working against yourself with the mindmap. Isn't lifestreaming about spontaneity? How can you plan that? I think you need to loosen up a bit.Just let it flow a bit more unstructured and random. That is the source of creativity.
Hey Steve...I've enjoyed following your experiment, although I confess I'm only likely to read and engage at the hub. Chasing conversation to the spokes takes me away from the platform where I'm spending time. Each day, I spend a few minutes diving into RSS feeds, a few minutes perusing Facebook, a few minutes scanning Twitter, etc. Sure, I'll follow links out to good content, but like a farmer, I prefer to finish tilling one field before I jump to another.I think the map concept you've shared above -- it's a good way to ensure your content reflects the format balance/mix you're looking for. My gut says it'll be tough to stick to a "Day X = Format X" schedule, though. Don't let me discourage you from trying, though...if you can bring a little order to the world, I'll gladly follow your lead.
I think your mind map focuses too much on the medium. What if you have a message that includes a photo? What if you have a tweet that needs a factoid? MacLuhan was wrong, of course: the medium is NOT the message. Text is still the best way to communicate abstract thoughts and create context for photos and music. I like your mind and thoughts.
I have tried this approach with mixed success. I like the idea of writing 'columns' using an editorial calendar, with different themes every day of the week. But it requires extra-ordinary discipline. I also like the quick-thought one-offs mixed in. We're used to consuming media and content like this in newspapers and magazines, but on the web we can mix in realtime and other formats. I agree with some of the previous commenters that the aliteration approach is more cute than practical, but this is a bottomless experiment as you've said, and I look forward to whatever you try next. Thanks for the continuous inspiration and insight.
Read your thoughts about how to organize your blog and online mini-casts. Looks ambitious, but my hat's off to you. If you are looking for suggestions, I'd explore spreading out the material over a longer period of time, focusing more on what the majority of your subscribers are looking for, otherwise you risk trying to cover too much ground and not really meeting your goals. (I should follow my own advice.)
I have your feeds coming to google reader based on suggestions online. I have to say, this lifestream is inspiring in some ways. I like the idea of having dedicated content types for days. The reader will not likely know what day is for what, but the user is able to focus the content generation. It seems to me, that this will provide you an opportunity to enhance your quality and increase quantity. It is almost relevant to any weekly task organization. If we all thought of our weekly life holistically, I am sure we could develop such a lifestream as this. Good luck.
@Ron just the opposite. I am thinking about putting in more energy here so that my subscribers like you gain.
@Brent I agree. So what I am now thinking (thanks to all of your feedback) is that the content plans work but the structure is overkill and perhaps will kill one of the greatest joys of discovery - serendipity.
Agree w/others: keep it spontaneous. You'll end up being a slave to the structure. Than can distract from delivering the goods.Tell us more about stuff we can't access, i.e. what you, SR, see and hear. Insightful/vision(ary) posts are most rewarding.TC, RWW,TechMeme...they give us the news (not-so-insightful). Give us something only you can provide. Stick to that framework and it should flow naturally. "He is charged with helping clients identify emerging technologies and trends that can be applied in marketing communications programs." Tell us more about the last part of that...Nice work thus far on posterous...(p.s. just call it "stream/streaming", Lifestreaming sounds like a Tony Robbins seminar...)
@Judd thanks so much. Most helpful (actually I like Tony Robbins, but that's not relevant here!). - S
Quite inspiring, Steve! I look forward to reading updates on your progress.
That's because you're a media forerunner. I know I can count on you to innovate and push things to the next phase Steve. Keep on doing what you're doing and we'll follow.
Very insightful and inspiring Steve, you've made me take a fresh look at my primary blog to try something similar.
Steve, compelling content has a quality of bursting out of it's form. Good to have an outline as long as your intention is to expand beyond its constraints.Like a jazz riff on a familiar melody, the job is to expound on it, making of the melody an unique expression in the moment.The structure, helpful - without it, you may be too diffuse, but, the structure's there to be stretched to a breaking point. That's where the good stuff happens.I'm following your development, it is useful, to me. I'm in early stages of moving in a less syndicated direction, however, attempting to maintaining more unique conversation with specific communities on each platform.I'm thinking of it as an author on a book tour, giving presentations to different audiences, responding to interview questions from various journalists. Rather than repeating the same points that are "in the book", I'm thinking it is best if the author uniquely expresses the truth of each moment, responding to each questioner, each audience specifically, allowing each journalist, each audience to see the author as a larger creative force than the book. A better chance of meaningfully connecting to individuals, this way, I think.We could trust search to connect our various conversations and media messages. A little bit of Steve Gillmor's startling "links are dead" concept from a couple of years are influencing my current thoughts. I think those who make some effort to find the content will be more responsive, therefore more valuable, contacts.With all the feeds, photo-streams, video channels, family & friends updates, we are way beyond the ability to keep up with the totality of anyone's output, and shouldn't try. It is the limits of our perception that shapes our intelligence.
I'm not trying to sound like an a-hole or anything, but if this really is a "lifestream," should it be strategically scheduling content around industry practices when, technically, it should be broadcasting info about your life?
No explanation is needed for giving license to creativity.If your stated objective is to find new and different ways to offer infomation and discovery, then your readers will vote with their feet-or Delete key.I suspect that the value of information is in it's distriution and further creative use.Go for it!
Steve, I wrote this reflection on my own increasing slide towards micro-blogging a year ago. Looking back it now it seems even more accurate. It is philosophical in its style but maybe you will find it interesting: http://arasmus.com/blooming-terminus