The point is that we’re always publishing – just not necessarily on exceler8ion.
We have lots of blogs as you might know and we even update them once in a while. Taken alone, they can be all together too quiet – aggregate them and you can see that we’re always online doing something.
That’s the point of a lifestream – you use RSS feeds to get everything into ONE portal page. ONE ring to rule them all. We’re using a hosted service called tumblr to publish our lifestreams and we’re both very happy with tumblr’s servic now that Shannon hacked tumblr to include comments.
Come along for the ride and start a lifestream of your own. It was our friend Ami Givertz who inspired me to get off my duff and create a lifestream. I was lamenting on a phone call with Ami that I often grew discouraged by the difficulty of keeping up with so many blogs and yet still wanted to have them be separate and distinct based on content focus and reader interest. So after I finished bitching Ami said that he felt the same way and had done something about it. You can always count on Ami to be an action oriented cheeky monkey!
You’ll find our last 8 posts from each of our lifestreams right here on the right rail of exceler8ion or you can go to Shannon’s directly by pinging shannonseery.com or aka thegeekmarketer or mine here on Julians.name. If you start your own tumblr then make sure to add Shannon and I as friends so we can keep track of each other.
I recommend tumblr because it’s super simple to use, not the slightest bit technical, you can use your own url (or not) and you can post ALL types of content, including text, video, pictures, and many more. It does all this with a very inviting interface that encourages you to post. Yes, and there’s the aforementioned ability to aggregate all your RSS feeds at the same time. If you’ve thought of blogging but haven’t because you don’t have the time then a tumblelog on tumblr could be just what the doctor ordered.
Technorati Tags: lifestream, lifestreaming, tumblr, tumblelog
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Julian I look at Tumblr and it is a very good tool. However I have reservations about a lifestream and the possible implications on recruitment. Do we really want/need to mix our personal and professional feeds anymore than they already are? I know I should be jumping on board with both feet but something tells me we need to be careful. Maybe I am just missing something.
Hey Michael –
For us – we have personal blogs too that out there already and public. Twitter, Jaiku etc are indexed by Google already. My professional and personal lives are all me and they are all available if someone wants to know badly enough.
So – I figure if it is all available in a Google search anyway – then *NOT* having a Lifestream isn’t going to save me anything if someone is researching me online.
…but maybe I am not just not that deviant to worry
Shannon, the thing I am concerned about is the age old statement “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. We have lots of recruiters and managers who are now learning about all this “stuff” but don’t *really* understand it.
For example many of my contacts on Twitter/Facebook are different to my “professional” linkedin/jobster ones. This means that many of the discussions on Twitter/Facebook are personal and not really professional, eg the current meme with Aussie Twitt’s is the discussion of genital piercings, who knows why but that’s the topic. This is not really something that would be discussed on linkedin/jobster or for that matter in my blog, nor in many workplaces. BUT, with friends at a BBQ or at the pub yes, and now lots of this is happening online and will end up in the google cache. Many businesses are just still so web 1.0
and don’t get it.
Maybe I have no faith in the newly converted, or maybe I am just concern I am too deviant and need to worry
.
Hi Michael, thanks for your comments. To Shannon’s point, you’re already out there with Twitter so there’s no turning back now! If it’s your penis that gets you in trouble on Google it probably won’t be the first or last time…
As for me, if someone deems not to hire me or work with me because I’ve said something that offends their sensibility online then there’s a very good chance I wouldn’t want to work for or with them anyway. I look at this as just another way the Internet makes relationships, including professional ones, more relevant and more efficient.
Hey, Michael:
You raise a number of important issues which emerging social media, applications and trends bring into a sharper focus today than maybe they did this time last year when the concerns were “who will see my Myspace page and how will my beer-swilling head-banging affect my employment prospects with Company X?”
In the final analysis I think it comes down to personal branding and really understanding that brand is something you carry and project whether you [or the consumer] likes it or not. To manage an online persona and reputation — or evolve all that if you’d rather — surely has to transcend a single-purpose use unless, of course, your online presence serves a singular purpose.
I believe that if you are integral in what you do and say online — prepared to “own your own words†in an authentic and real way — if you are then perceived as a “misfit†as a result then you might want to view that positively, as Jules points out, an early warning sign of mutual interest.
Alternatively, it could be attractive to valuable connections you might otherwise never make. In the case you cite for example, an anthropologist or plastic surgeon perhaps, or a supplier of cheap hypoallergenic jewelry, maybe?
On the other hand, if we think about DISC profiling and similar assessments as trying to reconcile our core behavioral style with the adaptive style we use at work to mask “who we really are,†then taking a holistic view as evidenced by our online activity may provide another dimension, a more accurate means of *honest* assessment.
A full-disclosure, whole-online-person assessment could even lead to better management and performance. It could foster a more dependable working relationship where real understanding could be developed as part of the shared expectations going in.
Doesn’t that put an engagement/retention spin on your “lifestream” screening/selection concerns?
As always, these issues raise more questions than easy answers.