Egoblogging

February 14 2009, 2:27am

This blog post is brought to you by the 8 hour nap now gracing my Friday afternoons. This morning I attended a research lesson (”communication law research basics”) at the UT law library, where the staff seemed exceptionally friendly, well caffeinated, and organized. Among topics covered: how to cite court cases, what § means (section), and how to use Nexis academic. At the end of the class I made it a point to tell my professor that I was reading the same book that she just checked out (Born Digital), but failed to remember any key concepts from the chapters so far. Basically, my verbal skills are subpar when discussing previously read material, mostly because our memories are now on Google. If I had just been able to review a couple pages I could have something intelligent to say, but there is simply not enough room in my head to retain all the information that I attempt to eat each day. Which brings me to last night’s Twestival, where I saw tons of people I’ve connected with via Twitter or Facebook or Flickr, but I could barely remember their names, let alone what they look like! As you may be aware, my current obsession with Julia Allison is more than a media crush–her lifecasting methods are brilliant. We all make posts to various social media services, collecting a digital presence for others to peruse. But our lives are presented through services, not as a chronological timeline or narrative. Julia’s lifecasting site NonSociety begins to address this issue by collecting not only blog posts and photos, but tweets, links, and other material as it comes. This method of using a Tumblr to create a single feed of lifecast material creates a much more memorable online personality. So if everyone I saw at Twestival last night had a similar lifecast (which is a simple jump, really–many already post a lot of content, it’s just a matter of putting it in one place chronologically), then I would have a MUCH better chance at remembering their names AND what they look like, not to mention their pets, family members’ birthdays, and favorite sexual position. So what is the best way of creating/collecting these presences? Julia’s Tumblr method is good, but not all encompassing. Is a style-able RSS from Friendfeed the answer? I would love to hear your opinions or suggestions for this type of aggregate site. Just not Yahoo! pipes! Way too slow.