{"id":2163,"date":"2008-01-11T11:17:32","date_gmt":"2008-01-11T11:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/11\/life-caching-is-better-then-life-streams\/"},"modified":"2008-01-11T11:17:32","modified_gmt":"2008-01-11T11:17:32","slug":"life-caching-is-better-then-life-streams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/10.10.2.102\/creevacom\/index.php\/2008\/01\/11\/life-caching-is-better-then-life-streams\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Caching is better then Life Streams"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Life Caching:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Life caching is setting up sites that you have complete control over to save data from sites over which you only have varied levels of control. Getting all of your metadata in one place. Saving each detail of data in its place so it’s saved, used, and recyclable. Life caching is the next stage as the Data Portability Group<\/a> moves forward. This is not the goal of the Data Portability Group – it is just what their goal enables you to do. The work, however, is burdened on to you and I can say there is no easy way to do this and some data leakage and loss will always slip through the cracks, at least at this stage of the game.<\/p>\n

Isn’t this what Life Streaming Accomplishes? How is Life Caching different?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Life Streaming<\/a> is the step before life caching. While the concepts share a lot of overlapping the simplest scenario is that a life stream is a picture in time that does not save your data. A life stream is ephemeral and actual current implementations are very fragile. I have a life stream here. RSS feeds expire so data is lost, companies go out of business so the links it points to is gone, or data just gets missed. But to truly get a better picture of life streaming here is what the life streaming blog<\/a> says about it:<\/p>\n

What is a Lifestream? In it\u2019s simplest form it\u2019s a chronological aggregated view of your life activities both online and offline. It is only limited by the content and sources that you use to define it. Mine is available here<\/a>. Most people that create them choose a few sources<\/a> based on sites that track our activities such as Del.icio.us (bookmarking), Last.fm (Music we listen to), Flickr (photos we take) etc\u2026Then you can either find software<\/a> to host your own, or find sites that provide a platform for you.<\/em><\/p>\n

Many people have been writing about Lifestreams and the potential value they offer for ourselves and others. Some of those people are Jeff Croft, Jeremy Keith<\/a>, and Emily Chang<\/a>. It appears to be a concept that is gaining quite a bit of steam.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was inspired to create a blog for the Lifestream concept after doing a little research which I wrote<\/a> about on my blog. Most of the information I found was pretty scattered and there wasn\u2019t a central repository of resources so I thought I should create one. I feel that beyond the self expression of allowing people to track their actions in a passive manner there will be many more exciting technologies that will surface from the backend data aggregation that can occur from people supplying this information.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The rub is that 99% of life streams only save the links of the RSS feeds and do not save the actual data. This is inefficient in design because like I said before data get lost for various reasons. Life caching however has the prime goal of saving that individual data for your use and your manipulation. This gives you the freedom to do what you want. Take your data anywhere and everywhere, do with it what you will.<\/p>\n

How is this different from the Data Portability Group?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In some aspects, like the concepts of lifestreaming, life caching shares a few steps in common with the Data Portability Group. What the Data Portability Group<\/a> means to give are methods and standards that give you tools to do with your data what you will. However, this doesn’t actually mean you will do anything with it or that there will be a standard out-of-the-box configuration for you. The responsibility is on you to act and use these tools that will hopefully emerge.<\/p>\n

The Data Portability Group is key for this going forward and allows you to withdraw your data from the sites that were previously walled gardens. After the garden gates are finally thrown open you have the freedom to do with the data what you will. Please put this power to good use.<\/p>\n

Why Do I care?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You should care because this is about you. It is who you are. It does not specifically define you in any way and most people would understand that it’s a complete picture of you. There are however aspects of you that you may want to share at a later date. The stories your grandmother told you will get fuzzier over time. Hopefully, the idea of life caching which is still in its infancy will lead to life story archives that the generations after us can learn from. Our grandkids will be able to mine the data and read the stories you want to pass on.<\/p>\n

Will those after you care that you listened to Fallout Boy on June 7th, 2008? Maybe not, but maybe your grandkids will discover similar music tastes to you. It will give them an understanding of who you are. It will also give them ways to identify with you in a way that you could never identify with the pilgrims that came across on the mayflower.<\/p>\n

What do I save?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ideal answer is everything. I would say between the RSS streams I save and the email I collect I am almost up to 90% efficiency at collecting my personal data online.<\/p>\n

To give you an example:<\/p>\n