Lifecasting
Definition
A lifecast is an online broadcast of one's life publically via the Internet. Much like in podcasting, videocasting and blogging, lifecasters generally intend thier audiences to be very small and intimately in tune with the lifecaster him or herself.
Formats
Lifecasting has traditionally taken place on social networking sites like linkedin.com, friendster.com, and myspace.com, where users are encouraged to keep regular communication with their contacts by posting photos, making comments, posting entries on their blogs, etc.
More recently, sites like dandelife.com have entered the social networking space which allows users to create publically available online biographies which are then used to keep a single lifecast of all the people, places, things and events in ones life. On lifecasting sites like dandelife.com, social networking is a function of who you are. On social networking sites, lifecasting is a function of staying connected with your peergroup.
How lifecasting differs from blogging
Lifecasting differs from blogging primarily in its contextual approach to organizing one's publically accessible online content. In a blog, podcast or videocast, content is added on an ongoing basis and little consideration is given to the point in time which the content may be depicting - separate from the publish-date. On a lifecast, organization of text, video and audio is presented contextually as functions of who, what, when, and where the event being depicted took place.
Furthermore, bloggers along with videocasters and podcasters do so as result of having a passion about some other topic besides their own lives. While most bloggers, podcasters and videocaster do include details from their personal lives in their published content online, they do not as a rule publish so as to keep a public record of their comings and goings. Photosharing sites like flickr.com have, on the other hand, enabled a class of lifecasters to keep ongoing records of their personal lives in a public venue. That said, bloggers, podcasters, and videocasters, are free to create content that is not necessarily autobiographical. Such content instead tends to be commercial, editorial, or professional in nature.
How lifecasting differs from Social Networking
Lifecasting relies on the tools of blogging, podcasting, video casting as formats for publishing one's lifecast, where lifecasters can include their stories, videos, and photos from the past to create contents of their lifecast. Lifecasting also utilizes the tools of social networking, tagging and search to help lifecasters organize their media in the context of people, places, things and events by chunking personal data into self-created taxonomies. Lifecasters can be members of groups (such as an Air Squadron sharing stories about their time serving together in the Armed Forces) and create group lifecasts together. Lifecasters can also share experiences of the same events which many people have attended such as concerts and sporting events, but also mass tragedies such as the World War 2, The Day Kennedy Was Shot, The December 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. It's not uncommon to find lifecasters reporting on events as they happen as well as reflecting on these events months and years later. While lifecasting does tend to enable people to network amongst like minds, they do so only as a by-product of creating their own personal histories. Making connections with others, therefore, happens more serrendipitously.
Technologies
Lifecasting takes advantage primarily of Internet-based user-generated publishing tools for photo sharing (e.g. flickr.com), blogging (e.g. typepad, wordpress, movable type, blogger, and others), podcasting (e.g. odeo) and videocasting (e.g. youtube.com, jumpcut.com and eyespot.com). Lifecasting is also done through traditional social networking sites which require membership to a larger network (e.g. friendster.com, linkedin.com, facebook.com and myspace.com). Creating content for one's lifecast can be done with any technology that allows for the digitization of the source material. This includes analog audio tape, VHS, super-8 film, and so on. Of course, digital content can be created using video cameras, webcams, and mobile phones as well.
Lifecasting is analogous to . . .
Scrapbooking Broadcasting Podcasting Blogging Videocasting Genealogy Social therapy
