The Steve Rubel Stream

the blog is an important part of the stream. You can be an early-adopter, but also work with what is trusted and effective.

i'm shooting for the golden triangle, twit, fb and da blog. my readers now expect instant gratifacation. gotta keep it fresh 24/ 7.

@Aspen, tell me more about the triangle. Sounds interesting - like a Phil Jackson offense!

I think you are really on to something here about the stream. Most importantly, I think it will be less about the platform (e.g. blogs), and more about what people have to say.

Up until now we have had communication tied into a specific media. Newspapers was printed on paper. Website and blogs was another platform. With social networks things started to get fuzzy, but social news is just out there.

That is, in my opinion, one reason why the blogs will be replaced by a stream. A blog is restricting you to the blogging platform. Where a stream is all about what you publish, not how it is published.

The blog is dying because it is restricting you to a specific format. It is not really good at tweeting, sharing pictures or links. A stream turns this upside down, and allows you to focus on the value of the content instead of how it should be published.

...and you (Steve) are doing some really interesting things with this.

One thing your graphic fails to recognize is that successful later media incorporates what's best from the prior forms. That why blogs have text (newpapers), pod casts (radio), video (TV), pages/CMS (web sites).

Whatever replaces blogs is going to include all this goodness and more. Those who defend blogs will see all the bloginess in the next media and continue to call it a blog. Sort of like people calling Hulu, "TV."

The blogs of today are very different from the weblogs of old. What will it take before we no longer call them blogs?

Steve, are you trying to convince us you have done the right thing, or are you trying to convince yourself?

I find this experiment/decision of yours interesting, because I too wonder about the best ways to be a contributor to the web, as well as a good user of it. But I don't know that doing something that results in more streaming, instead of more organized streaming, is the best way to go. I get inundated with just Twitter and FriendFeed and my Delicious Network and Google Reader, and I am sure many of my blog's readers do, too ... so I am personally disinclined to increase the flow of the stream to them, just as I am reluctant to have it increased for me.

Then there's the matter of what happens with all the great content you have already built up on your blog. You built a nice PR6 or PR7 last time I looked, but what will become of that now? Will the PR start dwindling to the point that the content no longer comes up in the SERPs? Maybe not ... Merlin hasn't updated in months and he still has a PR7, so maybe your content "stays live," but it would be something I would be concerned about.

Regardless, you are right that "we need to be in beta." I'm just not sure this lifestreaming thing fits the needs of our future.

The stream is making our online sharing of content and ideas more efficient, but what do those links in the stream send us to? Blog posts where ideas are formed in more detail. The timeline Steve posted is perfect as the blog will not go away but instead adapt as does all emerging media. I do not believe the stream could succeed without the blog.

The stream is where people watch and "view". The blog is the action, where people click and "do".

I'm struggling with Louis' initial comment above. To know what it's like to parasail, you've got to jump off the cliff. To understand what might be beyond the blog, you've got to try jettisoning it - if only for a time. You're either an early adopter or you're not.

Nick, since when does blogging mean you're not an early adopter? Louis uses both a blog and lifestreaming. He doesn't cross the streams though. Personally I prefer his format to Steve's, but if this is working for Steve I say go for it.

Jesse - I agree. Blogging doesn't mean you're not an early adopter. But it does mean that you're not an early adopter of communicating w/o blogging.  But maybe that's just a truism. :)

Steve: it is a cool graphic, and overlait makes the point i.e. "a) there will always be shifts in media and b) one format never supersedes another."
But are you really sure it's accurate? Who is it for? In the 1960s only 10% consumption is TV. Today only 15%? Perhaps it's only meant to be a metaphor, but it would be nice if it reflected reality a bit more closely.

Twitter/Facebook/'lifestream' is to blogging as blogging is to more traditional online publishing: faster, less formal and more participatory.

Blogs have not replaced more conventional online content, but they have affected it. And I don't think Twitter, Facebook and the like will replace blogs, but they will affect them.

The bottom line: Where does the thing that you want to tell fall on a few scales? How important is speed? How much are you looking for interaction versus comments after the fact? How detailed is your story and does it need the safety net of colleagues to edit and fact check?

I just started my blog and I'm trying to be more of a lifestreamer. Blogging will help me furnish my thoughts and recognize the weaknesses in my knowledge, but you need to have multiple formats. Copyblogger suggests having multimedia forms of anything. Repurposing content into white papers, microblogs, videos always helps learners soak in your content different ways.

Let's look at how Eric Ries of http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/
might look at this. He talks about constant deployment and iteration. If our end goal is to really convince and persuade people to take some action (buy something from us, get us to consult, etc) then we should not be stuck on any specific media form, but really measuring all forms, diversifying, getting feedback and doing that which gives the best long term and short term results.

That would be true life hacking. To sum it up, I think different formats across different platforms and technologies are the best way to go but always be measuring.

As a fellow blogger, I belive blogs are great the way they are. I have a blog which I call a blog/online magazine, and I am feeding my readers my opinion on Everything!! I test new products and give my opinion, I report on sports, entertainment, politics, current events, education, and controversial subjects plus many more. The directin in which I am taking my blog will serve as a template for many bloggers to come!

Every post should be worth consuming. If staying in a "beta" frame of mind helps us stay focused on quality, then let's stay there. My mantra when I sit down to share something: It's the content, stupid.

I feel that blogging and lifestreaming compliment each other and will continue to do so, content providers will shift their focus to the stream but they will still require rich content.

Steve, you are an innovator and a pioneer in a way. So you should expect some kind of controversy and even many people mocking your decision. But I think you're right: bloggers have to move on, although in the end, call it blogging or call it lifestreaming, it all comes down to the same.

It's just a case of the continent changing the contents.

I am following your lead by making my blogs a place for expanded content and using Posterous as my streaming platform. My blogs represent an expanded body of work; my streams are what they are- what's on my mind and my sense of place when I post.

I am also finding Posterous to be somewhat like Alltop - but in this case, it's my streaming magazine rack to see what's on the minds of who I think are the best and brightest in streaming.

it's one thing to experiment, but the right media tools should also be determined by the consumption habits of the folks you're trying to communicate with. Once I know that my corporate stakeholders prefer content in life streams over blogs (they likely are not now) I'll continue this path with a blog. There's plenty of places to experiment --but why do it on the primary platforms?

I do lifestreaming --it's on Friendfeed.

Last thing about streaming --it's a lot of work to keep up with the tide, it's key to step out of the current once in a while --think on a rock(blog), then jump back in.

@Jeremiah, good advice. However, this system, as I see it, really brings together the best of all worlds....

@Charlie I think the chart is really more conceptual than driven by data. Even if it's wrong, it's a good reminder (for me) to never stay still.

This isn’t just for the privileged few in wealthier parts of the world either. There is currently an explosion of smart cell phone usage all over the planet. They may not have a PC at home. But with smart cell phones, they can blog, post to social networking sites, create lifestreams - and report news as it happens from where they are.

Great stuff. I like others here am finding posterous gets me closer to that idea of a stream than anything else I've really tried. Can long-form blog it if I want to or just share a quick video via email or (even better) bookmarklet.

Now that posterous is getting even more attention, will be curious to see if new features are ramped up even more.

thanks for sharing.

Thanks Steve...I'm watching. Sometimes I have the desire to post something less than a blog and more than a tweet.

@Jeremiah That's exactly what this is all about - but, hopefully, with a flair of creativity. And doing so in a way that also extends the content into the spokes (and vice/versa).

Jeremiah, but, like you said, doesn't FriendFeed accomplish that? Posterous just doesn't make sense to me.

I've gone with a Tumblr/blog/twitter triad that all tie in. If any is less effective in the long run, I can let it pass away silently. Not a big deal to me, so long as I'm working on my labor of love.

It's my first time here, so hi everyone!

I'm a believer in mixing it up, a bit like Steve mentioned above. My blog content gets syndicated outwards to places like Twitter, Facebook, RSS and so forth, and I use primarily Twitter but also LinkedIn and, more recently, Facebook to do the lifestreaming stuff and refer people back to my blog for more details.

I do think that blogs, especially the 'how to' style blogs, will always be important sources of information.

Not only can the blogmaster's original articles be good reference points but the information in them can be qualified and expanded on by commenters.

Hi Darren. I read your post and it was really great. I like the idea of evolving entertaining services. However, I had no idea about the 2 terms "Social News" and "Targeted". Could you please give me some links about these new trends? Thank you so much!

I'm developing what I think will be the answer to every inefficiency discussed in the comments above... simple, direct, and meaningful. Your personal enactment of the rights given to you in the 1st Amendment, on your own personal free speech platform... it took technology 218 years to catch up with freedom, but soon to come in the new social media, the embodiment of your right to unabridged free speech. Soon, everyone will have their own personal free speech platform, your own My1stAmendment to blog, tweet, befriend, read, listen, or write... anything that you want to do in enacting your right to free speech, at www.My1stAmendment.com.

Still very much in the development phase, and since I'm creating this for everyone and anyone, I welcome anyone interested in helping me bring this idea to fruition, and create the voice of the people.

Please email me if interested, Kellen@My1stAmendment.com.

I'm coming up my 2nd year anniversary of blogging but I've added podcasting and other social networks to the mix to reach my audience. Blogs are important tool but should not be sole relied on.

I've been blogging for a few years now. Within 3 months of putting up a facebook page and twitter for my website, the majority of my traffic comes from Facebook.

That says a lot.

[...] Veo el siguiente gráfico: está muy interesante. No sé cómo lo encontré, pero a esta página llegué a parar. El pasado fue tal como lo describe, pero me pregunto si las tendencias en el futuro también serán tal como lo describe. [...]

I'm in the process of moving my blog over to tumblr. Much more versatile. Video, audio, pics. The works.