Since my post about lifestreams last week I have been digging it a bit more and found there's an active community of people out there who are aggregating their bits into a single site. Rex is the latest to join the club. He also explains where this idea originated. So what's next for lifestreams? How about aggregating all of one's replies into a single site - yes, a replystream.
In about as long as it takes you to read this post, I was able to build a test replystream site again using Tumblr (you can also do this with Jaiku and many more sites). You can find my replystream at http://replies.steverubel.com. The page currently aggregates all @steverubel tweets from Twitter via Terraminds and in-bound links to this site from Technorati. Rather than syndicating the full text of a blog post, I am just rolling these up into a river of items that all link you back to the original content creator.
Here's a free idea for a smart developer/entrepreneur. We need a tool that will roll up one's lifestream and then thread the entire replystream underneath on a per-post basis. Then you can institute a smart contextual ad system that pays both the content provider and the replier. Oh and widgetize the entire product so it can go anywhere.
As content gets sliced and diced into thinner pieces that can fit anywhere, the greatest value will be created through smart aggregation. Take Dave Winer's NYTimesriver.com for example. That's what I learned during my few days playing with Tumblr. With everything living in RSS, aggregation can be pretty disruptive if you think about it. Just the ethical implications alone - yikes.
