Online memory, or LifeLogging or e-memory as it’s called, is probably closer than you may think. Here are 22 tools can let you put your life online today.
LifeLogging: 22 Tools for Storing Your Life Online - Keeping Information Organized
Keeping all of that information organized will be a challenge. Probably the best-known information logging software is Evernote. The software lets you capture darn near all video, audio, images and text with applications that run on your Mac or PC, phone, or Web. Evernote synchronizes all of those, so no matter how you capture the information it’s stored in a common log.
LiveJournal lets you maintain a personal diary online. There are privacy restrictions on everything you post, so you can determine who views the particular piece of content. Share or keep private your thoughts as you see fit.
Still, you can’t display GPS and location-based information easily in this way. The open-source world has done some work in this space, but for the most part it's meant for scientists and developers. Gpsbabel converts waypoints, tracks and routes between popular GPS receivers and mapping programs. SpatiaLite adds spatial data to SQLite, the popular open-source database.
In truth, I haven’t found anyone who provides a comprehensive LifeLogging tool. By comprehensive I mean one that has the following three features:
A single repository for all of my information—audio, video, images and body characteristics. Such a repository would need the data to be time, date and location stamped.
An application that presents information in a single comprehensive, searchable timeline.
An application that gathers all of my information passively.
If LifeLogging is to be effective, it must be made simple. Few of us would be willing to spend the time to record our body mass each day. If we want that at all, we’d like it done automatically. The Flip video camera innovation, for example, wasn’t in taking pictures. I could do pretty much the same from my existing phone. The Flip’s innovation was in making picture and video publishing simple, and it was rewarded by getting acquired by Cisco. The reward will be similar for the company that develops a comprehensive LifeLogging tool.
LifeloggingPosted on: 11-17-09 | By: Jack MasonWho wouldn't want a better memory, Webster? I think what you may be missing is that huge portions of your life are already online, or digitized, in the form of transactions, records, interactions and all the digital breadcumbs we leave in the Internet age.
And people are lifelogging already without even fully realizing it...consider how those with a Google Mail account probably don't both to delete stuff, but can look back and scan their archives if they needed to find a contact, link, etc.
Today, much of your digital lifelog is being aggregated by others: credit bureaus, marketers, etc. So the reason I want a seamless, automated lifelogging/digital memory bank is because I want control over all that information. And I want to better recall and learn from my lifelog.
Finally, in terms of privacy and security, of course that is a requirement. I want control over what I choose to share in public. But we already live in age where issues of personal identity are changing and quite fluid.
Some people will share way more than anyone else cares, others are very cautious. But a lifelog is, at its core, about empowering the individual to both aggregate and have greater control over their digital lives.
Why? (apart from specialized uses e.g. Alzheimer's patients)Posted on: 10-29-09 | By: WebsterI am still not convinced of the need or purpose of recording my entire life. These devices may be useful for specialized purposes like helping Alzheimer's Disease patients but I do not see why an average person would need them. Even if I do get convinced of creating a life log, I would definitely not put it online. Seems to me that people want to do things just because they can, without thinking of the consequences.
Evernote rocksPosted on: 10-29-09 | By: Joe MaglittaUse many many times daily. Look for the older (non Web) version.
