While reviewing a white paper by a colleague on the subject of personal digital archives, I realized that I hadn’t followed through on a plan to consolidate a few different caches of digital photos from various digicam and computer eras. So of course, when I went looking, things weren’t exactly the way I remembered. One particular batch was missing, and there were some anxious moments while I booted up dormant computers and mounted shelved disks. In the end I found the missing set, but although I could have sworn they were in three safe places, there was really only one.
In these moments of panic, the need for a lifebits service becomes crystal clear. But the moments pass, and we move on. Most people, most of the time, don’t yet feel the need for that kind of service.
Inevitably that will change. I wonder how, and when?
Coincidentally, I just signed up for the Ovi Ambassador program. Although, as someone once said, the value of a service can be measured by how easy it is to switch to another service, and they don’t exactly make it easy to pull in your existing content, but they’re still a good addition to the mobile space.
I think this kind of service is beginning to emerge in the form of http://soup.io or http://friendfeed.com
BTW, they’re using the terminology : “life streaming” with a focus on the whole (in contrast with “lifebits”, which focuses on the parts)
Enjoyed this post and the links to your writing on life bits. Will need to spend some time looking at this for my dissertation.