The Experiment. Part 1

So i’ve introduce the idea that one should be able to create a complete online profile, taking elements from each existing social platform. Its not an idea unfamiliar to others, already with this tumblr theme i’m able to link straight through to a number of different social profiles, linkedIn, Twitter, XBox, etc. (Xbox was a nice surprise, forgot i had one of those). The inspiration behind this endeavour, about.me, also allows you link through to a number of social sites. As soon as i had about.me i then wanted a home.me, image.me and so forth.

But the execution is lacking something, its lacking that element that makes it more than superficial hyperlinks, into something new and tangible that could work differently in the psyche of internet users. How do i share this page with my friends, www.emile.info, how do they view my choice elements from flickr? http://flic.kr/pp/kzontye and how can this be navigated? 

What am i trying to do/discover?

Always a good question to re-ask your self. It started of as a way to have a blog with lots of features, without having to A) host my own website, and B) to capitalise on the features offered by existing sites.

What i’m really looking to do is to be able to have a frame work within wich i can place pages of other sites into it to make all the parts appear as a whole. Flickr, Blog, Location, Events, Calendar, Mail, Social-News (facebook wall), timeline.

Importantly i don’t want this to be Facebook. Why? this shouldn’t be owned by anyone, it should be a natural mechanic through which people can build up an online presence from the sites they like that deliver the content in the way they like. An extension of the good old hyperlink, ordered, presented and utilised. Essentially though its a way of binding all the individual elements together, that friends can find, link to and network with.

Does it exist already?

Its probably staring me in the face, but if it is, then it isn’t doing a good job. No doubt parts 2.3.4 and 5 will each find endeavours to do something similar. I’ve already pointed out that you can use hyperlinks to link existing profiles. Whats hyperlink 2.0? Meta data? Is it hyperlink 3.0 i’m looking for? Taking the social out of Facebook and putting it back where it belongs. 

The Experiment.

I host my own website and to be honest i really don’t use it enough to justify its presence. So it occurred to me that rather than hosting my own server i could just use the multitude of free services, tumblr, flickr, about.me and bind them together using the trusty hyperlink. Effectively rendering the need for a self hosted website obsolete.

Of course there are some immediate issues such as how and where to put the reciprocal links on each site. There is also the fact you have to be happy with the fact that you will have different branding on each page. Though with perseverance you could probably style each page appropriately. Ultimately however there comes the question, which sites would you bind together and why?

What?

Not an exhaustive list but lets take the following for now. 

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • About.me
  • Instagram
  • Foursquare
Why? We are the some of our parts but not a lot of people really know what or where those parts are (in terms of the internet), so this experiment is set to explore at how we manifest ourselves on the internet, and how we share those bits of our internet presence with others.