Advertising & Marketing
Posted: Tue May 27, 2025 7:14 am
Time is what the web is all about. “Today, the most important function of the internet is to deliver the latest information, to tell us what's happening right now.” The web is a flow of information over time.
The worldstream: all timestreams together
Everything and everyone will soon have their own timeline, their own so-called lifestream . A lifestream is a way to organize digital objects – photos, emails, documents, hyperlinks, music – into a time-ordered series. Time moves both forwards and backwards on the Internet. Information is added “now” and flows steadily backwards until it is swallowed up by the past. But future events also belong in the stream, such as appointments, to-do lists and so on. The stream is the life story of an object or a person that unfolds in time.
When all these streams come together, an all-encompassing worldstream is created .
“By adding together every timestream on the net — including the private lifestreams that are just beginning to emerge — into a single flood of data, we get the worldstream: a way to picture the cybersphere as a whole.”
The total flow of information does not represent a single place or entity, but a collection of content from everything list to data that comes to you, once it is published.
gelled
Streams are a more intuitive, convenient way to organize our digital lives, not least because the past and future flow down either side of our screen. And the center of the stream is “now” – and the Internet is about “now.” Current browsers are not enough to navigate this worldstream. New browsers, applications, or devices are needed to tune in to the information you need.
“Stream-browsers will help us tune in to the information we want […] Instead of doing an endless series of separate searches, we tune the knobs on our stream-browser to continuously feed us just the information we need.”
Wearable computing & Internet of Everything
If Gelernter's vision becomes reality, a number of things are important. First, what do these stream browsers look like? One possible answer lies in wearable computing ; devices that are worn on the body. Devices such as the Apple iWatch and Google Glass. A mockup was recently made of the first device that nicely shows how the lifestream can be handled.
iwatch
Also consider the fact that these types of wearable devices have a number of sensors in them, which make it even easier to control the stream. Location (GPS), time at that moment (connect to Agenda), walking, sitting or standing (via the accelerometer) are things that wearables can detect. This allows these devices to correctly determine which stream and where in the stream the user is connected. For example, 'walking' means little time, so only a highlight from the stream. While 'sitting' means that the user has more time and can be immersed in the stream.
The second question is, how will my product stand out in the livestream? How do I attract the user's attention? Coincidentally, last week AllThingsD, the technology blog of The Wall Street Journal, published the article " We Are All Huffington Post Now ". The article tells how the Huffington Post deals with the stream. How this online newspaper ensures that its articles stand out. The article shows that it is all about relevance, timing and context. When these three parameters are in order, the chance that you will automatically float to the top is considerably greater. SEO for streams, in other words.
The flow of things
Finally, not only people get a stream, but also things. Cisco calls this the Internet of Everything, a step higher than the Internet of Things. Everything and everyone will soon have its own stream. So there needs to be a Facebook for things . A platform on which the streams of things are shown in a uniform way. A kind of newsfeed but for things. The website Evrythng tries to become the Facebook for things.
The worldstream: all timestreams together
Everything and everyone will soon have their own timeline, their own so-called lifestream . A lifestream is a way to organize digital objects – photos, emails, documents, hyperlinks, music – into a time-ordered series. Time moves both forwards and backwards on the Internet. Information is added “now” and flows steadily backwards until it is swallowed up by the past. But future events also belong in the stream, such as appointments, to-do lists and so on. The stream is the life story of an object or a person that unfolds in time.
When all these streams come together, an all-encompassing worldstream is created .
“By adding together every timestream on the net — including the private lifestreams that are just beginning to emerge — into a single flood of data, we get the worldstream: a way to picture the cybersphere as a whole.”
The total flow of information does not represent a single place or entity, but a collection of content from everything list to data that comes to you, once it is published.
gelled
Streams are a more intuitive, convenient way to organize our digital lives, not least because the past and future flow down either side of our screen. And the center of the stream is “now” – and the Internet is about “now.” Current browsers are not enough to navigate this worldstream. New browsers, applications, or devices are needed to tune in to the information you need.
“Stream-browsers will help us tune in to the information we want […] Instead of doing an endless series of separate searches, we tune the knobs on our stream-browser to continuously feed us just the information we need.”
Wearable computing & Internet of Everything
If Gelernter's vision becomes reality, a number of things are important. First, what do these stream browsers look like? One possible answer lies in wearable computing ; devices that are worn on the body. Devices such as the Apple iWatch and Google Glass. A mockup was recently made of the first device that nicely shows how the lifestream can be handled.
iwatch
Also consider the fact that these types of wearable devices have a number of sensors in them, which make it even easier to control the stream. Location (GPS), time at that moment (connect to Agenda), walking, sitting or standing (via the accelerometer) are things that wearables can detect. This allows these devices to correctly determine which stream and where in the stream the user is connected. For example, 'walking' means little time, so only a highlight from the stream. While 'sitting' means that the user has more time and can be immersed in the stream.
The second question is, how will my product stand out in the livestream? How do I attract the user's attention? Coincidentally, last week AllThingsD, the technology blog of The Wall Street Journal, published the article " We Are All Huffington Post Now ". The article tells how the Huffington Post deals with the stream. How this online newspaper ensures that its articles stand out. The article shows that it is all about relevance, timing and context. When these three parameters are in order, the chance that you will automatically float to the top is considerably greater. SEO for streams, in other words.
The flow of things
Finally, not only people get a stream, but also things. Cisco calls this the Internet of Everything, a step higher than the Internet of Things. Everything and everyone will soon have its own stream. So there needs to be a Facebook for things . A platform on which the streams of things are shown in a uniform way. A kind of newsfeed but for things. The website Evrythng tries to become the Facebook for things.