December 20, 2008 117 Comments

Of Streams and Stopping Points

leaves in a stream Twitter is a stream. Facebook is both a stream and a stopping point (but mostly a stream). Your blog is a stopping point pretending to be a stream.

It’s important to think about where you want information to live, and how you want it to impact the world. For everything you toss into a stream rolls past, and if I’m not at the stream when you throw your leaf onto the waters, I’ll miss the leaf entirely, or perhaps catch only the ripples.

I love the picture in this post by Guy Kawasaki. If I share it with Twitter, you might see it. If I blog it, you can come back to it. If I tweet a link to my blog post, I’ve just introduced a stopping point to my stream.

Now, Shift the Analogy

What if your blog itself is comprised of streams and stopping points? Are you introducing data into your stream (the posts) that needs to actually reside at a stopping point (the pages)? Have you made it easy for your blog to help you do business?

To Do Next

Design the flow of information in all of the systems you use. Think about temporary and permanent connections. Think about loosely-joined groups, and about how information spreads.

The stream is a great place to refresh, to see life, and to feel vibrant energy flow past. It is a powerful giver of life. But remember: life often happens out of view of the stream.

Thoughts?

Photo credit tanakwho

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  • http://ariwriter.com Ari Herzog

    Like Danny Brown, I enjoy the metaphors here but I would like to add a thought nobody’s mentioned:

    Twitter is both a stream and a stopping point.

    The public timeline, which includes you and your friends’ tweets, is the stream. But @chrisbrogan is a series of stopping points within the stream. Not unlike one person’s status update within the greater Facebook news feed.

  • http://www.ariwriter.com Ari Herzog

    Like Danny Brown, I enjoy the metaphors here but I would like to add a thought nobody’s mentioned:

    Twitter is both a stream and a stopping point.

    The public timeline, which includes you and your friends’ tweets, is the stream. But @chrisbrogan is a series of stopping points within the stream. Not unlike one person’s status update within the greater Facebook news feed.

  • http://www.mymommymanual.com Ria Sharon

    The metaphor resonates so much with me because it is recurring one in my life. But I’ve always thought of it in terms of people rather than content… how serendipitously, people come together and drift apart. If we stop fighting the current and just allow experiences to occur, we can enjoy the journey.

  • http://www.mymommymanual.com Ria Sharon

    The metaphor resonates so much with me because it is recurring one in my life. But I’ve always thought of it in terms of people rather than content… how serendipitously, people come together and drift apart. If we stop fighting the current and just allow experiences to occur, we can enjoy the journey.

  • http://www.mymommymanual.com Ria Sharon

    The metaphor resonates so much with me because it is recurring one in my life. But I’ve always thought of it in terms of people rather than content… how serendipitously, people come together and drift apart. If we stop fighting the current and just allow experiences to occur, we can enjoy the journey.

  • http://www.sortismarketing.com wendy soucie

    I am just working on a presentation about social networking with the likes of Twitter and Linkedin extensions for business development tools such as spoke and jigsaw, blogging etc. Your metaphor was the perfect connection piece to think of all these pieces.

    trying to tie the pieces together so you don’t get lost on the Internet is the quest for answers and connections is the real challenge these days. This is by far the best blog to spend my time with.

  • http://www.sortismarketing.com wendy soucie

    I am just working on a presentation about social networking with the likes of Twitter and Linkedin extensions for business development tools such as spoke and jigsaw, blogging etc. Your metaphor was the perfect connection piece to think of all these pieces.

    trying to tie the pieces together so you don’t get lost on the Internet is the quest for answers and connections is the real challenge these days. This is by far the best blog to spend my time with.

  • http://www.sortismarketing.com wendy soucie

    I am just working on a presentation about social networking with the likes of Twitter and Linkedin extensions for business development tools such as spoke and jigsaw, blogging etc. Your metaphor was the perfect connection piece to think of all these pieces.

    trying to tie the pieces together so you don’t get lost on the Internet is the quest for answers and connections is the real challenge these days. This is by far the best blog to spend my time with.

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  • http://gadgettechblog.com/ Gadget_Blog

    This is cool, thanks for the share, I appreciate it big time, thanks once again.
    Cheers,
    gadgettechblog.com

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  • http://www.twiglights.net/ twig_lights

    I love this blog! Will come again next time for sure,

  • http://www.twiglights.net/ twig_lights

    I love this blog! Will come again next time for sure,

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    I am just working on a presentation about social networking with the likes of Twitter and Linkedin extensions for business development tools such as spoke and jigsaw, blogging etc. Your metaphor was the perfect connection piece to think of all these pieces.

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