Some people have had some issues getting SweetCron “The automated Lifestream Blog software” up and running. Luckily we have Chris Coyier who has written up a really good step by step tutorial for SweetCron. In it he covers the installation and preparation all the way through designing a custom theme. He also provides code samples with explanations and even the source code for a custom theme he has created.

Here’s a screenshot of his theme:

You can visit the tutorial page here

I came across Namethis.com today which apparently is a service for prospective websites to elicit suggestions for names from the public with a cash bounty for the winners. I hadn’t heard of this site before. it’s an interesting concept and I landed here because there is a new new Lifestreaming site that has posted a page here to help name their service.

The description for the site sounds interesting discussing features such as custom designing, recommendation engine, APML exporting, affiliate program based on stream data, and ease of use. Sounds interesting, hopefully we get more info after they get named.

I’m actually surprised by how many people have actually submitted names. 140 names as of the time of this writing with 22 hours left for submissions. There’s some pretty interesting ones in there. Go check it out. It would be great if one of my readers submitted a name that gets accepted and got paid to boot. Good luck.

I wrote about Allofme.com a while back. It’s another entrant in the new niche timeline based Lifestreaming services. They join dipity and Lifeblob in this space. I recently was provided an invite and thought I’d go kick the tires on the service.

I went through the account creation process and noticed that one unique feature is the ability to upload a variety of different file types from your local computer to add to the timeline. Filetypes supported are jpg, gif, png, pdf, txt, doc, docx, ppt, pps, and xls. You can also manually add links or images as well as videos from over 25 supported sites.

This freedom makes it interesting to be more creative with respect to what you create. I like the idea and can see how it can expand the possibilities.

They also provide the more common ability of importing data from your services. They are currently limited to Picasa, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter with Facebook and Google Calendar coming soon.

I didn’t spend too much time trying to create my own timeline but have provided one that you can look at below.

After playing with the UI and some of the features I can see they’ve created a very nice service and worthy entrant into the Timeline based services.

Some of the features I liked best are:

• Ability to tag items in timeline
• Clicking on a “batch” of photos and navigating the zoom window (see image below)
• Local display of images with extended data
• Timeline collaboration with other users
• Full screen view
• Ability to overlay 2 timelines
• The slick interface
• Themed timeline videos and widgets

That last one gets the bonus super cool award and worth the price of admission. To view this in action click on this link, then look for the link at the bottom of the page that says “Play Timeline / Export Widget” and click it, then cycle through the themes. Not all were available yet, but it will be nice to see them when released.

Overall this looks like a well thought out and designed service and a solid beta worth trying out…and lucky for you, I’ve been provided with 100 invites for Lifestream Blog readers. Just visit this page and signup now.

Read More

• My previous story on Allofme
• Mashable Review

Site: Steven Beleen
Code: Tumblr custom theme

Site: Thomas Marban
Code: Custom

Site: Nate Ritter
Code: Wordpress Lifestream Plugin

Site: Alan Cheslow
Code: FriendFeed Embed Widget

Site: Robert O’Rourke
Code: Custom

The Lifestreaming panel discussion at Stanford I mentioned last week took place yesterday. Kara Swisher, who moderated the panel, has posted a video (embedded below) and interviews from the event.

Apart from her repeatedly using the term Lifecasting as opposed to Lifestreaming when discussing the event, it was also a bit annoying to see her press the monetization issue with each speaker. I understand that the business model is important for the future of these services but this concept is still maturing and that shouldn’t be the primary focus right now.

Bret Taylor said it best “…this is a new product category…the bigger challenge is figuring out what is the product that will go mainstream…more than how does one competitor beat another competitor…it’s still in the arc improving stage, not the competition stage”. I’m so glad FriendFeed is focused on making the best product and knowing that once they get there they can tackle the monetization issues.

Jeff Clavier also pointed out re: monetization “I’m not certain right now is the time…it’s too early in the adoption, broad adoption to figure it out”.

Leah Culver discussed how there’s plenty of room in the Lifestraming area for many niches and how the key to broadening adoption is lowering the barrier to entry. I couldn’t agree more.

I can also never get enough of watching the raw passion exuded from Loic Le Meur. It was fun watching how he engaged with Kara. Loic never dissapoints.

Here’s the video

You can read more about the event at Kara’s post Debating the “Real-Time” Web at Stanford University

Update:

• You can read much more coverage from Bret Taylor’s discussion about FriendFeed at the event provided by Louis Gray here
• Bret Taylor has now posted his presentation here