You may already know that I am a huge fan of the Drupal content management system. I’ve spent the last year deploying and configuring it for all the websites for The X PRIZE Foundation. It’s an extremely powerful & flexible system to use for running a website. A while back I provided a guest post titled “Build a Powerful & Flexible Lifestream Using Drupal“. This was an overview that covered some methods to use the platform for Lifestreaming. It was pretty much a DIY guide using some tools that weren’t designed specifically for Lifestreaming.
On March 10th I came across a new Drupal module called Lifestream and added it to the growing list of tools. This is module was inspired by web designer Yong Fook
Today I was alerted by reader Robert Safuto about a new Drupal project being started by high profile blogger and Lifecaster Chris Pirillo. Here’s a quote:
We’re already set up on Assembla, and have just released the Activity Stream for any compatible Drupal site. If the Drupal community moves quickly, they can populate the default list to the most comprehensive social networking outline on the Internet. The FriendFeed API suddenly got a bit more interesting for you, I bet.
The quote mentions a new Activity Stream Drupal Module which is specifically for Lifestreaming. Based on the description it appears to be a very open and powerful module that allows additional services to be added and supported in the form of “integrations” with a built in API. Another unique aspect of this module that makes it different from many other plugins & scripts out there is that it offers the ability to create each stream item as a “node” in Drupal. Basically that means that a record is created in the database and the stream item is considered a piece of content like a blog post or other item. This means that each item can be searched, promoted, commented on, and managed just like any other content in Drupal.
It’s great to see that with these 2 recent Lifestreaming module releases it has finally made its way to the Drupal community. I think the combination of Drupal and this new Activity Stream module could provide a powerful platform if you want to host your own historical Lifestream or build a community for users to Lifestream. Definitely worth looking into if you are in the market for such a project.
P.s. I gotta give a shout out to the great LA Drupal Group I’ve recently become a member of. You can come check out a case study I will be presenting on 4/29 if you’re in that neck of the woods.
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