One of the things that constantly frustrates me is my inability to have one place to share my life with those that I care about and those I don't know. ChrisWelch.com has been a 4-year project to publish a cross-sample of my life to the public, but as I become more mobile and my needs become more sophisticated, I often find myself needing an interactive place where I can not only share but also manage my data such as my calendar, files, and photos.
With this site, which is largely built from scratch by me, I find my time is dwindling as my digital needs increase, leaving me with a deficit of features that I really do want and need. In my perfect life I would be able to have a site that I could manage all the information that I need in my life, so that I can edit and view it no matter where I am in the world. Unlike "briefcases" which are small and can only store a limited amont of files, I advocate that each person be able to pack a "suitcase" for themselves which would store all kinds of data in it.
What would my suitcase contain?
- My Blog(s)
- My Profile
- Projects & Writings
- Shared Files
- Quotes
- Personal Portal
- Links
- Calendar
- Contact Form/Information
- Address Book
- Books on my Bookshelf
- Shared Photos
- My Friends
- My Groups
Between Yahoo!, with it's My Yahoo! and Calendar, Briefcase, and other integrated features, and ChrisWelch.com, which I'm moving to a new hosting company and installing WordPress as my new blogging software, I'll be able to integrate "my suitcase" together with a mimimum of hassle. Even at that, my data will be in 2 different places, both on ChrisWelch.com and Yahoo!. In years to come I hope to see companies that offer digital suitcase products and then give users the ability to attach a Web Site to it, which provides visitors a unified way to view a person's suitcase.
Imagine a company providing their users the ability to publish their blogs, modify their calendars, check their mail, and then share files, and it automatically being published to their very own domain. The possiblity is exciting, especially with the ability to share suitcases among sites with RSS and other XML formats. I'm looking forward to the day when I no longer have to build my own personal suitcase here at this site, and pay a company to do it for me.