If you have an Xbox LIVE console and sign-up to their 360 Voice service then your gaming console blogs about you (or more precisely, your performance as an Xbox player).

Have a wee read of how one such blog describes the gameplay of Xbox LIVE director, Larry Hyrb (also known as 'Major Nelson' for some reason known only to gamers). It's fun stuff (even if you're not into gaming).

Or check out 360 Voice.com to find out more about how gamers can read or subscribe to a blog about what their mates are up to on Xbox LIVE.

The 360 Voice service has been around since 2006 and it is part of a wider trend called "blogjects" (an object that blogs) or "spimes" (objects that tell stories based on their use).  

The idea was foreshadowed by Julian Bleecker, in his essay, "A Manifesto for Networked Objects", in which he discusses how physical objects (once networked) can output information and therefore create stories about their 'life' (if that is the correct term) and publish them online.

Very interesting.

How many objects do you use in your average day?

Your fridge. Your phone. Your PC. Your car keys. Your shoes. Your ATM card. Imagine if each of these objects was blogging about you. Again, this is all part of the wider interest (and paranoia) about ones digital footprint. The digital trails we leave behind and what happens to all of this information. Warning: The Wanganui Computer knows everything is going to EAT YOUR BRAINS!! Not really.

On the positive side, you could assume that as a research tool, 'blogjects' could significantly improve the utility of everyday objects if real data (not just surveys and error-ridden feedback tools) was used to measure their use.

If all fridges (for example) told manufacturers (accurately) about how the space in each fridge was really used, then maybe they'd make the vege drawers bigger, make room for more eggs or stop defrosting meat dripping all over other food. Or maybe that’s more about (ahem) 'user error'?

If your ATM card (or transaction history) actually had a personality then maybe it could tell you about your day-to-day spending in a more meaningful, relevant or amusing way. There's software around that already begins to do this, see NZ's very own PocketSmith, but it could go a lot further.  

I think that the real opportunities here lie around turning all of this data into stories. Why? Because stories are interesting and data is boring.

Mmm, data. So sexy.

So many of us fail to engage with information about our own lives – not because we don't have access to it or because it's unimportant, but because it's hideously dull or poorly presented.

Do you have an accurate idea of your own medical history? Can you remember how much you spend whenever you go on holiday? When were you the fittest and what were doing at the time that made you so fit?

Maybe if the objects we used to engage in some of these actions were blogging about us, we'd be able to remember more information about more important stuff, more often.  

But blogging is still quite a clumsy and clunky metaphor. There are stories about our own lives that we forget or change; stories that we could record quite easily via the objects that accompany us on our journey through life.

Would you want access to these stories? Would access to the past make your future better? Or does this Orwellian spectre make you shudder with fear?