Digital Identity: December 1-18, 2009

Activity 1, here is how Personas represented me on the Internet

http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb.html

My question is how do I interpret this ? Thanks !!

Activity 2

Does it mean the more we share the better person we become ? As your "Digital Identity" grows do you loose your real life identity ? Do you become part of the "Matrix" ?

Thanks,

Dave

re: Activity 1
It is certainly a thought-provoking exercise to begin our discussion on identity. I think I know who I am in my own head, but is that how others perceive me? Should my public identity be constructed out of the threads of my Internet tracings and ramblings? Is this a "funkafied" version of googling ourselves? ... I have avoided navel gazing tweets, perhaps in part because of the idea of trying to maintain some semblance of personal privacy on the Internet ... hmmmmmm I am not sure what to think about this.... This will be an interesting session

re: Activity 2:
You are what you share .. I feel this also needs to be extended to " You are what you share and what others share about you." I have recently started down the path of online security and privacy in educational contexts, so I certainly agree with the concept as it relates to digital identity. The metaphor of the bird's nest is so apt. Yet, who are we if not a mosaic of our interactions with self and others?

From a total rambling thought, my digital identity is a tad different than my work identity, than my family identity, etc. Each is inter-twined and perhaps an inseparable tangle of threads... but again, where I am and within what context I operate determines the dominant identity ... ugh.. now my brain synapses resemble that bowl of noodles in the video! ... someone grab an end and pull!

Hello Trish:

Activity 1: What information was I supposed to get through the Personas site? I have an unusual and uncommon surname and so there aren't many of me in the world, but I didn't seem to get anything. So now I really want to know what I'm missing!

Activity 2: Could be me or it could be my organizations' fire wall, but I couldn't connect to the We Think video. I'll try again from home because the other information I found on the Internet suggests it'll be an interesting read.

I can see a strong connection to digital identities to learners in computer courses/programmes, but what connection are you making to math, science, communications, etc. What's the WIIFM? (what's in it for me)

Cheers, Chris

Activity 1:

I put my name in and mostly got people who aren't me (that's what happens with such a common name). Then I tried "Mctoonish" which is the name of my blog and user name on most social networking sites (Twitter, et al). and only got my blog. It made me feel very inconsequential.

Dean Sharesky (Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan) recommended that I try spezify.com and I got this http://spezify.com/#/mctoonish

Activity 2:

I agree with Wendy that it is "You are what you share and what others share about you." It's also about who is actually listening to you. It makes me happy when I see that people I respect in my field are following me (or even referencing me), but I get a lot of "new follower" notices from Twitter that are actually from online marketers. Clay Shirky noted in Here Comes Everybody that these marketers "friend" lots of people in the hopes that others follow them in return. In reality only other marketers tend to follow them thinking the same thing.. Nobody actually reads what any of them have to say.

Activity 1

I found this very interesting - especially watching as it indexed different sets of information to create the final view. See attached doc for details

I searched on 3 names that I inhabit; Bronwyn Stuckey, Bron Stuckey, and Dr Bronwyn Stuckey. The first of these is my full name. The second is an identity that I have purposely been creating in my online work and research in virtual worlds, communities of practice and teacher professional development. The third is my academic title and used in face-to-face academic work.

One thing I already knew is that there is another Australian Dr Bronwyn Stuckey and she is a specialist male reproductive medicine. We have been confused by others before (her sister even skyped me to congratulate me on finally using 21st century tools). Alas her practice is more hands on than mine ;-) So hence the 'medicine' (and perhaps 'politics') highly represented in my totally non-medical profile.

On the surface it would seem that my goals for my purposely built identity are being realised although 'online' seems to rate very lowly for an identity I use nowhere else but online.

I am still pondering what to make of all this but wanted to share with you in case it was interesting for you too.

Bron

Hi all

I'm a curious cat who is out and about making connections and thinking/doing things educational and experiential.

Activity 1
I put in my full name Alice Macpherson
Primarily my education roles came up and pretty accurately. It was fun and I didn't get anyone else.

Activity 2
I've have been careful about what I put out electronically. Seems this has paid off. We can tailor how we are seen ... when we put it out.
Can we tailor how others see us?

hmmm

Hello all!
Activity 1:
Alas, according to Personas, I am a bland person with wide swathes of 'education' and 'online' and a narrow pinch of 'social'. That may be because my active participation on the Internet falls into work and research areas - I may be the last person in Canada to refrain from Facebook. I shared the tool with a friend who is asking her teenager daughter to use it to check if her many online personae are colouring her online identity in ways that may surprise her....The tool is interesting to use as such an awareness check.
And yes, it counts my online 'sharing' events and interprets it into an 'identity' for my name. However, the Persona identity only slightly represents my human identity(for lack of a better term): it includes any person of that name (as is the case for Bronwyn, a Swiss doctor with the same name adds 'medicine' to my identity); and it covers only one of the several forms of my name I use online.
Trish - how do you define 'digital identity', and what effect or relationship does digital identity have to human identity ?

Activity 2:
The Leadbeater statement "We are what we share" is presented as our current condition, contrasted with our former condition of "We are what we own". I'm not sure I understand or agree with this - seems simplistic.
I have yet to read the Friesen references, but look forward to sorting this all out in the weeks ahead.
Bye for now,
Paddy Fahrni

Activity 1 I am happy to say that most of what came up were the professional things that I had hoped were contributing to my digital identity, such as work with professional groups and things I have written. However, another thing that came up, which I was aware of, since I get Google notices of things that come out containing my name, was a very crude statement from someone with the same name regarding their participation in a crime. This could be a real problem if, say, a potential employer attributed it to me.

Activity 2 I do think, to a certain extent, we are what we share, at least in a public sense. Of course, we do not control all that is shared about us, hence my monitoring of my name using Google. I have tried to be intentional about sharing and publishing positive and useful things, both professionally and personally, because your reputation really is valuable, especially when so many people can be aware of you without your knowledge or consent.

I also agree that such wide availability of ideas does stimulate the thinking of others and we are much smarter collectively than we are individually.

As it happens, I share a name with several remarkable women named Valerie Taylor - an Australian shark researcher, an American professor of electrical engineering and a British physiotherapist who runs a clinic in Bangladesh. Persona found all of us and a couple of others! I'm not too happy to find out that one of us was convicted of drug trafficking, but I assure you, it was any of us good ones.

Sharing is really important to a civil society. The steady decline of sharing and community-spirited actions is a growing concern. More and more people seem to be looking out for themselves alone at the expense (literally and figuratively) of others. "What's in it for me?" even in not-for-profit and humanitarian endeavors. The cynicism and arrogance of many is contributing to the decline for all. Lots of people are in for a rude awakening when they realize that all the men are not good looking and all the children are not above average.

However, I'm reassured by the online learning communities. We see amazing examples of so many who are willing to share what they have and so generously give to the global society. The good guys win in the end... I hope.

I think what really struck me about Activity 1 was how far back in time this went! It was sort of like watching my life flash before my eyes. Well, except there is also a Sylvia Currie who is involved in hypnosis for weight loss. Her life seems quite different, and she must be the one who accounted for the part of the spectrum that says politics and religion are a big part of my identity. :-) Heather mentioned spezify.com so of course I had to try that as well.

The other thing that struck me is how much my online identity is tied to my work, especially the SCoPE community and activities here, and to SCoPE members. In fact some of those people are right here in this seminar. I saw Heather's name move by the screen in the context of a presentation we did together a few years ago about SCoPE. Bronwyn showed up in a description of a SCoPE seminar we facilitated on Managing Multimembership in Social Networks. And look at the screen shot! Right smack in the middle of my spezify output was a tweet from Jeffrey Keefer about this very seminar. I mean, of all the years of data and people out there isn't it amazing that what was generated has so many connections to what is happening right here, this week, in SCoPE?!

And the final thing I mention is that I was struck by the randomness of what showed up using both persona and spezify. Of all the photos, why this one taken on a hike this summer in Washington? And why, of all the seminars I participated in with the Global Educators Network 10 years ago did this page of URLs mentioned in a "tools and needs" discussion show up?

Lots of surprises and puzzles!

I enjoyed the Personas activity. Turns out there are lots of Paul Staceys - beyond who I actually am theres a Paul Stacey tax writer, oil & gas worker, british guitarist and producer for the band oasis and black crowes, dramaturgy student, managing director of an investment portfolio, volleyball coach, company secretary, and surfer. Lots of secret identities!

My biggest blocks in the band of colours were for online, sports, management, education and music which given the composite blending of multiple Paul Stacey's is not far off this Paul Stacey.

The "you are what you share" idea is interesting but it seems to me to be such a small piece really. Its like saying "you are what you wear".

Paul

Hello!

I really enjoyed the Personas Activity. Very interesting, indeed. "How the Internet sees you" is worth the investigation. Thank you for opening such a frame for thought.

Amor