Lesley Anderson

The many faces of you.
Make a list of all your online identities.

Social Networking Sites & IDs.

Site	ID
Facebook	Lesley Anderson
MSN	Lesleyaa@hotmail.com
Skype	lesley.anderson.3
Delicious	lesleyando
Yahoo	lesleyando
SecondLife	Lesander Lexington
Blog	Lesley Anderson
Gmail	lesleyaa
Ning	Lesley Anderson
Flickr	lesleyando
Twitter	lesleyando
Diigo	lesleyando
Interact	lander18
SINA	landerson
Genforum	aussiemum
Edublogs	mrsando
Moo	LesleyA
ISP	andoshouse
Runescape	Lesander58

Using the following question from Jordan et al (2003):
Do you show multiple identities or are you consistent across all instances?

It is fairly obvious, as I peruse my list of online identities, that I am reasonably consistent with them. 95% of my online identities use a variation of my name. A few have been decided for me - such as Interact, SINA (our school network) and the recent Moo login but the majority are my own choice or taken from “suggestions” as I have established accounts at various online sites. I am definitely not good at selecting or devising pseudonyms so I suppose they wouldn’t be classed as very original, however they are easy to remember this way.

What does your “persistent identity” online say about you, and what shouldn’t it say?

Basically, I think my persistent identity says whatever I want it to say.  The way the internet is structured I can divulge as much or as little of myself  and my personal information as I wish. If required I could create a completely bogus persona and pass it off as me. Of course, that is fine if that persona begins and ends with the internet and makes no impact on life outside it.
Personally, although my persona names are similar, when I create an online identity at a site - usually because I have to in order to gain access to it or contribute in some way - I use minimal amounts of information and often the names are variants. I never use my work email or my personal email to create an account and I hope that gives me a certain amount of anonymity and protection, although I am not sure if anyone is certain of exactly how to do this.
I also find the type of information that I include is dependent upon whether my persona is to be included on a professional site or not. After reading for this subject,  I wonder if that has to do with the amount of perceived trust I have in any given site or community? Certainly, in the “face-to-face” world, as professionals, we have both a written and unwritten code of practice and mores that go with the job. Even though these don’t officially exist online - anyone could claim to be a professional - do we expect a certain code from others within a profession and does this change the way we perceive a site or community we may belong to?

Online Identity and Your State of Presence

Briefly explain, in your own words, what you think of the ideas
and solutions presented in Reading A by Dick Hardt.

 I found this a difficult video to follow and had to keep stopping and rewinding to review sections of it. This was mainly because Dick Hardt spoke so quickly and, of course, most of the language was new to me. Basically, though I think he was putting forward his case for a need for an identity management system to be employed over the internet. This type of system would prove a person’s identity on the internet, just as a driver’s licence does in the real world.  Hardt gives several different models of varying systems and how they have changed over time.  I particularly thought the model that he described where a user “registers” with an identity site set up on the internet of some interest and value to help protect a user’s identity. When the time comes and the user needs to input personal information to a site requiring it, the user contacts the identity site, tells them which information they need to release and the site sends the user a token or some type of indication of their identity. It is then the user who sends the information to the site requiring it. A system such as this means that a user only registers information once or updates in one place if and when required. Communication of information only occurs between the user and the trusted identity site. This leaves less chance of information going anywhere but where it is intended to go. Having the user pass on the “token” to the requiring site means that the user is still in control of the destination of the information. Read the rest of this entry »