Identity 2.0
Regarding the link to Dick Hardt of sxip, Inc., delivering his introduction to Identity 2.0 and how the concept of digital identity is evolving.
Simple eXtensible Identity Protocol
I mentioned in a previous post here in Module 4 that I have always been trepidatious about putting my personal information on the internet. My facebook page is an exercise in watching what everyone else is doing…not very valuable in terms of getting any information about me. I am not part of the twitter movement so that people won’t know exactly when I am going to Costco 😉 (as mentioned in the comment by Ed on their module 4 ning)
I like Dick Hardt’s analysis that your virtual identity is what a website knows about you. But another website doesn’t have access to that information. So your identity is site centric. This means that you are entering information about yourself to an infinite number of website registry pages. Not an efficient use of time for the user, nor is it an efficient use of your identity information.
So in the end we aren’t really anonymous in terms of our personal information or identity, so why don’t we have a user centric model where my personal information exists and intersects with the various websites that I interact with?
In our world operating under Web 2.0, Identity 2.0 is inevitable. I agree with him.
And I know that after signing up for a series of networking sites in the last month, that a better way of navigating my way through the internet HAS to exist…and people will seek it out.
10 comments
1 James Richardson { 10.06.09 at 7:30 am }
Identity 2.0 is a double edged sword. Identity 2.0 would not only be a labour saving feature but it promotes a real sense of online community across platforms. On the flipside, phishing and identity theft is increasing and having your persona ‘out there’ could leave you one click away from a life altering catastrophe. Also, one of the attractive features of the web is that it offers a kind of egalitatrian anonymity. This allows ideas to be judged on their own merits with no regard to the esteem of the contributor (or their ethnicity, place of origin, weight, age, sex, sesual orientation etc.) That very same anonymity can be hazardous as cyberpredators demonstrate. No easy answers I am afraid, but I agree that some sort of cross border identity badge is unavoidable.
2 Sharon Hann { 10.06.09 at 9:31 am }
One ‘easy’ way to have an online identity and a real one is to have an online birthday separate from your real birthday. It can be the same day, different year or same year different month. Enough difference to make it hard for people to use your online persona to match with your financial persona. Sharon
3 Erica T { 10.06.09 at 12:56 pm }
I think our persona is already out there, whether we like it, or know it, or not. I personally may avoid putting certain kinds of information onto some sites (like my birthdate or birthplace, or occupation, or city I live in, or pictures of my kids). But if you could put all of my internet activity in one place, you can get all the information you want about me…and I have already posted elsewhere in Module 4 here that I think of myself as an anonymous internet user (I don’t use networking sites, don’t give out my email address readily, etc.) So wouldn’t it be better to manage all that information in one place and allow those who I WANT to see it the access to it, and those who I don’t, can’t use it? I guess I find it hard to choose between “absolutely safeguarding” (if there is even such a thing) my identity and reducing the time I waste going from site to site entering logins and passwords and addresses and birthdates and favourite colours and…
4 Annette Smith { 10.06.09 at 1:41 pm }
I think I have read too much William Gibson (coiner of ‘cyberspace’). I feel like it is inevitable that my entire identity will someday be stashed in various places on the web for anyone with a strong desire to find me to uncover it. I think it is futile to fight it.
It makes sense to try and control what is out there about you with Identity 2.0, but I feel that as we use the web for more and more of our activities the digital footprint we create for ourselves will begin to follow us around. I cringe to think that my bad high-school poetry would ever be available for the world to see, but for students who now blog those early literary moments, that is what is in store for them.
5 Noah Burdett { 10.06.09 at 6:35 pm }
Here is a short piece I saw on the National regarding privacy on the internet….
http://www.cbc.ca/clips/mov/brown-personal-info-091006.mov
There is also a more detailed article.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/10/06/youth-privacy-commissioner.html
How do you think we can help bridge the negative and the positive?
6 Erica T { 10.07.09 at 6:30 am }
Noah! I see we both watched the same newscast on Oct. 6 in different time zones…I posted the link here on blogs as I was watching the news story. Later, I was navigating through your NING and saw that you said you had posted the cbc story here on blogs. But last night I couldn’t find your posting (guess I was tired). I didn’t realize it was here as a comment. It is timely anyway, and I guess there is no chance then, that our classmates will miss this link?!
7 Noah Burdett { 10.07.09 at 5:34 pm }
No worries…Thanks Erica,
There was another piece on CTV later that night here is the link…
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091006/privacy_report_091006/20091006?hub=SciTech
Sorry about the telus final countdown add,
Noah
8 jennie wong { 10.08.09 at 1:33 pm }
Dear Erica,
I would agree with you in the use of Twitter (going to Costco example). I don’t really feel the need to put a picture of myself on the Internet and I just feel that the less I put out there about myself, the better it is.
I did a lesson with students where we created bogus Myspace accounts and none of the information was true or realistic.
I am trying to teach the kids that anything and everything can go up on the net – especially with all these weblogs. I am trying to put on their critical thinking skills and figure out how information is valid. Furthermore, as educators, we have to be critical thinkers as well and take a good look at how and what we teach.
Jen
9 Erica T { 10.08.09 at 6:46 pm }
Noah. I think that CTV link you posted is even more informative!! A lot more in that newscast. I also found it interesting about being able to delete your information from social networking sites, when you are “done” with them. But for now, our message to teens / 20 somethings should still be CAUTION.
10 Barrie Carter { 10.11.09 at 9:18 pm }
Hello Everyone:
Identity 2.0 was an interesting video, to say the least. That is, it is interesting to listen and to watch how easy your on-line identity can be created, if one wanted one.
I concur with Annette that it is just a matter of time before our identity becomes more evident on-line. Here, there is no such thing as ‘Identity Unplugged’, for more and more organizations, institutions, and companies are Internet connected, wanting personal information via on-line.
Certainly, I have contemplated shutting down all Internet connectivity, but is this reasonable, logical, practical, sensible, realistic, or possible. Well, mother-in-law, at the age of 77, has never been ‘connected’. And, she is doing fine.
Oh well, perhaps it is too late for me. After all, there are many databases that already have my personal information.
And, no information is ever really deleted.
Cheers,
Barrie
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