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April 2nd, 2008
Own Your Identity, the Blog
by Joshua Porter | 
13 Comments
For those interested in online identity-related matters, I would like to turn your attention to a new blog on the subject:
I’m writing this blog along with web-maven Brian Oberkirch and polar explorer turned web revolutionary Tony Haile. We’re just getting started, but our goal is to lead a discussion on the ins and outs of online identity, tackling such questions as:
- What does it mean to own one’s identity online?
- What building blocks do we need in place to help achieve identity ownership?
- What practices are social networks doing that help (or hurt) personal identity online?
- How can we work with social networks to build a better web?
- What are the real-world problems that normal folks are dealing with concerning identity?
Our eventual hope is that by participating in this discussion and really driving it forward, we’ll all learn how to build software that helps us own our identity.
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Markup & Style Society TalkABOUT
Bokardo is the blog of Joshua Porter, a web designer/developer, researcher, and writer. I live in Newburyport, MA, USA.
WHAT IS SOCIAL DESIGN?
Social design is design that focuses on the social lives of users. It deals with the activities, behaviors, and motivations of people who work and play together through software interfaces. It is built on the observation that many of the decisions we make are greatly affected by those we surround ourselves with in our social lives: our family, friends, and colleagues. Exploring our motivations and how to design interfaces to support them is what the Bokardo blog is all about.
Great Books about Design
The finest selection of hand-picked books covering all aspects of design.
Greatest Hits
Upcoming Events
- North Shore Web Geeks Meetup
Newburyport, MA—May 15, 2008 - Voices that Matter Conference
Nashville, TN—Jun 10-13, 2008
LATEST POSTS
- Douglas Adams on Interactivity
- Bootstrapping a Niche Social Network
- The Power of Niche Social Network Sites
- Two Worth Watching: Boston Web Studio and Social Media for Social Change Blog
- Why people don’t trust “bloggers”
- Designing for the Social Web: the Book
- North Shore Web Geek Meetup: April 17th at the Grog
- You didn’t come here from Google
- Own Your Identity, the Blog
- Markup & Style Society Talk
Written by Joshua Porter
Comments ( 13 Responses so far )
1. Todd Sieling on April 2nd, 2008 (Comment) #
Congrats on the blog launch! It’s a funny coincidence of topics, as just yesterday I joined in a Citizen Garden podcast (hosted by Larry Halff and Chris Messina) along with Cindy Li to talk about online identity. Almost all of the issues you highlight here are ones we touched on in the conversation. We didn’t solve much in the 20-odd minutes of chit-chat
I’m looking forward to reading what you guys come up with.
2. Justin Thorp on April 2nd, 2008 (Comment) #
The Web site is CRAZY slow to load. Having server issues?
3. Josh on April 2nd, 2008 (Comment) #
Thanks, Todd. Going to check out your podcast. Let us know what you’re finding interesting in the identity space…there is so much to cover!
4. Tony Haile on April 2nd, 2008 (Comment) #
@Justin Hosting provider apparently been under attack from spammers, we’re working on changing servers. Sorry if it was frustrating, it has been equally so for us!
5. Josh on April 2nd, 2008 (Comment) #
@Justin…yes, we are. We’re working to find a new server asap.
6. Kortina on April 2nd, 2008 (Comment) #
This looks great. Subscribing now. Self branding and online identity seem to be hot topics lately, no? If you think so too, any thoughts why?
7. Peter on April 3rd, 2008 (Comment) #
What does this all mean when people aren’t even putting their real identities into social networking apps?
8. Christina on April 4th, 2008 (Comment) #
Still very slow connection to ownyouridentity.com.
ddos attack?
9. Chloe Edwards on April 5th, 2008 (Comment) #
If you use a different name on a forum..etc, i think this can itself take on its own virtual identity.. actually thinking about it, there are whole identities and marriges..etc on second life 2..etc
10. Jon on April 5th, 2008 (Comment) #
Loads fine from NC. Great blog start, RSS added.
I’ll be back there regularly.
11. ghazaleh on April 7th, 2008 (Comment) #
this post has been my thesis for the past 1.5 years as a graphic designer / everything else you’d like to label me.
I’d like internetoflife to speak for itself and I’d like you to speak for yourself too.
12. Deb on April 8th, 2008 (Comment) #
How online identity is perceived by different generations interests me. I just read a piece in New York magazine about the impact of students expressing animosity towards faculty on Facebook groups. (Horace Mann is the name of the private school.) Interestingly, both parents and students felt that faculty had invaded their privacy by going onto facebook to read what were pretty vicious attacks. I was surprised that the parents & students would think that something with the volume of traffic like facebook would be considered a “private diary.” Since I am in my 30’s I grew up in a cohort that finds placing personal content online uncomfortable, so this situation begs a lot of questions. Are some parts of your online identity private, some public? While you can limit access to your personal profiles on many sites, is it really safe to assume that it is “private”? Compounding the situation at this school was a work of fiction written the previous year by a faculty member; it portrayed the antics at a fictitious private school. Students were confused by the fact that faculty could write such a book, but that they were criticized/reprimanded for their antics on facebook (the facebook page did name names of faculty students were targeting.). Will an “identity” or “right to privacy” protocol ever be developed? Is it necessary? While these kids and parents are upset with their school, what happens to them when they try to get a job?
13. David Evans on April 22nd, 2008 (Comment) #
I’ve worked with several companies to implement features like you have mentioned, left you a note via contact form let’s get it touch.