FaceBook's latest privacy fiasco and the birth of the Diaspora project has got me thinking about how we should really like to present ourselves on the Web and there is no single answer, there are many answers and I'd like to present them all. Facebook/MySpace/AOL/Google/Twitter/etc. all want to be the single place where we display ourselves to the web, but that is flawed in concept as I walk in many different worlds on the web and I don't think I want those worlds to mix. What I want is a master interface that links to the many facets of my personality.
That way I could have one inventor page that covers my HB links to my best ideas and another family man page that would include pictures of my wife and daughter and another business face that includes stuff like my resume, etc.
Then when I find a cool article on NYT and one of you, if I set you as a "friend" see it, it would say "MisterQED liked this", as opposed to my name or one of my other personas.
Then I can control how much everyone knows and people would actually get meaningful links to people who have similar interests, not just linkages just because we both know someone who is interested in both of the topics we are each interested in.
This is just an extension of what most of us do with email accounts, we keep it separate because it is supposed to be separate. If you want to find me you can, but you will only find that part that wants to be found. You can then contact me and if I am interested the conversation continues.
It makes my life easier as I would have a single point of contact for the total "me", but much of it is presorted already.-- MisterQED, May 14 2010 Diaspora Project http://www.joindiaspora.com/ [MisterQED, May 14 2010] Identity 2.0 http://identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/Nice talk on the subject of multiple identities. [Jinbish, May 19 2010] Claim ID http://claimid.com/touted as "the free, easy way to manage your online identity with OpenID." [LoriZ, May 19 2010] It seems like this would be easily doable with multiple accounts in some system or other, each linked to forwarding email addresses.
For now, are people going to assume that anyone with a diaspora account is a schizophrentic serial killer?-- RayfordSteele, May 14 2010 [RS] In a way yes, this could be baked with multiple FaceBook accounts, a Classmates account, several gmail accounts and a couple of other accounts. This isn't revolutionary, but evolutionary. Ask yourself is your name really "Rayford Steele". Maybe it is but for argument let's say it isn't. Did you hide your identity because you are a "schizophrentic" or a "serial killer" or because this is the web and there are some freaky people out there so it's probably best to put everyone on a need to know basis and really how many people really need to know?
PS My name isn't really "MisterQED" and as far as I know, I am neither schizophrentic nor a serial killer.-- MisterQED, May 14 2010 //My name isn't really "MisterQED" and as far as I know, I am neither schizophrentic nor a serial killer// (chorus) "Hi, MisterQED !"
(though I must note that your spelling possibly belies your statement)-- FlyingToaster, May 14 2010 I now endeavour to be a "single" person on the internet. I didn't like what different personas were doing to me and i deliberately "leave the door ajar" to the other places because whereas i don't want to be ostentatiously "out" about who i am, i also don't want to hide it. However, that may be a luxury because i don't have to be a certain person for an employer or in some other role. I think that nowadays, the only usernames i have anywhere on the internet are this one and maybe three others, which only exist for historical reasons.
It would be rather egomaniac of me to expect someone to piece it all together. I'm not so important.
For some people, being a "single" person on the internet might lead to them becoming one in real life.-- nineteenthly, May 14 2010 Both good points. I use about two, just for simplicity's sake. the ability to hide behind anonymity just might be destroying our civility.-- RayfordSteele, May 15 2010 Both good points. I use about two, just for simplicity's sake. the ability to hide behind anonymity just might be destroying our civility and encouraging bad behavior.-- RayfordSteele, May 15 2010 It's more than that. You may have guessed I am male, and not famous so not too worried about stalkers, or privacy, but I am married to a beautiful and much younger woman and have a 3 year old daughter. My wife used to post a lot of pictures on line, so finding me would lead you to her. I don't even like thinking about it now, but in not too long my daughter will be old enough to arouse interest from seedier parts of the net, so now I start to REALLY care and really worry.
I was listening to a podcast which discussed the loss of privacy and one party thought it was inevitable and the best we can hope for is parity. Like living in a small town, you know my business but I know your business. I'd take another tack and say that I can never have parity in general, so I want parity in small batches. I will leave tracks that can lead to me, but the path should only connect to similar paths. So finding me on the HB would lead to me on the N-Prize but not the me who is a father or husband.
Yes anonymity can destroy civility, but it can also foster honesty. I think the HB proves that out. We are not always civil, but I think we are more honest than we would be in a room face to face.-- MisterQED, May 15 2010 perhaps anonymity is a measurable intoxication.-- FlyingToaster, May 15 2010 Is this a new thing though - if, before the internet, I frequented speciality interest venues, or wrote political pamphlets, I might adopt a pseudonym - and engage with those people who run in those special interest circles using that pseudonym.
However, there was always the possibility that I'd meet someone who crossed over more than one of these circles - with potentially damaging results.
Now, instead of writing Modest Proposals on solving the Irish Famine, my content generation can now be 140 character morsels on what I had for breakfast, or even more microscopically, whether "I like" someone's recent profile status update. There's a lot more potential now for cross-over and contamination of who looks at what I publish.-- zen_tom, May 19 2010 [MisterQED], i know what you mean but i think that whereas i'm pretty mild-mannered, the rest of my family is pretty scary due to their education and anyone who messes with them will probably end up wishing they hadn't, if they're capable of wishing at all.-- nineteenthly, May 19 2010 //the rest of my family is pretty scary due to their education// Where do you get a scary education? Quantico? Borg? The Citadel? West Point? The Israeli Army? Or are they lawyers? Or bio-warfare techs? Mafia? Yakuza? Computer hackers? They are all scary? Even the children?-- MisterQED, May 19 2010 Politicians !?!-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 19 2010 You forgot time travellers-- xxobot, May 20 2010 random, halfbakery