Distribute This: online identity, presence & practice

Frances Bell, Helen Keegan, Josie Fraser, James Clay

ALT-C 2009

Perspectives on identity

• Identity has always been mutable– Reflexive– Emergent– Relational

persistent replicablesearchablescalable(de)locatable http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PennState2009.html

Impact of digital

Examples of ‘communities’ that foster digital identities

• JISC Emerge http://elgg.jiscemerge.org.uk/– Associated with JISC programme, now

archived

• ALT-C Crowdvine http://altc2009.alt.ac.uk/? – Ephemeral (weeks not forever) export to

address book– Maximising impact of f2f events by pre-/post-

interaction

An ‘alt’ perspective on how we might experience/use these

technologies…Helen keegan

Authenticity?

PR of the self

Anonymity

Roleplay

Voyeurism

Democracy?

Hidden power structure?

Clashing contexts

Invisible audiences

Blurring boundaries

Credits

•  mask cc-licensed by flyzipper

• Digital identity mapping by Fred Cavazza

• Self portrait :shadow play S_A_M

Managing online presence

Josie Fraser

Imagined Communities

“ …significant misconceptions in members’ perceptions and awareness of the scope and openness of the network and the visibility and public availability of their profiles. Members in the study thought their information was far more private than it actually was, and misjudged the numbers of people they were making personal information available to.”

Acquisti, A. & Gross, R. (2006) Imagined communities

Josie Fraser

Josie Fraser

Josie Fraser