Seeing and Organizing Identity Online

1. Seeing and Organizing Identity Online thoughts on digital context, perception of self and identity management

2. Overview • Contextual information crucial for appropriate social interaction • Architecture of the digital space does not directly map to the physical equivalent • Appropriate presentation online requires different notions of context • Self-awareness/control tools useful for developing proper self-presentation skills

3. Performing Identity • One presents multiple ‘faces’ conveying different aspects of one’s identity • Facet of self presented depends on the context • Number and variation of faces/facets depends on one’s personality and self-monitoring tendencies • Multiple faces are not deceptive • Behavior appropriate to the situation • Information conveyed relevant

4. Notions of the Body • Body offers many mechanisms for presenting oneself both intentionally and unintentionally • Verbal and body language • Clothing and decoration • Behaviors and movement • Presenting oneself is quite comfortable • Body awareness of what is being presented • Subtle control of behavior and reactions

5. Notions of context • Context is ‘the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs’ • Spatial context • Temporal context • People context • Underlying social norms developed and associated with various contexts • Individuals organize facets of their identity and associate them with different contexts

6. Contextual questions • Time & Space • What activities normally occur in this space? • What social norms can i derive are associated with this space? With this time period? • Is my performance being recorded to be used in a different time/space? • People • Who are the people who are observing me? • What are their values? • How much do i trust these people to constrain our conversation to here and now?

7. Digital != Physical • Digital tries to mimic the physical • Ideas of digital embodiment (avatars) • Language of ‘space’ online (chatrooms, portals, websites) • Fundamental differences in architecture mean that they are not the same • Digital data persistent, archived • Aggregation across time and space • Difficult to separate between original / copy • Ease of searching, sorting with databases of data • Massive data & low attention spans highlight incomplete individual portraits

8. Architecture affects Context • Space and time collapse online; spatial and temporal context do not exist • Said once, seen forever in lots of different places • Statements become eternally part of public domain, removed from original context • People contexts difficult to read • Who is out there? Who are they? • How do you read them? What are their subtle responses to your performance?

9. Adjusting the notion of context • Managing presentation with the architectural differences requires a change in behavior • Present oneself as though things are permanent public records directed at the masses • Obfuscate presentation (or post anonymously) • Alternatively, adjust the notion of context; manage context by managing facets directly • Purpose-based email addresses (work, home, …) • Logins / Pseudonyms / Handles • By performing through facets, users define the context

10. Removing social confusion • Architecture should accurately communicate the context of the space • Regardless, one should understand one’s digital presentation • Who can see you? What can they see? • With that knowledge, one should be able to control the facets that s/he is presenting • What are you putting forward? How do you incorporate those revelations later?

11. Individual Self-Awareness • Create tools that give users a sense of how they are seen for self-reflection • Create digital mirrors to reveal identity performance • Personal transparency of data, computed characteristics • Awareness of interaction over time/space • Relationship to people and sites • Based on awareness, individuals will learn to self-monitor their own behavior as they desire

12. Social Network Fragments Visualizing email habits, revealing personal social networks and social clusters

13. Creating control • Individual control over context • Let individuals create and manage facets explicitly • Associate all interactions with facets • Tools to create and manage facets • Manage data through facets • Allow facets to build data representations during interactions • Requires change in behavior • Not ubiquitous; requires thought and consideration • Can still be aggregated externally • No control over how others share your data

14. SecureId Giving individuals control over data revelation by building separate facets of their identity

15. Final Thoughts • Explicit management will never be as comfortable as embodied management • External ownership and (ab)use of identity data is becoming harder to control • Further visualization work is necessary so as to portray vast quantities of data in a meaningful way • Trusting others with data important; failure can create a scenario where others publicly collapse your fragmented facets