Edublogs Live

“This post was written by Di Bedard”

On Thursday, July 16th I had the pleasure of chatting with my Edublog colleagues and lead a discussion about “Personal Identity and Your Online Persona”

While I’ve blogged about this topic in the past, I’ll post the up-to-date version of my comments here, along with the links to all the tools I use….

If you have tools and ideas to add to this discussion, you can catch me on Twitter : windsordi

Enjoy!
Di

——————–

I’m starting with some basic assumptions…

• you *are* online
• you have an email account
• you *may* use online conveniences [banking, income tax, savings bonds, passport]
• you *may* use online services [paypal, ebay, iTunes]
• you *may* engage socially [twitter, facebook, skype, chat, wiki, blog]
• someone you associate with owns a digital camera [you've been tagged - did you know??]
• someone you know uses twitter, facebook, skype … and mentions you.

So… even if you *think* you are not known virtually… you are.

Social networking and photo sites make it easy to find someone’s image online, even if it was meant to be kept private. Public comments on blogs, discussion groups, and listservs are also archived and searchable.

Research done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in back in 2007 (when social media was just starting to catch on) noted that:

• Many companies, agencies and organizations keep online databases that lists names, addresses, and phone numbers.These are the data points uploaded to the internet as a matter of course, along with other public records like home sales, court records, and newspaper accounts.
• Layered on top of these publicly available sources are proprietary databases containing information such as cell phone numbers and political affiliations.
• And did you know that the five most popular search engines routinely archive your search terms, your computer’s address, and the unique identifier for your Web browser for up to 18 months? This information is intended for marketing and statistical research, and is not intended to be publicly accessible… but it is not secure.

[ BTW - The Canadian Privacy Commissioner has cited four problems with the way Facebook manages users' personal data. ]

PEW identifies this as your …
Passive Digital Footprint: this is Personal data made accessible online with no deliberate
intent or intervention from an individual.

So let’s talk about your digital identity….

I used to try to avoid a digital trail, to lurk and go unnoticed… so a lot of my accounts used aliases and avatars.I never posted any pictures, commented on others blogs…. but eventually I realized I had no control over others (and cameras are everywhere now), and other people and organizations were posting and blogging about me……
So now I selectively post the kinds information and images I hope will fairly represent me… (though a small .PNG file of my windsordi avatar is still most likely how you’ll see me as it’s well known and easily reusable file)

As an educator, I have embraced the concept of Open Sharing and Learning thanks to solid teaching and modelling by fine folk in my PLN. Instead of trying to *hide my assets*, I have learned to *share but be digitally aware*. I track my digital footprint, I take care with passwords and I regularly review my digital reputation and identity.

First stop on the journey…

Can you avoid all this digital identity stuff?

The short answer is NO. … no more than you can avoid using the internet. Services and business are now online, … my provincial government expects to serve me online through web services, and indeed it is almost impossible to not be offered virtual contact as the primary point of contact, with some secondary, grudging possible options for a *real life* person.

How fast is this moving? An excellent brief review of the current Forrester research in this area is provided by Jeremiah Owyang in his business blog

So.. you have to function here… can you be private about it?

MAYBE… but remember – others won’t be;
Using twitterfriends -

• anyone can see who you talk to
• and, of course, who they talk with… and “share” you with

Using twittersheep -

• even the reputations of company you keep is public
• and I’m not even going to start on photo sharing and Facebook – that’s another entire session!

Remember – the social tools expect that you have “connectedness”. – once you start to participate in the social media it is *amazing* sphere of influence and interaction you can add to you teaching and learning strategies.

So:
Just like you carefully built and nurtured your financial and credit rating during your teen and early adult years; Just like you built your professional accreditation and reputation; Now it’s time to build your online reputation and social credibility.

Nothing to be afraid of – just some practical steps.

People’s screen names have become like a secondary identification… thus I am as well known (or even more so) as “windsordi” as I am as Diane Bédard. Both these identities need regular checks…

PEW identifies this as your …
Active Digital Footprint:

• This is Personal data made accessible online through deliberate posting or sharing of information by the user.

There are tools that know who you are (HINT: use them yourself!)

Let’s talk tech for a moment… how do these tools work?
How do sites know about you?… the key words *microformats*, *RDF* and *FOAF*

Microformats are the unseen bits and pieces that any site provides to enrich the content being presented. RDF and RDFa are ways of repurposing the visible content on screen… and FOAF – which stands for friend of a friend, is the way your connections get tracked and linked.

All this information may not even be visible to you on the site… but it is there, it can be scraped, and there are tools to view it and collect it. Don’t be afraid of it – be aware of it. Use it yourself.

There are browser add-ons or toolbars that allow you to easily see the microformat data on the page – and to see how quickly the information can be collected and shared.

So lets see how it works…
If you go to my Twitter profile – (https://twitter.com/windsordi)
and have the OPERATOR toolbar active (a semantic web toolbar) the Contacts tab will light up and reveal the contact names of everyone I chat with…

Another great semantic tool is IDENTIFY ( an RDFa plugin) -
The information and directions are at: Identify: Google People With Two Keystrokes -
The actual IDENTIFY browser plugin is at:
http://lab.madgex.com/identify/

Google makes good use of the microformat data and is very efficient at aggregating it into a user profile. Here’s my google identity.

Why it matters – your Online Reputation and YOUR Credibility

Not a horror story approach, but rather an awareness that digital hijacking is possible.. be aware that your reputation can be pwn’d.

1. Why, When & How to Protect Your Brand Online – This article summarizes what can happen when your online identity get taken… remember… this is your reputation… you are your own “brand…”
2. A Guide to Protecting Your Online Identity – This site provides a clear, simple to follow list of steps to Protecting Your Online Identity
3. KnowEm checking service – There are several good services to assist you with digital identity checking – here’s one

You can easily check your user name and see who *else* is presenting as *you* -

1. Site Connectivity - to see how your sites are connected… and which sites claim to be you (bottom section) but can’t be validated (these are the ones you likely want to check out) http://socialgraph-resources.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/samples/findyours.htmlFriends Call Me – (free) Call Me offers the ability to check usernames across more than 150 sites.
2. namechk – (free) Namechk checks username availability across 122 sites.

… and the most basic of all – Google yourself or Bing yourself!

You may be surprised at the pages of information about you… and see some things unexpected. I have found my Flick’r pictures in use a number of other sites!

The Wrong Way – The Right Way

• too many logons and passwords to remember?
• letting the browser or computer *remember me*?
• use the same password EVERYWHERE?
• have stickie notes stuck to your monitor?
• using Obvious security questions?
• actually told the truth about your birthday?
• flagged or pinned your home location on a map?

let’s talk password management and levels of logon…

the concept of having an identity management system is not new…companies have been trying to own this space:
1999 Microsoft “passport” (now Windows Live ID)
2008 “Facebook Connect”
2009 “Sign in with Twitter”

[Note: see a comparison of these last two.]
You need to understand how these services operate and then use something that fits your online style.

What is OpenID? -

OpenID is a way of identifying yourself no matter which web site you visit – an account creation tool and a logon option where you choose how much web sites get to know about you. You do NOT have to provide all the personal detail some sites think they have the right to ask. Two great, easy-to-read sites explain the concept…

• http://openidexplained.com/
• http://openid.net/

How to get an OpenID?

Surprise! You may already have one. If you use any of the following services, you already have your own OpenID… http://openid.net/get/

I’d highly recommend using a PIP – Personal Identity Portal
Many of the sites which have morphed their logon into an OpenID authentication, but I prefer to work with a third party site which is concerned for the authenticity . Verisign – one of the trusted names on the net for server certification now offers a personal certificated OpenID service
https://pip.verisignlabs.com/1click_howtouse.do

Where can you use your openID?

http://openiddirectory.com/ Many sites now offer this as a logon alternative. If your social media site doesn’t, use their “contact us” link and ask why not! Remember – have different levels of *you* – you can have different openIDs for different levels of risk. One for your open sharing social media sites… another one for serious interactions or purely professional logons. Remember that this virtual persona will accumulate all the microformats bits of data into a viewable ID, so separate your life into private/family VS professional compartments.

I’ve been asked how to replace the current crop of sloppy passwords at existing sites, with the new, clean OpenID. There is no easy answer here – yet. Some sites will let you reset completely, but most just allow new passwords, not new user logons unless you are willing to lose all your accumulated data and start fresh. You’ll have to decide for yourself where to cut loose. But trust me – you will be joining new sites and signing on for new online services… from now on, vow to stay clean with one OpenID.

Is this OpenID any safer than a strong password? No – if you are casual with the logon to the site you use as your OpenID and stick it to your monitor, then you are at as much risk as before. You still have to be responsible with your data. You still have to start with one STRONG password. There’s just a lot less to have to remember.

[HINT: a STRONG password is a minimum of eight characters, contains upper and lower case characters and numbers, and is not in the dictionary]

Shaping the Public *You*

You do have the power to correct and shape the microformat data that accumulates in your online ID. You can selectively emphasis the friends you are proud to associate with!

FOAF-a-matic is a simple online form approach which lets you describe yourself in RDF ( not all that difficult – honest!) and gives you a simple line of code to embed into your wiki, blog… etc.
http://www.ldodds.com/foaf/foaf-a-matic

And there are FOAF tools to let you see the result…
FOAF.Vix – FOAF Visualizer and Relation Explorer
http://foaf-visualizer.org/

If you just want to simply edit the information already collected, and not be bothered with embedding any code then follow these helpful hints – “Now You Can Change What Google Says About You” (even easier to do !) http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/now_you_can_change_what_google_says_about_you.php

If you create a valid ID for yourself, populate it well, and update it regularly – then it becomes much harder for someone else to be you virtually. Real identity theft is always an ongoing problem, but reputational theft becomes much harder. Online sources and data accumulators rank the data they collect… if you shape the bulk of it and populate it with the “good stuff” about you, the bad and misleading will still appear… but much lower down the list.

Earlier we visited my google ID… now you can see why it is as rich as it is. It is shaped with the good stuff… and I can alter it at will.

Sharing time….

Now that you know… teach your students…and your fellow colleagues… don’t *assume* they get it!

As students join social media sites or build class wikis, they should start with one secure OpenID.
As they start out into the co-op and work world, they should learn to shape the public persona they present.

QUIZZES
As a summary - Take a moment to check out the results of the online polls. How do you rate yourself?

• How many of these online identity bad habits are you guilty of? http://twtpoll.com/ar0blf
• What do you know about openID? http://twtpoll.com/vulunp
• How many of there pro-active steps have you done for your online ID and reputation? http://twtpoll.com/birrvw

Enjoy!

Recording (60 mins):

1. Elluminate recording