Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Tama Leaver / @tamaleaver

The Ends of Online Identity?

11 October 2011

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Outline

1. Movie of the (absent) Book

2. Looking Beyond Agency?

3. Facebook, Timeline and the Future?

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

I. The Movie of the (absent) Book

The Final Cut (2004)

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

The Final Cut (2004)

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

A world where unborn babies are wired for life-long recording (to be accessed after death).

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

After death, a life-history is presented as a movie, a ‘rememory’ shown at the funeral.

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Rememories (history) are shaped by cutters …

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Cutters see life histories as an elaborate database to be carefully shaped, forming a legacy …

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

For those wired, escape means elaborate privacy intervention (tattoos filled with disruptive metals).

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Protests occurs, believing the surveillance fundamentally changes who we are …

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

But rememories last ‘forever’ …

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

The Final Cut …

Agency?

Parental choice about children’s identity and surveillance?

History?

The right to forget?

The right to be forgotten?

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

II. Looking Beyond Agency?

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

The Networked Self / Networked Publics

Persistance

Replicability

Scalability

Searchability (boyd, 2010)

+ Ownership (Aufderheide, 2010)

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Identity 2.0 (Helmond, 2010)

In Perpetual Beta

Networked

(other) User-generated identity

Distributed

Indexed

Persistent

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Web Presence (Allen, 2010; Leaver, 2010)

Internet Footprints

Digital Shadows

Social Media Rivers

“Content-generated users.”

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Shared assumptions of Identity 2.0, the Networked Self, and Web Presence

Individual agency is central.

Presumption that identity should be controlled, curated and managed by the ‘self’ being presented.

When agency is not the controlling influence, this is seen as an issue to be overcome.

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

What about the Ends of Identity?

Following Goffman (1959) if frontstage is self performed, and backstage is more essential self, who builds the stage, and who remembers the performance(s)?

Before (online) agency: before birth, until the ‘reigns’ of online identity tools and performances are inherited?

After (online) agency: who looks after online traces of self once the self they refer to dies?

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Parents as initial identity curators …

Parents/guardians set the initial parameters of online identity.

From ultrasounds photos to cute toddler pics, losing that first tooth etc …

How do and should young people ‘inherit’ online identities?

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Parents: Framing Online Identities?

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Memorializing Performed Digital Selves?

What happens to profiles, accounts, photos, videos and other social traces after someone dies?

Do we have the right to delete it all?

Should it be memorialized?

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Gravestones as Databases

Living Headstones comes with 5 years of QR-code driven database access about the deceased person.

www.monuments.com/livingheadstone

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

PassMyWill.com

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

legacylocker.com

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Who Do You Think You Are?

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

III. Facebook, Timeline and the Future

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

The Shift to Real Names (nymwars) …

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Facebook: Deletes Kids

Source: https://www.facebook.com/help/search/?q=kids+on+facebook

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

But … Timeline: Starts at birth.

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Timeline: Curate Losses

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Facebook: Memorialize or Delete

Source: https://www.facebook.com/help?page=842

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Facebook: Memorializing Accounts

Source: https://www.facebook.com/help?page=842

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Gravebook?

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Gravebook?

Legacybook?

Historybook?

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

References Allen, M. (2009). Web Presence: Understanding persistent and interlinked content as the basis of

identity formation and promotion through the contemporary Internet, Communication, Creativity and Global Citizenship: Australia and New Zealand Communications Association Annual Conference, Brisbane.

Aufderheide, P. (2010). Copyright, Fair Use, and Social Networks. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (pp. 274-303). Routledge.

boyd, danah. (2010). Social Network Sites and Networked Publics: Affordances, Dymanics and Implications. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (pp. 39-58). Routledge.

Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Book.

Helmond, A. (2010). Identity 2.0: Constructing identity with cultural software. www.annehelmond.nl, PDF: http://www.annehelmond.nl/wordpress/wp-content/uploads//2010/01/helmond_identity20_dmiconference.pdf.

Leaver, T. (2010) I tweet therefore I am? Challenges in learning identity by teaching web presence, Teaching and Learning Forum, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup.

Papacharissi, Z. (2010). Conclusion: A Networked Self. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (pp. 304-318). Routledge.

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of TechnologyCRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Questions? Comments?

Or find me later …

www.tamaleaver.net

@tamaleaver

t.leaver@curtin.edu.au

11 October 2011Internet Research 12, Seattle.