Identity Online - The Proposal

In light of the group discussion last week, here is a summary of the ideas and issues that will be introduced and discussed in our group wiki on the issue of 'Identity'. As we progress with this module our ideas and focus points are subject to change, however at this present point I think its safe to assume that the group members are all in agreement over the following information. Our Project will fall under two main headings, the issue of online identity-what it means, and the idea of deception within online identity. Within these two subheadings will be various questions we may wish to cover:What is Identity?
Exploring the question of identity, What is our identity in our real lives, how do we define it and what it means to have an online identity in contrast to a 'real life' identity. Whether there are any differences between these concepts? Does identity change once we enter cyberspace? why? Theorists/sources of interest may include the following:
Understanding Human Behavior in Cyberspace By Yair Amichai-Hamburger (2005, Oxford University Press), (How the Internet enables people to express elements of their personality that they cannot express in the real word, the social psychology).
Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice By Martha MacCaughey, Michael D. Ayers (2003, Routledge), (understanding the impact of the Internet on politics today, collective online identity).
Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice By Andrew Feenberg (2004 Rowman & Littlefield)
Sex in Cyberspace: Men Who Pay for Sex by Sarah Earle, Keith Sharpe (2007Ashgate Publishing, Ltd), (self-explanitory title! Research based on online forums and chat rooms)
Identity: Cultural Change and the Struggle for Self By Roy F. Baumeister (1986Oxford University Press)
Culture and Identity: Critical Theories By Ross Abbinnett, chapter entitled 'Postmodern and the aesthetic' (2003 Sage Publications Inc).
http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/TGAME.html
www.newmediastudies.com/resourc2.html
www.bathtub.yoga.com/blog/myspace-vs-facebook-or-why-facebook-needs-artistpa ges.html
www.reviews.digitaltrends.com/guide92.html
Looking at social networking sites and how they are constructed. Who do they aim at? Is there a 'type' of person who joins these sites, and does it say something about one's 'identity' depending on which site you choose to be part of? eg. The online society you involve yourself with and how this may impact you. Does identity change once a social networking site enters the equation? Sites we may choose to look at (and have already looked at), are primarily facebook and myspace, although bebo and univillage are also of interest, as well as WELL and equivelant sites
How do Myspace and Facebook differentiate? Myspace and the idea of a 'glorifed CV', which is used by most people for networking and meeting people across the world. Facebook on the other hand being almost in the same vein of Friendsreunited.com because you only add people you know or have known, and it being used by primarily by university students. In addition it is arguably more user friendly.
Give an example (or two) of a case whereby online identity online has played in key role in changing someone's life. (currently finding examples of this within our group)
DECEPTION:
Issues that can be covered in this section are ideas concerning online deception in regards to identity. Are people who they say they are? Ideas about Identity theft. False Profiles on social networking sites and how much this really matters, if at all.
Dating websites may also fall under this category, and how much deception (if at all) is used when trying to lure those of the opposite sex
'bands' online, I know through personal experience of working within the online PR of music that myspace music is not regulated and controlled by the 'band' or the artists themselves (once they become well-known), the PR team will usually monitor, change, update and 'add' friends on the myspace of various artists posing as the artist themselves. Is this deception? or Publicity? Where does one draw the line.
Other things to take into consideration:
The work of Erving Goffman

The Culture of the Internet - (week 3)

Week 3: In this weeks lesson we discussed the culture of the internet. We looked at Eric Raymonds arguement on What is a hacker? - Raymond suggests that 'hackers made the unix operating system what it is today.' In addition, we also looked at Richard Matthew Stallman - he is software and freedom activist, hacker and software developer. With the launch of GNU project, general public license, he created the free software movement.

Unix - is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1969

Linux - is one of the most prominent examples of free software and open source development.

The next thing which we discussed was 'identity online' and one of the main questions we wanted to address is "How does this community form social networking sites?"

In relation to this, we examined 'Second Life', which if im honest I knew nothing about until I started this class. At first glance it kind of reminded me of "The Sims" a computer game which is - the idea of the virtual world created by (Computer-generated imagery)

"Second life" is a downloadable client program that enables its users, called 'residents', to interact with each other through motional avators providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. So-called residence can explore, meet other residence, socialise, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another. - This source is arguably being used to stimulate real life events Example:

In my opinion, the whole idea of 'Second life' seems ludacris to me because it is arguably creating a sense of illusion, I dont understand why someone would pay 'real' money for (CGI) houses, cars and land which literally dont exist. Outrageous if you ask me. What's even more astonishing is than a woman became a millionare by selling these products on 'Second life'.

General Analysis of a Blog/ Week 1&2

Well I suppose I should start off by giving a general analysis of what I understand by the term blog. I believe that a blog is a like a journal used to publish your thoughts and opinions which inevitably can be didactic.
This is my first attempt at writing an online blog so I hope that I make it a good one. I realise that blogs are usually conversational however, I will try to be academic when necessary. I will be using this blog for academic purposes only which means that I will be giving a detailed analysis of what Ive learnt in each lesson and what I am hoping to achieve in this multimedia project module. I believe that writing a blog is a much easier way of communicating with my group as a posed to an email as it enables you to post videos, emails and links if need be.

My group includes Sara, Miray, Krisztina, Ioannis; our theme is identity online, which we have entitled 'Wiki identity'.

In the first lesson we had, we distingushied the main differences between the internet and the World Wide Web. One of the main differences is that the internet carries the web whereas (WWW) carries things which are said to be more graphical.

Tim Berners Lee - CERN- was the worlds first-ever web server http://info.cern.ch/

and http://public.web.cern.ch/public/content /chapters/aboutcern/achi. gives you an indepth understanding of how (WWW) actually works.

Week 2: In this weeks lesson, we expanded on our knowledge of what Wiki's are and how to edit good ones. In addition, we learnt about HTML. This is a text based file used to create a basic web page. We were also given the opportunity to attempt one, which at first looks confusing but then it is made clear when explained.

Towards the end of the lesson we formed into our groups, to discuss what ideas we had to make this project on 'identity online' work. Some interesting issues were raised which we are going to expand on when we meet up on thursday for a group discussion.

For next weeks lesson I am going to try and gather some case studies which I can find on 'Identity online' and also looking at how the convergence and synergy of new media technologies contributes to this.