As I work on the chapters for the book, I’m incorporating some of what I’ve been writing on these topics in recent years. Each of the following posts seems relevant to the chapter topic, “Online Identity”. (Special thanks to Josh Sprague, who put these pages together.)
Chapter 5: Online Identity
2008
Your Online “Existence” Belongs to Others
He has it right the first time: It is Facebook’s site, and they have every right to enforce ridiculous and counterproductive rules. Due process? It’s not a judicial system and we shouldn’t treat it that way.
more…
2007
It’s Your Stuff? Maybe Not
The case here is about customers’ ability to use a service they purchased. Google is reneging on its promise. But the bigger issue is in the latter part of this quote — whether the photos, text, videos, financial information and other things you put online are yours, or whether they end up belonging, in practice if not principle, to the company you use to store and/or display them. more…
Eco-Blog Bought for Big Money
The skeptics will call this more evidence of big media co-opting emerging media. I call it a natural flow. more…
Note to Facebook Acquaintances: Please Don’t Message Me There
I’ve been using Facebook mostly to get a feel for its possibilities, not as a place to do business or keep all that close track of anything. I logged onto the site today and found four messages from people who either already knew my email address or who could have easily found it. I’ve responded via email, not via Facebook, because I have no idea when I’ll log back into the site. more…
2006
Your Data or Google’s? Some Small Progress
Big problem, though: Google will continue to reserve the right to keep the data you’ve stored in its servers forever, and use that data as it sees fit. more…
What’s Up with Voterstory.org?
Tom Evslin asks: “VoterStory.org – What is the Story?” This site is asking citizens to keep an eye on electronic voting machines tomorrow, Election Day. more…
Using the Web to Make a Case
Floyd Landis, who won the Tour de France bicycle marathon, was charged with doping violations. He’s put up his defense on floydlandis.com, replete with documentation and detail. more…
Taking it Back? Hard to Do in Google’s World
Reuters: Google lets slip talk of online storage service: Google Inc. is preparing to offer online storage to Web users, creating a mirror image of data stored on consumer hard drives, according to company documents that were mistakenly released on the Web. The existence of the previously rumored GDrive online storage service surfaced after a blogger discovered apparent notes in a slide presentation by Google executives published on Google’s site after its analysts presentation day last Thursday.
more…