the POWER of the social web

1. Where do YOU LEAVE your digital FOOT PRINTS ?
2. Lots of variety of things to do, explore, and experience.
3. Social – friendships,
4. Finding and exploring affinity with others. Connecting & sharing interests.
5. Skillz* Developing technical skills necessary to participate in the 21st century.
6. World is at your fingertips. Knowledge and Answers are available anywhere/everywhere/anytime.

7. Learning from experts. Access to experts.

8. Access & opportunity to connect with your “rockstars”
9. Not just consumers -& not just about consuming content.
10. Creating content. Participating and making contributions to the social landscape.
11. Dream and express yourself. Reflect, reveal, experiment & try things on -self-expression defines you – via your blog, videos, comments, avatars, names & profiles.
12. Share what you find and what you create. Share what you know. You become a teacher.
13. Teamwork – collaboration
14. Opportunities and potential are endless. Opportunity to help others -opportunity  to recognize your global responsibility. opportunity to learn to use technology ethically and responsibly.
15. What footprints are you leaving?
16. Unlike in sand the digital footprints you make and leave once made do not wash away
17. What you do online are your digital footprints that make up your digital persona – they are an extension of you.
They represent you.
You have to be aware, monitor, and filter them. You have to take care of them.
You have to take responsibility for them.
You have to be in charge of your digital self….
The social web is an amazing place that enhances and enriches our personal and professional lives.

Think about this… online you are … and you become … who you know, what you link to, what you share, what you bookmark, what comments you leave, what you blog, the pictures & videos you post, the art you create, how you express yourself, where you go…

the avatar as a representation of “self”

One of my current students uses her dog, Bishop, as her profile image. I love that she does that. It gives me a warm feeling about her. She mentioned in one of our discussions that she chose him because she was concerned about her privacy and security.

She said:

I think it is funny that you mention my use of my Bishop for an image. I had a reason. In a class we had on cyber security, it said to never use a real image of yourself unless you want it broadcasted. We learned how to build an Avatar. I do not like my Avatar because when I made it, the selections did not include large or handicapped people as a choice. Everything was “beautiful people” and personally, I think that is very wrong. I have never gone out there to look further to see if there are other places (I used Yahoo) to see if you can build a real person. So I chose Bishop as he is my familiar.


As soon as i read her post i did a google search and started playing with 2D avatar generators to see what i could come up with. Below are links to the ones i found an played with. The resulting images i have inserted in to this post.

Avatar Generators:

  1. http://www.zwinky.com/
  2. http://www.faceyourmanga.it/faceyourmanga.php?lang=eng
  3. http://unique.rasterboy.com/
  4. http://www.tektek.org/dream/
  5. http://illustmaker.abi-station.com/index_en.shtml
  6. http://www.doppelme.com/
  7. http://en.gravatar.com/
  8. http://www.gamedition.com/31/Avatar_Creator

Articles:

These last 2 are my SecondLife 3D avatars. I lived in my newbie SL skin (left) for almost a year before changing her to a more “realistic” me (right) : ) Not sure why, but i never messed with her looks much till i saw someone walk by that looked just like me, and then i started thinking about it and wanted her to look more like the real me, so i plumped her up and got some “good” hair to look more like mine. Then i didn’t touch her looks again till i had to do a presentation in SL (https://etap687.edublogs.org/secondlife-if-my-avatar-could-talk/) and wanted to represent myself more realistically and less like a newbie. Have not really touched her since… i had a hard time finding appropriate clothes. I think about the online representation of self often. Colleagues and i have talked about, especially in the hyper-sexualized world of secondlife. I note it everytime i log into some place on the social web and see how friends and colleagues choose to represent themselves, or when i am required to upload yet another image to another profile somewhere… I am charmed by those who choose animals or some image that whispers insight into the person. I like that invention and creativity very much. None of the new little avatars i generated “really” look like me. There is a suggestion of me, i suppose. Brown skin, hair, and eyes. long curly hair… i really like the little one with the black skirt and shirt, but i will not be running around the web changing my profile images to any of these anytime soon.

I understand and respect the need for privacy, and for some, not wanting one’s “real” image floating about the net. For some there may be a sense of loss of control. I guess i feel “in charge” of what i put out there.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/13/research.privacy
http://news.research.ohiou.edu/notebook/index.php?item=467
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/technology/internet/13iht-cache13.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-social-networks-bring

http://technology.findlaw.com/articles/00006/011161.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/
http://internet.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_we_represent_ourselves_on_the_internet

http://savageminds.org/2008/06/16/the-presentation-of-self-in-virtual-life/

http://internet.suite101.com/article.cfm/online_image_is_representation_of_our_real_self