Exegesis
Throughout my web presence creation, I had to make several decisions involving the layout of my nodes, which web 2.0 tools I used and the type and scope of personal information I chose to display on my web presence. People need some form of information upon which to form a decision about others. Since only small amounts of information is being publicly displayed across the web presence (most of which is on the subject of snowboarding) the only identity or reputation that can be forged is that of a snowboarder as there is no other information to form the basis of a reputation. Thus the theme of my web presence is snowboarding, and the identity or “self” being conveyed is that of a young, Caucasian male who has a fond interest and passion for snowboarding.
“Our reputations are forged when people make judgements based upon the mosaic of information available about us.” (Solove, 2007, pg 30). This statement is particularly true when using web presences as an example. In my web presence, the only information crucial to an identity was on the topic of snowboarding, so any viewers who see this would only be able to make judgements upon the “mosaic of information” displayed, Thus constructing the identity of a youthful snowboarder.
One could observe that major platforms for conveying a self online have been developing over time: homepages, social networks, blogs, micro-blogs and the life stream. Each has quite specific ways for conveying a self online. Search engines have had a significant consequence both in the construction and in the presentation of one’s identity online. Search engines index the platforms where identity is presented, they also organize and Construct an identity online. They operate as an essential position where identity performance is indexed. Identity construction and identity performance have considerably changed with the advent of search engines, therefore identity has to be re-evaluated. One may state that the combination of engine, platform and user has resulted in a new type of identity: Identity 2.0. This identity, within the era of Web 2.0, is always in a constant state of change and it is never complete. (Helmond, 2010)
The choice in layout of my central node helps to construct the identity and theme of snowboarding. The use of snowboarding action photo’s as header images, or banners. As the header is one of the first things the viewer will see when opening the website, a sense of an alpine environment is conveyed. The bright pink coloured font used for the title of the website also connotations to the bright fluorescent clothing and snowboards worn by “freestyle” snow boarders.
In my web presence, several web 2.0 tools are used. The free site builder “weebly.com” was chosen for the ease in the signing up process and the relative simplicity of the actual site building. Several other web 2.0 tools are also employed. The micro blogging service, twitter was chosen due to the surplus of snowboarding related information widely available on Twitter, useful ‘people’ to ‘follow’ on twitter such as FineMthotham, which is a twitter account that posts Weather information every half an hour. Flickr was chosen solely because of its main function, to upload and share photos, in this case to share photo’s of my ‘Identity 2.0’s’ snowboarding adventures.
For the second node, the blogging service Wordpress has been employed. I decided to use Wordpress as I could manipulate the menu items into links which linked back to the main node. The “Twenty Ten” presentation template was chosen as it is short, simple and readable.
In conclusion, people require a basis of information from which to form a decision about others and in the case of web 2.0. The type and scope of this information as well as the way this information is displayed will influence the identity constructed via the web presence.
References:
Helmond, A. (2010). Identity 2.0: Constructing identity with cultural software. University of Amsterdam.
Solove, D. (2007). The Future Of Reputation: Gossip, Rumour, and Privacy on the Internet. Yale University Press.
“Our reputations are forged when people make judgements based upon the mosaic of information available about us.” (Solove, 2007, pg 30). This statement is particularly true when using web presences as an example. In my web presence, the only information crucial to an identity was on the topic of snowboarding, so any viewers who see this would only be able to make judgements upon the “mosaic of information” displayed, Thus constructing the identity of a youthful snowboarder.
One could observe that major platforms for conveying a self online have been developing over time: homepages, social networks, blogs, micro-blogs and the life stream. Each has quite specific ways for conveying a self online. Search engines have had a significant consequence both in the construction and in the presentation of one’s identity online. Search engines index the platforms where identity is presented, they also organize and Construct an identity online. They operate as an essential position where identity performance is indexed. Identity construction and identity performance have considerably changed with the advent of search engines, therefore identity has to be re-evaluated. One may state that the combination of engine, platform and user has resulted in a new type of identity: Identity 2.0. This identity, within the era of Web 2.0, is always in a constant state of change and it is never complete. (Helmond, 2010)
The choice in layout of my central node helps to construct the identity and theme of snowboarding. The use of snowboarding action photo’s as header images, or banners. As the header is one of the first things the viewer will see when opening the website, a sense of an alpine environment is conveyed. The bright pink coloured font used for the title of the website also connotations to the bright fluorescent clothing and snowboards worn by “freestyle” snow boarders.
In my web presence, several web 2.0 tools are used. The free site builder “weebly.com” was chosen for the ease in the signing up process and the relative simplicity of the actual site building. Several other web 2.0 tools are also employed. The micro blogging service, twitter was chosen due to the surplus of snowboarding related information widely available on Twitter, useful ‘people’ to ‘follow’ on twitter such as FineMthotham, which is a twitter account that posts Weather information every half an hour. Flickr was chosen solely because of its main function, to upload and share photos, in this case to share photo’s of my ‘Identity 2.0’s’ snowboarding adventures.
For the second node, the blogging service Wordpress has been employed. I decided to use Wordpress as I could manipulate the menu items into links which linked back to the main node. The “Twenty Ten” presentation template was chosen as it is short, simple and readable.
In conclusion, people require a basis of information from which to form a decision about others and in the case of web 2.0. The type and scope of this information as well as the way this information is displayed will influence the identity constructed via the web presence.
References:
Helmond, A. (2010). Identity 2.0: Constructing identity with cultural software. University of Amsterdam.
Solove, D. (2007). The Future Of Reputation: Gossip, Rumour, and Privacy on the Internet. Yale University Press.
