“Identity is Prismatic”
Chris Poole (m00t) at Web 2.0 Summit 2011
This is the presentation given by Chris Poole that introduced the idea that “Identify is Prismatic”. He presents this a a direct counter-point to the policy of Facebook and Google that “Identity is Black and White, who you are online is who your are off line”.
Web 2.0 Summit 2011: Chris Poole, “High Order Bit” http://youtu.be/e3Zs74IH0mc
At the time I had five different twitter accounts (as well as many other sites branching off these), each with very different purposes and reflecting different interests, or part of my identity;
@ChristophHewett - My primary account and focus on general activities and thoughts.
@resonNTegrity - or Resonant Integrity was an early attempt of my wife and I to explore business concept (conventional and unconventional) online.
@_the_kennel_ - Due to my AFL football club, Western Bulldogs, having low twitter engagement at the time, I created an account for fans to engage and share their passion for the club.
@takeaFRESHbreak - As a non-drinker of three years, I had lots of tips, tricks and beverage reviews that I wanted to share with people who are teatotalling for the first time, and to promote a modern temperance culture.
@(youllneverknow) - Of course that isn’t the actually account name, but I did (and do) have anonymous account, which does come in handy at times.
The only place these account had unison was in me - occasionally I was cross-posting as different identities, conversing between accounts and RTing posts across the varied audiences. Each account had various levels of Identity/Anonymity and I managed this very carefully for each account.
In the talk Chris defines Prismatic as the a distinction between Identified and Anonymous behaviors online - but he doesn’t go to any length to describe the behaviours, or even less examine what being prismatic means for our sense of self. And I’ve been disappointed that most of the rhetoric since them seems to be focused on this Identity/Anonymity distiction. In reality, the Prismatic Self is (in it very nature) is more variegated, encompassing both of these notions of self, and much more.
