Posted 7:15 PM (1) comments

Identity or Persona

P. T. Ong takes the time to blog his thoughts on the question of Identity vs. Persona which I've gone on about for some time. His conclusion is that, while he agrees with my thoughts and those of Timothy Grayson on this, we may be trying to stop a 25-foot storm surge with a 5-foot high levee. He concludes:

"I think the term identity is so overused in both technical and pop culture that it has been rendered not-very-useful for technical discussions -- it might actually be a source of confusion. I would suggest, when we need more exact terms, we should use words with less cultural burden -- like persona; and, we need to find a word/phrase to refer to these unique things that are people (and objects) -- perhaps entity."

He may be, and probably is, right. But it's very hard to have to give up perfectly good words because others have perverted their meaning.

Posted 8:18 AM (0) comments

ID for the l337

In a story about the upcoming release of the Xbox 360 game console from Microsoft, "Flatscreens.biz" reports that you can: "Express your digital identity through your Gamertag and gamer card." Now, I've no idea what a "gamertag" or a "gamercard" is (perhaps related to an Infocard? That Kim Cameron has his finger in every Microsoft pie!).

Still, it's the young gamers who grow up to be the young executives who drive technology adoption. Introducing them to identity concepts early can't be a bad thing.

Posted 8:24 AM (1) comments

Crying in the wilderness, again.

Even Esther Dyson, it seems, fails to grasp the distinction between "identity" and "persona." In an otherwise marvelously thoughtful piece on the loss of anonymity, she says:

"I think many people will move pretty rapidly from no identity to multiple identities. Whether you're simply an individual attempting to remain fluid and not get caught in a single identity (only a studious geek, or only a fun-loving mom or a talented musician)..."

It's a jarring note, to me, and I hope to you. We - as individuals - can have only a single identity. We're born with it, we die with it. In between, we developed multiple persons. In between, we may even attempt to convince others that our "identity" is different than it really is.

Read Esther's piece, because it is thought provoking, but remember that you cannot (even if you're schizophrenic) have multiple identities.