SuperSatellite

Centralized Socialism

// April 16th, 2008 // Life and Times, Web

The great part about today’s blog, is that the people most likely to read through it won’t get much out of it because it’s all old news, and the people that would benefit the most probably will skip it because usually my tech blogs aren’t so entertaining. So, if my tech stuff normally doesn’t interest you, take the time to read this one. The rest of you, read it anyway. You owe me. You know why.

I’ve been thinking a lot more about the social web lately. Hopefully, it’s been thinking about me too (Why won’t you return my calls?!). My experiment with operating solely through NetVibes was neither a success or failure. You could call it a “failcess.” Some things worked, some didn’t, which I think is to be expected. After all, Facebook doesn’t want to reveal their whole system through their API (Application Program Interface), since they want you to keep going to their actual site so they can show you ads. Heck, MySpace hasn’t even opened an API for use (shame on you MySpace, you’re in danger of becoming the next Netscape as it is). So as a social web consumer, there’s really only so much that you can do effectively. As a social information provider, however, that’s a different story.

How many sites do you have accounts on? MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, Digg, Hi5, Beebo, Flickr, LiveJournal, Technorati, Last.FM…? This list can go on and on. The great part is that there are sites making a good effort to help you centralize ownership of your web identity. SocialThing, Profilactic, FriendFeed, Tumblr, and plenty of others. The best part is, not only do these sites help you mashup feeds and information from friends, they can help you take some ownership over your own identity (they know how to make a mean chocolate shake too). More than any other time, potential employers and clients are doing background checks on you through things like Google. Imagine for a moment your name was John Wilson. Are you confident all the hits would be right if someone was looking for you? Turns out, John Wilson is not an uncommon name. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could send someone somewhere, where you maintain (the appearance of) full disclosure, and can provide correct, confident links to sites about you?

First step, buy your name as a domain. Vanity domains are becoming increasingly popular (and occasionally sexy), and can be valuable as a tool in promoting yourself professionally (I’m looking at you, Midwest Melissa). It also keeps someone from trying to be a fake you, like your evil, goateed twin that keeps trying to take your place. Suck it up and spend the $7.95 to register it, then spend a few more bucks either on hosting or point it at a blog or whatnot. Step two, I mentioned Profilactic, which is what I am using here to handle my social identity control. Granted this domain is not a vanity name, but it’s still the one I send people to. On the sidebar, I created a section called “My Stuff” and plugged in the code Profilactic gives you:

Now, I have an instant gateway to my sites, and my visitors can be confident that anyone else out there with my name can be distinguished from me-me. Not only that, but it also creates a convenient way for me to get to my own stuff as well. In effect, what you are creating is your own social portal type of page. A page that becomes a central repository of links and gateways to the things you want people to identify with you (you might leave AdultFriendFinder off that list, just a suggestion). Providing a resource like that will also discourage people from looking elsewhere. If you have two MySpace pages, one nice and professional, and one that you made three years ago that you forgot the password to where you have…sexy pictures…having this kind of portal you can preempt a search and send someone to the current page.

Hopefully you see the obvious value this would create to you as a web site consumer. Centralization is the big thing now. Finding ways to simplify and streamline access to your data, wherever it might be located. Having your own site also opens up additional centralized solutions, like using your own blog/site URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) as an OpenID login (I recommend MyVidoop as a provider). Not everyone is on the OpenID train yet, but it’s growing fast. It never hurts to have options like this available to you should you want to leverage them, and it all starts with taking control of your identity. Know the size of your digital footprint. It’s easy to forget just how much stuff you put out there and make available. It’s also easy for it to get out of date. The better job you do controlling it all, the better you ultimately serve yourself.