I came across an article on the Pentagon and NSA’s potential use of social networks. It is meant to scare, shock, and alarm you, but I think it highlights some very important concepts in online identity:
1. Managing Your Authorized Identity
2. Managing Your Relationships
3. Detecting Conflicts of Interest
Managing Your Authorized Identity
The Internet is a highly effective and sticky communication channel. Therefore, you can leverage it to build a portfolio and a reputation, but with that will evolve peripheral perspectives of your identity. Some of these perspectives will, by the nature of the Web, have higher attention ratios. Therefore, I have found it is critical for you to maintain an authoritative, or at least authorized, version of your identity. Here are a couple of mine: billrice.org and my LinkedIn Profile. Why is this important? And how do you do it? Well the ongoing debate over Fred Wilson’s self-edit to Wikipedia regarding his identity highlights both questions. It was important because another Wikipedia entry referenced him, but linked to an incorrect “Fred Wilson” identity, which causes confusion at the least and at the worst in a different contest potential identity theft or slander. As to the important question of how do you properly correct your identity when it is misrepresented–we have a dilemma what is authoritative. Do we trust the embellishments of a proud self or the third party perceptions of the community around the identity?
Managing Your Relationships
This is an important component to identity and increasing hard to manage, particularly as it occurs on the Internet. Social Networks like LinkedIN, Plaxo, and others encourage indiscriminate weak relationship building. I am just know thinking about this concept, but I think it is a dangerous practice as our relationships often define us or at least contribute to the perception others form of us.
Detecting Conflicts of Interest
I think detecting conflicts of interest (pdf) is going to become a crucial and very important body of research for Internet commerce. Most consumers are using the Internet as a research tool to investigate their decisions and purchases. So, know what happens when your buying research and decision incorporates information from a hard to detect conflict of interest? This is best demonstrated with an example:
Let’s say you are looking for a lead management solution (full disclosure: this is the business I am in). So, logically you go to Google and search for “compare lead management software” and on the front page of the search result you find the perfect site: http://www.compare-lead-management.com and on the front page it confirms you have definately hit the jackpot.
You need a lead management system now. Which solution is best for you? We can help you decide.
You continue your research and you see a great feature comparison chart that firewalls Leads360’s product and Leads360’s gracious acceptance as the best product in the market. Notice their top competitor, icoSales (full disclosure: my company) is not listed.
Who do you think authors this site? Well let’s take a look:
http://www.compare-lead-management.com
http://www.leads360.com
http://www.lead-management.com
http://www.thinklogic.net
http://www.betterleadmanagement.com
See the inherent conflict of interest that is very hard to detect by the average consumer looking for a lead management solution?
You may have noticed a bit of a redesign of my personal blog here. I have recently become re-fascinated by online identity and the social graph concept. Being an ex-intelligence officer (no oxymoron jokes) it’s in my blood–wanting to understand who people are and what motivates them to do what they do.
Michael Daugherty is discussing. 
Michael Daugherty 3:10 pm on July 30, 2006 Permalink
Bill,
So true…one thing that this new “information age” lifestyle brings? In the past, you could manage “political” relationships, by “vague” relationships with folks. You know, set a good “impression” and leave very little behind for folks to examine, post conversation, to really “dig” into what you said…who you were, what your ideas are. This is intimidating to many, many “empty suit” politicians in American business. They are all, looks, bravado, and “executive air”, and no real substance. This hit me the most, when I was finishing my MBA at your alma-mater, University of Phoenix, Online. You couldn’t really “hide” your lack of knowledge…your interaction with instructors and fellow students was there for others to discover. So you better know your stuff…because lots of folks who do know there stuff would be able to point out its “lack-of-substance”. Will this mean the end of the empty-suit-political-animal-idealess-void-pretty-boy/girl-executive? Probably not…but hopefully it will cull the herd of the glut of them we have now!
Regards,
Doc