I’ve finally, finally, finally invested some time and energy in this, my new blog … and it feels good.
The idea is that Sparkplug 9 is the focus of my digital life. It’s the hub connecting all the spokes of my online interactions.
- Sites
So the latest sites I’ve found useful and interesting are in Links, courtesy of delicious. - Photos
Photos that I’ve considered good enough to upload to Flickr are in Photos. - Books
The recent inhabitants of my bookshelf, nicely organized and maintained thanks to Shelfari, are in Books. - News updates
Nonsense that reflects my momentary state of mind is in Ephemera, thanks to Twitter. - Videos
Videos and little screenshot movies I’ve uploaded to YouTube stream into Videos.
And they all – plus anything that doesn’t quite fit into any of the above categories – make up my online footprint.
Overall I’m pretty happy with how it all fits. It’s all very web 2.0 to be able to link bits and pieces from many different sites. Ideally, YouTube would have a better way to stream your videos onto your site … I’m not sure that having them all appear in one video player is the best option. But overall: not bad.
The beauty of it all is that it’s so easy with WordPress, the blogging software I use. Most major web 2.0 companies supply WordPress plugins to add their functionality to your site. And if they don’t some enterprising and generous plugin writer has, and is sharing the fruits of his labor.
Online identity is a complex thing … we worry about who owns it, we look for different ways to analyze it, we want to control it, and we worry about who will find it.
As for me, I’m just going to worry about creating it. Or, more accurately, living it. I’ll let the chips fall where they may … since the only worse than having a negative online identity is having no digital footprint at all.