1. How WE create I
H+ Summit * June 2010
Heather Schlegel * heathervescent

2. My Interest
• We don’t pro-actively create identities
• Structures encourage behaviors
• Exploration of my personal brand
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 2

3. The Mass Age
• Marshall McLuhan
• Douglas Hofstadter
• Jaron Lanier
• NY Times
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 3

4. How I think about this
• The way we create, experience and
respond to technology
• Value-sets: And the underlying values
encoded in a system
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 4
Photo Credit: Machine Project

5. Who are you?
Always the same person?
I’m not.
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 5

6. Fragmented (Online) Identities
• Anonymity
• Pseudonyms
• When your Identity takes
on a life of it’s own?
– Success as stagnation
– Pigeon-holed
– Strange Loops: Living in another’s mind
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 6
Photo Credit: Viss

7. Extending our Identities
• Identify Externally
– Brands, Cars, Devices, Objects
– Groups: Institutions, Communities, Movements
– Music
• Multiple Identities
– Private
– Anonymous
– Alternates: Avatars, Game Role-playing
• Physical modifications
– Plastic surgery
– Tattooing, Beauty enhancements
• Cognitive enhancers
– Attention, focus, “energy”
– Research, Training and Drugs
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 7
Photo Credit: Brazil

8. The Doors of Expression
• Second Life
• Gaming Worlds
• Blogging, Twitter & MySpace
• Personal Brands
• Facebook ID Lockdown
• ID Theft: Single White Female
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 8

9. June 2010 | Humanity Plus
Photo Credit: Evonne Amoration

10. Do we get lost? (I get lost)
• Avatars: Embodiment = Immersion
• Caught in streams of influence
• The Audience Effect
• Participation & Motivation
• Privacy
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 10

11. June 2010 | Humanity Plus 11
Photo Credit: Evonne Amoration

12. Self-Value
• What do we end up valuing?
• What types of identities are valued?
• How does one value self?
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 12

13. Ownership of our Souls
• Who owns your identity?
– Projected
– Perception
– Remembered
• Which parts are (truly) ours?
• Betrayal
“I don’t even see you, I see the mental image of you in my mind.”
“I have conversations with the person you are in my mind.”
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 13
Photo Credit: Evonne Amoration

14. The Truth is Easier
• Real time life tracking & Public Diaries
– Blogging (& Life Streaming)
– Twitter
– Flickr
• Physically
– 23 & me
– Zeo
• Collective History
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 14

15. And the point…
• Identity is not created in a vacuum
• Iterative, Evolves
• The medium is the mæssage is the
distraction.
• In the end, I may create WE
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 15

16. Finally: Who are you?
I – I hardly know, sir,
just at present – at least
I know who I was when
I got up this morning,
but I think I must have
been changed several
times since then.
- Lewis Carroll m
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 16
Photo Credit: Jeff Christiansen

17. Thank You
Heather Schlegel
aka heathervescent, The Purple Tornado
puissant@heathervescent.com
www.heathervescent.com
June 2010 | Humanity Plus 17