My internet identity journey started with Web 2.0/CCK08 and the beginnings of trying to internalize what Stephen meant when he said
“that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks (of people and machine).
Exposed for the first time to the mechanics of WordPress and writing a reflective blog, shared openly, was a very different experience. The same went for navigating through the mechanics of RSS which was my first attempt to connect with other CCK08 folks and in fact learn from them. Some of those folks I still follow- the CogDog Alan Levine, Jim Groom the Bava, Lisa Lane (currently on sabbatical in England doing research on HG Wells and Late Victorian education), David Wiley, George Siemens, David Cormier, and of course Stephen’s OL Daily, which has steadily connected me to a whole universe of other folks. I now have a new set of heroines and hero’s Audrey Waters, Martha Burtis, Bryan Alexander, Mike Caulfield, Adam Croom, Tony Bates, with a current total of 150+ feeds. My day starts and ends with reading these feeds.
So when Google RSS folded I moved to Feedly and used it as a way to curate my own “news” feed based on my continued and changing interest. I ended up with categorizing the feeds like this -Thinkers, Connectivism, Ed Futures, Technology, Stuff, Visualization, Environment and a series of new feeds to Politico, the Atlantic, and Wired.
Jim Groom’s and Martha Burtis’s work at Mary Washington on reclaiming your internet identity caught my imagination. I moved on to Reclaim Hosting a couple of years ago. My Doin Stuff site was an attempt to reflect on my current set of different interest – Thoughts, IEEE’s Learning and Training Standards Committee (I am their current secretary), James City Shire 1634 ( I am on the county’s Planning Commission). These are facets of my digital identity. It’s out there and the only time I get comments is when I use it for one of Stephen’s course. One other site I migrated to Reclaim was my wife’s antique site Juno Designs. We started it 25 years ago with a kitchen table discussion of what we would do together after I retired. I gave up golf that day and became the blue-collar partner of her business. It is another facet of my digital identity.
Stephens’ question “What’s the ‘source of truth’ for your graph?” is an interesting question as I now think back on what I am presenting as my identity graph. First off I think “source of truth” is temporal in that my reflections do have a date-time stamp on them and what I wrote in 2018 may have altered for a variety of reasons – better information, points of view I had not considered or known about but heard/learned from my trusted network. Truth does have a date-time stamp on it and if that is true isn’t that part of the “ability to construct and traverse those networks” (of people and machine)?
The identity graph below is that story that started with Web 2.0/CCK08 and continues today with E-Learning 3.0. It is a reflective mechanism, a network, based on my interaction with people and machines. In some ways, it is my 21st Century diary for me.
“I think therefore I am.” Rene Descartes
Thanks, Frank
Hi Frank – I have enjoyed reading your reflections and the first part of your post has made me think that maybe my Feedly would work better for me if I pruned and re-organised it.
I also enjoyed seeing your wife’s Juno Designs site. It reminded me of the days when we had junk warehouses round here where you could pick up anything and everything for a song. We still have an old pine dresser and a chaise longue, from those days. And there is still an antique warehouse in our area, but it’s difficult to find real bargains. The place for those is in charity shops.
I have also puzzled about what Stephen means by ‘source of truth’ in our identity graphs. I am intrigued by your idea that truth has a date-time stamp, although that would imply that you have fixed it at a given time, even though it might change and only be temporarily fixed.
I like what Iain McGilchrist says about truth – “Truth is not a proposition but a disposition towards the world.” which suggests that it is a process. I wrote about it here:
https://jennymackness.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/exploring-the-divided-brain-where-can-we-go-for-truth/
And in a response to this post – https://jennymackness.wordpress.com/2018/03/15/there-are-no-things-there-are-patterns/ – Stephen wrote that ‘truth is a strong feeling of recognition’.
Perhaps truth defies definition?
Sorry if I appear to be pushing my posts at you, but it feels like the easiest way to share my thinking.
Jenny,
Thank you for sharing your own thinking and your own experience of bargain hunting. It made me think back to our own bargain hunting expeditions which led to on-site auctions in rural Tidewater Virginia. It seemed like everyone knew each other as they greeted each other with a hug. More like social events with the local church or volunteer fire department raising money by offering homemade baked goods, food, and refreshments usually under the canopy of an ancient oak tree. With a bit of luck, you would find a nice primitive painted cupboard.
I do agree with your comment that truth is a process or a journey through life as you suggested with the quotation
,‘[Truth]… is an act, a journey, not a thing. It has degrees. It is found by removing things, rather than putting things together.
I like the idea of “removing things” as it suggests to me that a past truth with its date-time stamp may be removed as we journey through life and discover the bigger picture.
Thanks, Frank