Creating a web presence is an act of identifying yourself digitally to the world.  Unlike presenting yourself in real life, there are no extra cues for the reader to gauge your identity.  They only see what you have posted, or what others have posted about you.  A well thought out digital identity creates mindful footprints, leading viewers to how you want to be perceived.  When creating my web presence I carefully considered my digital shadow and balanced the sharing of my personal details against giving away my privacy.  The identity that I am portraying across a website, Wordpress Blog, Twitter and LibraryThing is of an avid reader who likes to talk about books, authors and movies based on books.

I chose the pseudonym Tamocal for my web presence to counteract negative effects to my digital shadow.  Solove (2007, p. 17) talks about an extensive trail of searchable fragmented information, that will stay with us for life, with no guarantees that the information is not false; or even true but never the less humiliating or discrediting. I wanted to remain anonymous for my web presence, and I thought I had achieved this by removing my name from all of my nodes.  However while running a Google search I encountered an early Twitter post that still had my name attached to it.  This highlighted the vigilance that is needed to maintain anonymity.  I am not anonymous however I have been selective in my language and content to avoid negative repercussions to my reputation.

My presence is portrayed on all of my nodes by an avatar of a teddy bear wearing glasses, pictured in front of a bookcase.  The bear was pictured in front of a bookcase for the obvious link to books, and the glasses were to create a subtle message of someone who reads a lot.

For my central node I opted for a website, to create a clean and creative looking hub which connects easily to all my contributing nodes.  I chose the website builder called Wix, as it has free software that enables users with little technical knowledge to create a website.  The site has excellent human computer interaction featuring click and drag and a comprehensive help function.  Making the creation and editing of the site very easy.  My choice of template is a simple design featuring a large image highlighting my chosen avatar.  Selecting a background that looks like aged parchment further emphasises my theme of books.  I listed my nodes on the right and titled them My Web Existence.  This intuitive location and the title, invites users to look at my complete presence, allowing greater understanding of my identity. Also included is a twitter feed showing my most recent tweets directly from my website.  I decided not to add feeds for the other nodes as this would clutter my page.

To enhance my theme, my central node has a page titled favourite authors, were I have created hyperlinks to their websites.  “In a well-crafted hypertext, readers immediately select what matters most to them” (McAdams & Berger, 2001, p. 2).  This allows my readers choice and further data to consider.  One of my contributing nodes is LibraryThing, which is structured heavily on hypertext, allowing the reader to narrow down their interests without wading through the entire content of my catalogue.  To further enhance my theme, I have included famous quotes about books at the bottom of most of my pages.

My about page is an important feature that develops my identity.  Helman (2010, pp. 6-8) describes identity as being a performative act and our web content is part of this performance.  By viewing other peoples About Pages on their blogs, (Kay’s Bookshelf, n.d.) I was inspired to include personal details like my location and my pets.  These inclusions are a type of performance that informs my readers of my character and lifestyle, helping them to make a better connection to the person behind the website.

To highlight a topic in my About Page I chose an image from Flickr with Creative Commons licensing.  Creative Commons (n.d.)...“a worldwide project that encourages copyright owners to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally.”  This licensing allowed use of the image under the condition that I attribute the work to the photographer.  I have recorded the name of the photographer directly under the image.

My contributing nodes are all connected to my website with easy to find links and widgets.  I chose Wordpress, Twitter, and LibraryThing as they each uniquely compliment my topic.  They also have the functionality to display avatars, personal blurbs and facilitate links.

Wordpress is a vital addition to my web presence, its structure as a blog allows me to talk at length on books.  There is no need to fill the pages with images beyond my avatar as the style lends itself to mostly text.  The nature of blogging allows chronological display of my posts and encourages comments and feedback. Wordpress is easy to use and edit.  It is user friendly and allows a polished and creative look.  It facilitates archiving, searchability and hypertext.

Twitter, although similar to Wordpress, in that it is a blog, fills a vastly different need in my web presence.  It is a microblogging tool which has different outcomes and audiences.  (Sarno as cited in Chen 2011, p.755) suggests that Twitter is a way of connecting to others who have common interests in real time.  The short format of 140 characters lends itself to quick responses, unlike a blog which requires more considered and often researched posts.  People who follow twitter feeds enjoy a real time tool that doesn’t often require deep thinking.  They can create a post or respond to a feed quickly by mobile phone, iPad or computer.

LibraryThing was chosen mainly because of its ability to catalogue and review books, and then share these details with others.  It uses your personal catalogue as well as the catalogues of others on the site for a range of functions.  By encouraging tagging the resulting folksonomy generates interesting and informative personal and group clouds.   It has the power to generate book recommendations, as well as producing interesting statistics, using data from other people’s catalogues and tags. 

My choices in nodes have been made to carefully construct the identity of a person who enjoys reading and talking about books.  My nodes support the social aspects of cataloguing, sharing, tagging and critiquing.  With the simple goal of giving and receiving recommendations of books between likeminded peers.  My identity is one that others can relate to.

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Reference List

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Chen, G.M. (2011). Tweet this: A uses and Gratifications Perspective on how Active Twitter use gratifies a Need to Connect with Others. Computers    in Human Behaviour,27, 755-762. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.10.023



Creative Commons Australia. (n.d.). Learn More. Retrieved from http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more

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Helmond, A. (2010). Identity 2.0: Constructing Identity with Cultural Software, 1-28. Retrieved from http://www.annehelmond.nl/wordpress/wp-content/uploads//2010/01/helmond_identity20_dmiconference.pdf



Kay. (n.d.). About Page. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.kaysbookshelf.com/about/

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McAdams, M., & Berger, S. (2001). Hypertext. Journal of Electronic Publishing,6, 1-12. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0006.301



Solove, D.J. (2007). The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumour and Privacy on the Internet. Chapter 2 How the free Flow of Information Liberates and Constrains us, 17-49. Retrieved from http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dsolove/Future-of-Reputation/text/futureofreputation-ch2.pdf

Exegesis