Digital Footprint Management

Monday, April 6th 2009 by Wes FryercloseAuthor: Wes Fryer Name: Wes Fryer
Email: wes@isteconnects.org
Site: http://www.speedofcreativity.org
About: Wesley is an international learning consultant, author, digital storyteller, educator and catalyst for educational reform focused on blended learning, differentiated instruction, and creative engagement. His bio is available on www.wesfryer.com/bio and complete vitae on www.wesfryer.com/vitae.See Authors Posts (74)

I think it is a good idea to periodically survey the blogs and other web 2.0 sites you’ve created and are maintaining, and to encourage your students to do the same. I first heard the term “podfader” from Dan Schmidt in his keynote for the “Beyond4Walls” conference in November 2006 in Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Texas. (Dallas area) A “podfader” (according to Wiktionary) is “A podcaster who gradually or suddenly stops podcasting.” I am guilty of being a “blogfader” on some websites, including some old Wordpress.com sites I setup but to which I no longer contribute. I deleted one of those today. In managing our digital footprints, I think this kind of “spring cleaning” periodically makes sense.

Original Flickr CC photo by carf

My claimid.com/wfryer site is now pretty up-to-date with the web 2.0 sites (including blogs) to which I’m actively contributing, as well as those I’ve used in the past to some extent. Claimid.com is a free site which can be used to “stake a virtual claim” over different websites you use and to which you contribute. I think it is both helpful and practical to use a site like this in attempting to manage your digital footprint. James Deaton originally alerted me to ClaimID back in December of 2007.

Claim ID has a good list of “Best practices for managing your online identity” that is worth checking out. Maintaining Technorati watchlists is a key recommendation. I subscribe to the RSS feeds for my Technorati watchlists using Google Reader, and review them periodically.

The English WikiPedia articles for “Online reputation management” (ORM) and “Online identity management” are also worth reading. These themes tie closely with the NECC 2009 session I’m co-presenting with Karen Montgomery, “R U In My Space? Y Have A Social Media Policy?” Karen has created a Facebook group called “Social Media Guidelines for Educators,” and we’ll be adding more content there as well as on the project wiki in the weeks ahead.

Should we claim our comments as well as our blog and social networking site posts? Backtype is a website which seeks to enable comment claiming. Sean P. Aune’s September 2007 post for Mashable, “25+ Ways to Manage Your Online Identity,” includes additional websites and suggestions related to this topic. Sean puts his suggested websites into the following categories:

1. Online Identity Management
2. Online Reputation Management
3. Online Signatures
4. Profile Centralization

FindMeOn.com is an “online profile management service” similar to ClaimID which is undergoing a substantial upgrade. It will be interesting to see what new functionalities are included in the revision.

Do you use sites like ClaimID which are setup to facilitate this sort of virtual identification management for web 2.0 sites and services? How do you let other people know what websites are yours, and you officially claim? Staking “virtual claims” over websites in cyberspace and managing our online identities / digital footprints are important, practical topics for learners of all ages today. Who can say what opinions and decisions will be made about you today and in the future based on the digital footprint people find when they Google you?!

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