QotW5: Online Identity, Reputation, Deception

Our real-life identity is known to those around us and is difficult to control. This includes our race, status, occupation and level of education. (Wikipedia,2007)

As for online identity which is common for people to have now, we are free to redefine ourselves at our own wish.(Wikipedia, 2007). Said Sartre in Being and Nothingness, ``I am my body to the extent that I am,'' The virtual world is different. It is composed of information rather than matter. Information spreads and diffuses; there is no law of the conservation of information. The inhabitants of this impalpable space are also diffuse, free from the body's unifying anchor. One can have, some claim, as many electronic personas as one has time and energy to create. (Donath,J).Online identity can also establish both reputation and deception.

An online identity that I am familiar with and that I had engaged in the past is the IRC (Internet Relay Chat). To participate in the IRC, as most of us know, we need to have a nickname for ourselves and it is unlikely or uncommon for anyone to use their real name in the cyber world. I named myself ‘MissBliss’. Basically, I wanted to build a reputation of myself as someone who is happy, cheerful, contented and open-minded to the cyber users out there.

I feel that almost all IRC users aim to create a reputation that benefits them. Those who feel that they are not so pretty and handsome in real life may present themselves online as much better looking. Those who are not so educated may want to fake their level of education just to make the other users online perceived them as more superior. The young may want to relate themselves in a more mature way while those who are matured pretended to be young online. Well, not all IRC users react in that manner. Some may portray their true real-life identity online but overall, each aim to create their own reputation which benefits them.

IRC users consist of different individuals. They may be a model, a teacher, a nurse or even a doctor! So how can someone else assume this online identity? Just fake and pretend to be one! A teacher in IRC may not be a teacher in real-life identity. A model in IRC may not be a model in real-life identity. Honestly speaking, I had tried once changing my true identity in IRC and explored how it affects the number of IRC users that tag me. I feel that to engage in IRC, it is important for one to be mature and critical enough to tackle the deceptions that surround the cyber world.

To conclude, IRC should be mentioned in particular as one of the good examples of online identity as it paved way for new online identities such as IM, Blogs and MMORPGS. Creating an online identity is fun and interesting. It may also be a form of escapism for some of us. Online identity is indeed a booming trend sought after by many.

Citations

Donath, J. (1996).Identity and deception in the virtual community. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Wikipedia. (February 15, 2007). Online Identity. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_identity

Suler, John.(April 2000). Identity Management in Cyberspace. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/identitymanage.html

QotW4: Gift economies

It is Better To Give Than To Receive

This very old idea is beginning to again draw the attention to us. Afterall,humans are an interdependent class of life. All humans need help unless they wish to live at the level of animal subsistence. Interdependence means some times I depend on others and sometimes others depend on me.This is the reason why there is a great amount of sharing and cooperation that does occur in online communities.

Rheingold (1993) has described interaction in one online community (the WELL) as consisting of a gift economy, in which help and information is offered without the expectation of any direct, immediate quid-pro-quo. Even in more anonymous settings, such as Usenet discussion groups, there is a surprising amount of free help and information given out, often to complete strangers whom one may never meet again.

In a gift economy, benefits come from improving the “technology of social relations” by, for example, increasing the range and diversity of one's social network. (Bell, 1991)

Possible motivation for this kind of sharing and cooperation that relax the assumption of egoism and that individuals do care to some degree about the outcomes of others are:

One possibility is that a person is motivated to contribute valuable information to the group in the expectation that one will receive useful help and information in return; that is, the motivation is an anticipated reciprocity. (Kollock,1993)

A second possible motivation is the effect of contributions on one's reputation. High quality information, impressive technical details in one's answers, a willingness to help others, and elegant writing can all work to increase one's prestige in the community. (Rheingold, 1993)


An example of a gift economy that I am familiar with is blogging.
Blogs, which was once the preserve of a small minority is now a mass phenomenon. Personally, i feel that blogs has become an excellent channel for users to share, learn, understand, take charge and to change our world. In this modern society,gaining knowledge about certain issues is no longer only dependent on the newspapers, television news or radio. People now place more attention to reading others blogs to serve their needs. Let us just take our academic blogs for an example. We are indeed sharing our knowledge to others who visit out blogs. In return, we seek to others blogs to obtain extra information for our own good.

Blogs is considered an excellent example of a gift economy because not only it is free, it makes us discover many new things that others have share.Bloggers write their views, share experiences and post interesting pictures online.I have a few bloggers under my favourite list. One loves exploring new eateries and she frequently updates on any new eateries she has been too. Another blogger who is also a local celebrity recently set up a blog just to promote good quality shoes online for sale. I also like this particular blogger who is a frequent traveller who writes on her interesting trips and post amazing holidays pictures.

To conclude, blogs is definitely one example of a gift economy as those who share whatever views, ideas or experiences do not expect immediate returns or comments from their readers. They will be more than happy to know that their blogs have a high hit list! May gift economies like blogs continues to bloom!

Kollock, P. (1999). The Economies of Online Cooperation:
Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace. Retrieved February 7, 2007, from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.

Barbrook, R. (2005). The High Tech Gift Economy.Retrieved February 7, 2007, from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue3_12/barbrook/

Polland, D. (April, 2005).The Gift Economy. Retrievev February 8, 2007, from http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/04/17.html

Pinchot, G. (Summer, 1995). The Gift Economy. Retrieved February 8, 2007, from http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC41/PinchotG.htm

Raymond, E.S. (October 17, 2003). The Gift Economy. Retrieved February 8, 2007, from http://futurepositive.synearth.net/stories/storyReader$223

QotW3: Sharing, Copyright and Creative Culture

The legal world is aware that digital information technology poses problems for copyright: a fundamental conflict between publishers of copyrighted works and the users of these works.

Copyright is a specialized form of property law that recognizes that works of original expression belong to the person who created them. Today that doesn't seem very remarkable; we hardly give it a thought.(Peter Givler,2003)

Copyright holders had certain exclusive rights over their material, but those rights were tempered by access rights held by the public.(Peter Givler,2003). The three most important public rights were the public domain, fair use, and first sale.

Copyright has always been just a temporary monopoly, and by Constitutional edict it can only last for a "limited time".(Howard Besser,2001). When a copyright expires, the work enters the public domain. Anyone can draw on material in the public domain for any purpose whatsoever. Unlike material under copyright, no one can charge users for using the public domain or prevent them from using public domain.

Fair Use allows students to photocopy copyrighted articles for personal use, teachers to read excerpts from copyrighted works in class, reviewers to quote from copyrighted works in their published reviews, and satirists to incorporate portions of copyrighted works into their satires.

According to first sale, anyone who purchases a work can then do what they want with that copy, even if the rightsholder opposes that use.(Howard Besser,2001). First sale allows the purchaser of a work to resell it, lend it, share it, or destroy it without ever consulting the rightsholder. Among other social benefits, the first sale doctrine has permitted libraries, used bookstores, and used record stores to operate without having to consult with a rightsholder each time they lend or sell a work.

The content industry fears that fair use and first sale in the digital age will cause them to lose significant control over their copyrighted content, threatening their profits.(Richard Stallman,2006). Because a digital work is so easy to copy, many rightsholders fear that fair use will provide a loophole for individuals who wish to redistribute a work to others. They also fear that first sale will permit their first buyer to redistribute a work for free, ruining the rightsholderís market and destroying authorship incentives. These fears have been the rationale stated by the content industry in their attempts to press for legislation which would virtually eliminate fair use and first sale in the digital world.

United States copyright law considers copyright a bargain between the public and content creators. The public trades certain freedoms in exchange for more published works to enjoy. Copyright involves giving up specific freedoms and retaining others. This means that there are many alternative bargains that the public could offer to publishers. So which bargain is the best one for the public? Which freedoms are worth while for the public to trade, and for what length of time? The answers depend on two things: how much additional publication the public will get for trading a given freedom, and how much the public benefits from keeping that freedom.(Richard Stallman,2006)


References
Besser, Howard. (2001, March 19). Intellectual Property: The attack on public space in cyberspace. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~howard/Papers/pw-public-spaces.html

Givler, Peter. (2003, May 9). Copyright: It’s for the public good. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from
http://aaupnet.org/aboutup/copyright.htmlStallman, Richard. (2006, April 6). Reevaluating Copyright: The public must prevail. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/reevaluating-copyright.html