Something which always causes concern when people mention social media or Web 2.0 is privacy and managing a professional personal balance. I expect this will be something that will be reflected upon and discussed a lot over the course of the programme. Because of this the identity of who owns which blog is kept secret with only the 23things team knowing the real identity.
Another aspect of privacy is the information we choose to share and how that reflects on our professional identities.
This presentation from the University of Bath gives a very good overview of how to manage your professional identity.
Not everybody will want to be totally anonymous but in our online world it is important to be informed about privacy.
Take note of the privacy options available and adjust the settings where necessary when signing up to a new service. Many sites will give you a variety of options allowing you to set the privacy settings at a level to suit you. This will include an option to keep your whole profile private, or open to only those users you choose to share your information with.
But remember the more information we share the less control we have of it (This light hearted video is a good reminder).
Fact: Facebook’s privacy policy is longer than the United States Constitution (minus amendments) (Bilton, N., 2010. Price of Facebook? Start clicking! New York Times 12 May, p.B8 )
This page has some advice on how to keep social media private – it is aimed at teachers but the instructions are relevant.
The University has some social media guidelines which I would suggest you take a look at.
If you wish you can set your blog so search engines won’t find it easily by going to Dashboard > Settings > Reading then select “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.”
On a personal note, when I was part of the 23things team at City I blogged about Social and Professional lives here. I still agree with what I say, although if anything I am even more open 18 months on. I also totally understand why people want to be the opposite and very private at work.
Helen
Adapted from http://23thingswarwick.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/managing-your-online-identity.html under creative commons license and Emily Allbon’s presentation on Upgrade from City
23 things RHUL 