Presented at the DMI mini-conference, University of Amsterdam, day 2.

Introduction to my paper on Identity 2.0
Yesterday we talked about the web having technological eras, or periods of the web that have specific providers, software and templates. This is also what I indirectly undertake in my study into the reconfiguration of identity in the era of search engines. By studying different software platforms for presenting the self online through their medium specific qualities we see what Fuller calls “digital subjectivity – that software constructs sensoriums, that each piece of software constructs ways of seeing, knowing and doing in the world that at once contain a model of that part of the world it ostensibly pertains to and that also shape it every time it is used” (2003: 19)

The reconfigured relationship between the user, the platform and the search engine is studied from what Manovich calls ‘cultural software,’ a genre of software that is cultural through its use and because it carries atoms of our culture. It is an undertaking that looks at the different software platforms that have been developed over time to allow us to understand how the configuration of the ecology the software is embedded is in has changed with the advent of the search engines. The platforms: the homepage, the blog, the social networking profile, the micro-blog and the lifestream are not presented in a chronological order in order to create a teleological account, rather they are presented in more or less the order in which they came into being. All platforms for presenting the self online still exist, while one may argue that the homepage is slowly disappearing, and some platforms even co-exist in the hands of the user who integrates her Twitter account into her blog.

In general, the Digital Methods Initiative researches society through the online, however, what I aim to do is research online web culture through the online software and devices that shape it. How is this research placed within digital methods? At first it seems an ethnographical account of my Web 2.0 being placed within the studies into identity but what it aims to do is to look at the medium specific qualities of the platforms and determine their web native elements, such as the permalink or the status update, in order to see how these tie up to search-engines. In a first small casestudy, it was shown that platforms relate to each other and that some platforms are closer together than others through their entanglement of structuring natively digital objects such as site feeds and embed codes. The question then is, how to operationalize the relationship between the platforms and their distance (topological).

This paper is based on the Networked book chapter ‘Lifetracing’¹ commissioned by Turbulence. Rewritten for the Digital Methods Initiative mini-conference January 20-22, 2010 at the University of Amsterdam.

Identity 2.0: Constructing identity with cultural software.

ABSTRACT: This essay deals with the change of identity on the web as a result of the assemblage of social software platforms, engines and users. It can be stated that major platforms for presenting the self online have developed over time: the homepage, the blog, the social networking profile, the micro-blog and the lifestream. They each have their own specific way for presenting the self online. The advent of the search engine has had a major impact on both the construction and the presentation of the online identity. Search engines not only index the platforms on which identity is performed, but they also organize and construct identity online. They act as a central point where identity performance is indexed. Since identity construction and identity performance have significantly changed with the advent of these engines, identity must be reconsidered. It can be argued that the assembly of platform, engine and user has constructed a new type of identity: Identity 2.0. This type of identity, placed within the period of Web 2.0, is always under construction, never finished, networked, user-generated, distributed and persistent.

Download PDF: Identity 2.0: Constructing identity with cultural software.

1. Helmond, Anne. “Lifetracing. The Traces of a Networked Life.” Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art). 2 July 2009. Available online: http://helmond.networkedbook.org/[↩]

Blogging is often seen as a new form of journalism, an online diary or a democratising medium which potentially gives every citizen a voice. However, what can we say about blogging and the blogosphere if we look at blogs from within the medium? In other words, what is blogging when we look at the software blogs are made with?

Anne Helmond graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a study on WordPress, the leading blog software. This research focuses on how blog software and search engines arose at the same time (1999) and have since established a tight relationship. What does this mean for bloggers, blogs and the blogosphere if we look beyond search engine optimization?

Anne Helmond – The blog as database from Vileo on Vimeo. (Thanks Vileo for the video!)

My slides are available in a previous post: “Slides from my presentation at the first WordCampNL.”

Short introduction to my research in the ASCA newsletter #119, October 2009. Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam

Anne Helmond, Software‐Engine relations in the Social Web (Docent‐Promovendus, Promotor: Richard Rogers)

The research contributes to the emerging field of software studies as a branch within media studies. Software is an understudied object within media studies, yet it shapes our current media use, production and distribution. As software is increasingly moving from the desktop to the web it becomes part of a larger network where search engines play an important role. My research has found that search engines establish tight relationships with blog software, which alter both the medium and the practice of blogging. Acknowledging the important role of the engines on the web by further theorizing software‐engine relations will definitely add to the field of software studies. Therefore, I propose, to study software and engines in conjunction rather than separately and I will especially look into this new phenomenon of software‐engine relations. The question is whether it is possible to demarcate an area of study that deals with these software‐engine relations. By rethinking the role of search engines as part of the software platforms that constitute the social web it aims to contribute to a new way to study the web.

It’s been pretty quiet here in contrast to my Twitter account (in Dutch). While finishing my publication for the Networked book I applied for a PhD position at the University of Amsterdam.

I am happy to announce that I will continue my research on software-engine relations as a PhD within the emerging field of Software Studies with my colleagues of the Digital Methods Initiative. Of course this also means that the summer break is officially over for my blog. I redesigned it as a fresh start to enter a new era of my blog as a research tool, a place for discussion and publication.

My new workplace at the UvA.

My chapter for Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art), Lifetracing. The Traces of a Networked Life,  is now officially online and open to comments. Thanks to Turbulence.org and and the National Endowment for the Arts for supporting my research.

Lifetracing. The Traces of a Networked Life

Identity on the web has changed by the assemblage of social software platforms, engines and users. Four major platforms for presenting the self online have developed over time: the homepage, the blog, the social networking profile and the lifestream. They each have their own specific way for presenting the self online. It should be mentioned that the shift has taken place from the centralized identity on the homepage to the distributed identity on a website with the lifestream.

The homepage is a self-secluded manually coded website containing its content on its own server. With the introduction of blog software the act of self publishing was made available to the public and the blog shows that it is part of a larger network with the embedding of external content from other services and platforms. In this era of the social web, the social networking profile has become a popular way to present the self online. The latest trend is the website containing a lifestream serving as an aggregation point for the distributed identity across various social media platforms.

The advent of the search engines has had a major impact on both the construction and the presentation of the online identity. Search engines do not only index the platforms identity is performed on, but they also organize and construct identity online. They act as a central point where identity performance is indexed. Since search engines have become the main entry point to the web, the idea of identity management has become very important. The case of Nina Brink, for example, shows how Search Engine Reputation Management tactics have been used to adjust online presence for the search engines.

The networked identity has proliferated as a result of the social media user recording the self online. Once content has been published online it becomes part of a larger network in which platforms can automatically exchange data and search engines can index data. The role of the user in this new situation is such that the user has become both content provicer and data provider. User data is used by the search engines for commercial gain but ironically it is also offered to the users in exchange for a ‘free’ account. Users gain access to their own statistics by providing their statistics. These statistics are used to measure the self and to show off the self on the social web.

Identity construction and identity performance have significantly changed since the advent of the engines, which calls for a reconsideration of identity. It can be argued that the assembly of platform, engine and user has constructed a new type of identity: Identity 2.0. This type of identity, placed within the period of Web 2.0, is always under construction, never finished, networked, user-generated, distributed and persistent.

Read the whole chapter of Lifetracing. The Traces of a Networked Life.

Official press release:
WE INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE . comment, revise, translate, submit a chapter http://networkedbook.org

Two years in the making, Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art) is now open for comments, revisions, and translations. You may also submit a chapter for consideration.

Please register and then Read | Write:

THE IMMEDIATED NOW: NETWORK CULTURE AND THE POETICS OF REALITY
Kazys Varnelis
http://varnelis.networkedbook.org

LIFETRACING: THE TRACES OF A NETWORKED LIFE
Anne Helmond
http://helmond.networkedbook.org

STORAGE IN COLLABORATIVE NETWORKED ART
Jason Freeman
http://freeman.networkedbook.org

DATA UNDERMINING: THE WORK OF NETWORKED ART IN AN AGE OF IMPERCEPTIBILITY
Anna Munster
http://munster.networkedbook.org

ART IN THE AGE OF DATAFLOW: NARRATIVE, AUTHORSHIP, AND INDETERMINACY
Patrick Lichty
http://lichty.networkedbook.org

TAGS: active, aethetics, aggregators, authenticity, authorship, BEN FRY, BEN RUBIN, BURAK ARIKAN, collaborative, communication, data, data mining, digital traces, distributed, DIY, EDUARDO NAVAS, everyday life, flow, GOLAN
LEVIN, identity, improvisation, Internet, JANET CARDIFF, JASON FREEMAN, JODI.ORG, JONATHAN HARRIS, latency, lifelogging, lifetracing, MANIK, mapping, MARK HANSEN, MARTIN WATTENBERG, MAX NEUHAUS, Mechanical Turk,
mediation, memory, music, narrative, NastyNets, NATHANIEL STERN, net art, network, NICK KNOUF, nonlinear, OLIVER LARIC, participation, performative, persistance, PETER TRAUB, platform, postmodernism, presentational, privacy,
prosumer, prosurfer, ranking, realism, reality, real-time, relational, remix, representation, research, RYBN, SCARLET ELECTRIC, SCOTT KILDALL, search engine, self, self-exposure, SHIFTSPACE.ORG, social networks, software, sousveillance, STEVE LAMBERT, storage, surveillance, tactical media, telepresence, THE HUB, THEY RULE, TrackMeNot, transmission, TV,
user-generated, visualization, web 2.0, webcam, widget, Wikipedia Art, YES MEN

BACKGROUND

“Networked” proposes that a history or critique of interactive and/or participatory art must itself be interactive and/or participatory; that the technologies used to create a work suggest new forms a “book” might take.

In 2008, Turbulence.org and its project partners — NewMediaFix, Telic Arts Exchange, and Freewaves – issued an international, open call for chapter proposals. We invited contributions that critically and creatively rethink how networked art is categorized, analyzed, legitimized — and by whom — as norms of authority, trust, authenticity and legitimacy evolve.

Our international committee consisted of: Steve Dietz (Northern Lights, MN) :: Martha Gabriel (net artist, Brazil) :: Geert Lovink (Institute for Network Cultures, The Netherlands) :: Nick Montfort (Massachusetts Institute for Technology, MA) :: Anne Bray (LA Freewaves, LA) :: Sean Dockray (Telic Arts Exchange, LA) :: Jo-Anne Green (NRPA, MA) :: Eduardo Navas
(newmediaFIX) :: Helen Thorington (NRPA, NY)

Built by Matthew Belanger (our hero!), http://networkedbook.org is powered by WordPress, CommentPress and BuddyPress.

Networked was made possible with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts (United States). Thank you.

We are deeply grateful to Eduardo Navas for his commitment to both this project and past collaborations with Turbulence.org.

Jo-Anne Green and Helen Thorington
jo at turbulence dot org
newradio at turbulence dot org

In 1996 I created one of my first homepages, a tribute website to the Canadian band Eric’s Trip. I was able to claim a beautiful Geocities url: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/3500/

It’s one big piece of pure nostalgia and 1996 web aesthetics: Photoshop flares, optimized for Netscape and hand-coded with HTML Notepad. The Last Update JavaScript stamp reads 08/30/1997 18:50:02 but I haven’t updated the page since 1996. The stamp says 1997 because Geocities used to insert advertising which would fool the script into thinking the page had been updated.

ASCII and the Archive Team have started to archive Geocities and the progress is described in ‘Geocities: Lessons So Far.’ There are two great applications to backup your own, long forgotten, Geocities website:

• PC: Website Ripper Copier
• MAC: SiteSucker (Thanks Daniel Rehn!)

I now host The Unofficial Eric’s Trip Homepage on this webserver, have a look at my 1996 design skills (watch your steps: broken links, hint: choose l0-fi). PC World wrote a great nostalgic article on the end of the Geocities era: ‘So Long, GeoCities: We Forgot You Still Existed‘

Esther Weltevrede, my colleague at the Digital Methods Initiative, will be talking about Archiving Web dynamics at the Archive 2020 meeting which I will blog about for Virtueel Platform. Looking forward to it!