One of the other tricky conundrums is how unique your name is. I’m lucky ‘cus I don’t think there’s another “Jay Moonah” on the planet at the moment, but for fun I did do a Google search for “David Usher.”

Interestingly at #6 is a link to a blog by David Usher that is described as being “Musings about technology, telecommunications, public policy, regulation, society, media, war, culture, politics and the nature of things.” Hmmmm, sounds sort of familiar, wonder if it’s an older version of ClouldiD…

Nope. It’s apparently some guy who is lives in Vermont, looks like a goat (really!) and is 252 years old - how much you can trust the information you read online is a WHOLE other topic.

In the world of Google I apparently exist as an American science fiction and fantasy author that was born in 1945(wow I’m old) I even have my own website http://www.elizabethmoon.com (who knew…I SURE DIDN’T)

I’m not sure I actually do exist since the person that I’ve always believed to be has no true “online existence”

wow! food for the brain…. I can’t stop my brain from thinking now… could not listen to more then 20mns… lunch hour over but I’ll finish it tomorrow for sure… quite quite interesting. We should have more of that on TV….

I only had time to view the first, really fascinating, I’ll be back later. I quote:”a non linear thinker, very rare, nice to know one…”. and I quoite again: “I know” and again: “THANK YOU!!!” I DO exist in someone’s realm, waiting to be read…

I don’t know David, you tell me

every now and then i like to experiment and just google myself…just to see if anything (i guess i mean ‘anyone’) “new” and, well, more like me has popped up. sadly, everytime nothing remotely related to ME pops up. but it’s still fun to see who really has a piece of my online identity and compare.

anyway, this idea of ‘everything is miscellaneous’ is truly fascinating! i love being able to examine how the quest for information has changed and morphed into something completely new and unlike the original hierarchical method. now that all kinds of information is literally at our fingertips, it makes you realize how much the traditional method of researching in a library has been taken for granted. as an undergrad i used to love wasting a day in the library, relentlessly searching for that perfect journal article to support my argument. with this information revolution things have become much more accessible and the need for libraries seems to be diminishing.

my hope is that this reorganization of information will not cause the downfall of the hierarchical method…i think we should cherish it now more than ever. but what you point out, david, is that that process is already underway and because of that, the digital age is making the death of the library inevitable.

it’s crazy to think about…
thanks for posting this!

i do exist. and honestly, im not sure its always a good thing. if I google my name, it kind of scares me. Because I can see opinions I expressed on blogs as far as back in 2004, I find my photo being published from flickr by unknown bloggers, I find my whole genealogic three with informations that I dont even know myself, i even find my picture on a blog called “montreal babes”… no comment on that.

Lately, friends of mine got a personal photo used for a publicity. Because it was on facebook and they have the right to do that apparently. copyrights laws are having a real hard time. hey who wants to pay while its right there, for your pleasure to use.. for free! and i make no exception, i can find stuff online that I couldnt find anywhere else!

I completely agree with the idea of the double identity. a virtual one and a real one. Im addicted to technologies, if my internet is down, my camera is out of battery or my cellphone says “no service” it feels like the end of the world. I barely ignore what to do with my 10 fingers than typing on a keyboard. That’s a reason why I started a bunch of “conventional” activities. sew a bit, cook, paint. I feel dependent of so many things. computers and internet, but most of all; electricity. I don’t mean to be paranoid. we saw the consequences of the ice storm in 98, the black out in 2003 and we’re going right in the peak of a fuel crisis. We feel secure in the world we know, but if the world has changed that much within 50 years, who knows what it will be like in another 50 years! but im happy with all those opportunities technologies brings us. k, i went a bit off topic here

I exist but does my online persona really define me? The control freak in me hates the idea that I am only one of the people who can tag/define me. It is interesting that in “real life” I arbitrarily categorize the definitions of self much like in the library analogy. There is work self, school self, home self etc. and seldom do these concepts meet. While my online identity certainly represents some aspects of self more than others, it is interesting how they seem to be increasingly intermeshed. So does the linking of these aspects make for a truer picture of who I am or are the categorized versions just as valid?

As for the question from the first video…. are we ready? No, I don’t think so. But we never are for big changes in thinking until forced to be. I think we need to become those “good butchers” of information and teach that skill as the new curriculum as opposed to the old systems of categorization. I teach a college course and was surprised by the percent of learners who used wikipedia as a resource without the ability or awareness of the need to filter this information. That seems pretty scary to me. But new opportunities (in this case, the chance to define ourselves) always open the door to new ways of perverting the process too!

But I digress… though I think bringing up lots of new topics and thoughts is a mesaure of a great blog!

identity theft is so easy now-a-days (so I’m told).
look at how many people argue and debate about if it’s the REAL David Usher on Facebook or not.

Soon we’ll be doing EVERYTHING from home. ie: work, order food (not just fast food, but actual groceries), buy “stuff” (which we already do “EBay”), watch live concerts from our favorite artists not normally televised.
our only identities will be our online identities! :S

I love going to librairies. I love the feel of a book in my hands. Soon the world will change and we will be reading what used to be books via computer. Hopefully there will be room enough in the world for both the tangible and the intangible (Much like it is now). How much further can we go before we go too far?. I wonder what it will be like for children in the future never to have held a book. I know there are plenty of examples of things our grandparents had that we don’t use today ,like phonographs, but we still have something tangible to replace it, like the cd player or ipod.

If everything is replaceable then maybe our identities are too. If Google says we are one thing and we are not, then who polices that information?

Aren’t books being constantly updated with the knowledge of new information? Pluto is no longer a planet, so into the bin go all the science books. What do we do about incorrect information on the web? The only good thing about the web is that information can be shared much more quickly. But is it accurate?

Will the Earth one day be gone and the human species or higher life form need to prepare itself for life in an intangible world? Existing in a non-existant world? Will we all be “Clone Troopers” void of any emotion? Will Google become the Obi Wan of the future? “These aren’t the droids you are looking for.” I do believe it rains constantly on Kamino…interesting, but not for me!

Google myself…strange idea. I did! You know what? I’m everywhere and I’m nothing,as most of us. With Google you’r someone when you are known or almost… Google yourself. It’s a little thrill that makes me nervous I admit!

Very interesting talk by David Weinberger!!

i just finished googling myself and yeah my name appeared because of my comments here in your blog. hahaha. guess i exist huh? although…

i strongly refuse to accept the idea of the one being “searchable” in the internet is evidence enough that one actually exist. i do accept the fact however that the internet has the capability to provide information about someone and what this particular person does in his life.

the internet is great, but it should be a parameter or evidence of one’s true existence.

I was thinking about “googling” the name of who we are looking for or a thing, whatever…How it’s possible to be sure that we’ve found good informations ! Tell me David, is that really you behind that blog? How can I be sure of ? Do you read each lines wrote in? Yes, I googled your name! Yes, I got and answer but, is it right…don’t know!
The only thing that I’m sure about, I can find you if I search on Net(easily) but you probably can’t find me! It’s not a challenge!!!!(laugh!)
What do you think about that mister?

I googled my real name and ‘ta da’ nothing. So, I guess that I don’t exist in the digital world.

i “exits”…..
i’m trying to get out of this spiderweb…
it would look cool for the younger generation to be found anywhere
but i think it may have some disadvantages too….
so my final decision — it’s not a good thing…(having second thoughts)

maybe i’ll take it back

I don’t categorically do structure well but made it through part of it and will definitely catch the rest. I am not much of a line dancer either but put me in a room of chaos I will let loose. Maybe that is why the world is half asleep(too much boxes of ’stuff’), or is it organized chaos that is really the problem? hmmm.
Let me tell you a story. When I was up at Alberta Children’s Hospital on Tuesday, I was playing with my girls out at the playground before our appointment. This little girl comes up to me and starts chatting away about supercat etc (coping mechanism stuff). I assumed she was with one of the other parents. As it turns out, she had busted out of the hospital and there I happened to be. She did get a lecture when she was discovered. But my point is, and I find this alot is When I am meant to be found I am, when I am meant to find I do, when it doesn’t happen it wasn’t meant to be. All I can do is hope for the best and trust my instincts alot. That’s it in a nutshell.

Congratulations by the way.

Everytime I google myself I discover many different personas of me. Sometime’s it’s the real me who has left traces of himself for others to find; sometimes it’s someone blessed with my name only. It’s a matrix out there, and we are all anonymous and one massive entity at the same time.

Who I am online exists for one singular moment in time — in relation to whatever I am expressing then — and ten years from now, the “me” who may have gushed with effulgence about [insert passion here] may no longer exist. But I am still traceable.

I have, in effect, many cross-referenced lives, and hopefully more to come; all of which will be spent in libraries and/or surrounded by books, such is the nature of my work. I am he and he is me and we are all together, goo goo gee chu.

The Database of Intention. My intention eventually becomes your intention. We are what we are looking for. Yes Google has power….50% of the search database I believe. Beware of becoming a “Googlewhack”..barely existing. LOL.