By Any Other Name
Posted on March 31, 2008
Filed under Uncategorized and tagged identity, reflection
It’s been a while since had the chance to blog regularly. Hopefully I’ll be able to get super organised in this last week of hols and have a relatively relaxed term! I said, hopefully…
I did a small makeover here at this blog. I’ve changed the name from The Rise of Reflection (which just wasn’t sitting right with me for I don’t know what reason) to Wanderings and Wonderings. I’ve also changed the header. All the pictures were taken within a 5 -10 minute walk from my house. I’m pretty lucky to live in the place I do!
So, if you are reading this through a reader, stop by Wanderings and Wonderings for a quick look and let me know what you think. I’ve added a few things to the sidebar too so if you think they are too distracting please let me know.
I think that the ability to change your identity - or parts of it - is one of the great things about Web 2.0. If something doesn’t suit you anymore, you can alter it. Of course there is value is maintaining an identity and for this I make sure I use my real name everywhere, but that doesn’t mean I can’t change the titles of things or pictures etc etc. I love that!
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Very pretty
Another Vertigo convert!
Yeah, the whole thing about identity management in your own webspace is an interesting one. I’m pretty sure that if I was starting out now that I’d choose a different name for my blog - maybe just use my own name instead of a catchy title. I know there are blogs out there with titles that make me think, “Wow, I wish I had thought of that one.” But probably because I’ve stuck at this blogging caper for a while now (coming up to three years in August) my blog title is sort of attached to me in a microbranding sort of way. My header design is pretty standard and gives people a one look chance to know who they are about to start reading (or otherwise!) And in my Google Reader I always edit the blog title to the person’s name where possible anyway.
Jess - Love the new look, I remember back in January when we were IM’ing to try to choose blog themes! I’m happy with the theme I chose, but really wish I could go back and change my name to Kate 2.0 as I had originally used. I’m worried that if I change it now it’ll confuse people in the places I’m listed elsewhere online. Thoughts about that?
Graham: I liked your advice of using your name, so I changed my title again because of it! I’m not too worried on this blog, as I’ve got my main blog that I focus on. This one is for all the stuff I want to write but don’t think really fits into the theme of ‘technoLOTE’ which is really aimed at people who don’t have too much Web 2.0 experience. Personally, I’m not too fussed about the whole identity thing. If anyone wants to change titles and things, we’ll all cope. I can see that others wouldn’t agree though and that it could get difficult.
Kate: Even though you’ve already received these thoughts in an email, I’m answering here too!
I say if you want to change your name back, do it. People will cope. We’re all smart enough. You could blog about your reasons for doing it and there you’ll have yourself another conversation. I understand the whole concern about having set up and identity and then changing it, but if you aren’t changing it too vastly - which you aren’t - then I don’t think it’s a problem. People’s names change all the time and we still know who they are. As long as we aren’t doing it every week, then why not? I love the fact that we can change the look and feel of our online presence all the time. I can be particularly reflective of changes and developments in ourselves. All part of the journey I say!
What do you think?
Only issues is your blog name stays the same in Google Reader. So you are still The Rise of Reflection and Kate is still Kate 2.0 :). And unlike Graham I don’t change the blog names.