Blurring Identity to Clear It Up

“What if there was an agreed upon microformat…that would telegraph to others our capabilities, experience, strengths, knowledge and, especially, our availability to be hired?” – Steve Borsch

Must be something in the warm Janurary in MN air. A lunch earlier this week – unfortunately without Steve (need to remedy that) – was all about the need and value in increasing the visibility of expertise, availability, and reputation.

In a very primitive, rudimentary, and analog form – the barometer Steve asks about already exists; participation in peer communities like forums, professional organizations, and generally impressing people with how hard your rock – are all reputation builders and indicators. Primitive, because it’s still pretty hard to find people that can vouch for you. Google, LinkedIn, eBay, and the comments on your own blog, are all ways to others gauge your status.

For better or worse – all the measurement systems listed thus far are isolated and non-portable (pointing your eBay rating at a potential consulting client means little). Maybe I should dust off my Identity XML thinking. Managing access to a bunch of Identity.xml files sounds far more useful than YAIS (Yet Another Identity Silo).

Many of the attributes Steve lists in his question above are most accurately declared by others – verses self. The world…er…marketplace…creates my identity as much as I do.

So, Steve, I’ll declare what I know of you, if you declare what you know of me. 🙂

Re-reading this, I think RSS is the microformat in question.

ELSEWHERE

“It took a few years, but it’s great to see software actually being built around the identities that aren’t vendor controlled.” – Dave Winer

I need to poke around MyOpenID.

Niche like a Weather Forecast

Eric Rice asks about the relationship between niche information and income levels.

At first glance, I don’t think there’s a relationship. Everything is niche. I trust people all along the income scale are looking for very relevant information. Though, it could be I live so far down the tail, that I doubt the existence of a head altogether. This is why I think a spatula is more accurate metaphor than a tail. The ‘head’ erodes.

Sure – interests in Second Life, golf, fine wine, yachting, NASCAR, or prices of milk at Wal-Mart may ebb and flow along the income scales, but I’m not sure how those topics aren’t niche. Just like the weather forecast in a given geographic location. Increased income may support greater levels of specialization of interest – and easier access to the specialized information.

From Eric’s later post makes me think the core of the issue he’s raising is one of media (perhaps specifically – internet) literacy. In that case, perhaps we could make a broad sweeping statement about a relationship between income and media literacy. Though my gut says that’s generational and temporary.

There’s huge value in learning to edit video, record audio, and publish it – in understanding how media can express an idea. Lots of us have been doing this for so long we can’t remember a time when we didn’t. ABCNews.com is introducing the participatory nature of this new world to a whole new group of folks. Newbies?

Stop the Presses – Save the Journalism

NickelNuts pointed me to an article by media lawyer, Steven P. Aggergaard article via instant messaging, I read it in my web browser, and then posted this to a weblog.

Aggergaard is arguing we need to keep paper in newspaper – because that equals journalism and full-time jobs. Despite all the costs and overhead he lists out. In addition, the quality of information delivered online for free (versus $0.50 for a daily paper – Huh?) is some how not as valuable.

Minneapolis and St. Paul have a huge need for a hyper-local citizen (not consumer) journalism form. Something closer to what the smaller papers (St. Anthony Bulletin, Northeaster, Downtown Journal) are doing – but without the paper.

NickelNuts and I have talked about this, and in fact, yesterday over lunch I blurted out: “What would it take to make this happen?”

One website – or news paper – or television channel – or radio station – does not a well informed citizen make. But, what about 350 blogs written by your neighbors?

LATER:
Dave has some great comments. I’m less concerned about an overarching editorial voice, and more interested in relevance delivered for and by local voices.

ELSEWHERE:
A great point and a wonderful tie back to Aggergaard’s original post.

“…readers don’t care. They just want the most complete, accurate and engaging coverage possible. They don’t how we make the sausage, or even who makes it. They just want to eat.” – Robert Niles

EVEN LATER
Aggergaard responds and corrects in the comments. I follow-up.