Here’s a puzzler; the merging, separation, difference between the world of one’s work and professional life and the world of one’s leisure and private life. The development of the web, and this addictive obsession people have of social networking (they don’t need any extra advertising here), blogging and the trail we all live on the internet has created a very fragmented view of us as individuals. This history of comment and content is not planned and not generally consciously organised by people. It might be possible to get a certain view of a person - but only a certain view. I can’t imagine many people sitting down and planning how they are going to make all their web interventions so that a consistent aspect is presented. Unless the person is really into marketing.

Some people won’t leave a trace on the internet because they never use it. But even in these instances that’s not strictly true. There is all sorts of information that is submitted for other purposes that gets added to the web - so someone might write a letter to a newspaper - and not realise it’s going to be on the web as well. Or they might take part in an event and find themselves on the web; or their photograph can be easily added by someone else. I was recently talking to a friend who had received an email from someone she’s not seen for years who had added a photo without asking for any permission - a photo of my friend as a child. Would you want that?

Presumably some people simply aren’t bothered - like those who have tattoos on their heads and faces - but they really are in a tiny minority. The growing evidence is that potential employers and colleges and other organisations and institutions are already searching the internet to check the backgrounds and profiles of people (I’ve done it myself before and after meetings).

Which makes me wonder how this will impact on the development of ideas and ‘free speech’. The web blurs work and leisure; I for one am much more likely to curtail what I say in general on the web if there is a risk it would damage work relationships or impact negatively on a piece of work.

Maybe it’s time to become anonymous - but what’s the point of that? If you have a good idea, surely you want people to know it’s yours?

It would be useful for someone to develop a metadata element that enable people to decide on the transience or permanence of data; and to have some control over how that might work.