Hi, I’m Simon Kendrick. You may recognise me from other social media profiles such as Wordpress, Twitter and Tumblr.
You’ll see something common across those three links – a consistent identity illustrated by the avatar you see to the right of this paragraph.
I’ve been online for about a dozen years and have effectively grown up with the internet. But while I may want to forget some episodes of youthful exuberance, the internet won’t and so my actions are archived somewhere in the dark recesses of the web. Fortunately for me, these were all under an anonymous identity long since abandoned.
Eventually I learned about the importance of privacy and personal reputation. Online activities can be searched for and traced back. The social graph may not yet be fully automated, but an intrepid investigator can easily connect the dots across different websites and profiles. It is therefore imperative to represent yourself online in a way that is accurate and acceptable to both yourselves and your friends, family and colleagues.
No matter how many times I try and convince myself, I am not Batman. Nor Bruce Wayne. I cannot keep my identities separate. Instead, each of my online personas represents a different facet of my personality – public, private, business, pleasure and so on.
This is the latest extension, and represents me in “business mode” more than any other profile. Linked In may track my employment history, but it doesn’t understand what I do and how I do it.
This should change things. Through future posts, I will hopefully convey my interests and expertise. I’m primarily a quant researcher covering media and technology (predominantly broadcast and mobile) but my interests spread far beyond this. I’m particularly fascinated by how new marketing ideas (such as digital distribution, freemium pricing or social media footprints) and research resources (such as analytics, ethnography and participatory communities) affect how organisations operate and are perceived.
(Mostly) outside of the office, I can be found to be engaged in some form of music, film or sport consumption. I have a tendency to support teams that are entertaining in their uselessness (ie Newcastle United and the New York Mets). And even IRL it is not uncommon for me to sport some form of disguise or avatar to represent myself (see left).
My colleagues will be following up on this post with their own introductions. They may offer some deeper insights into their personality than I have, but I figure that you can look for my batsignal elsewhere on the web to connect up my distributed personality.
But why Columbo? Of all the people to represent myself, why Columbo?
I’ll leave that unanswered. It’s important to retain some mystique. And unlike Columbo, I like to leave it so there is always one last thing that is bothering you.
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