Identities:

1
Identities

• personal, learner, institutional, etc.
• JISC CETIS Enterprise SIG
• 2007-04-20
• Simon Grant
• JISC CETIS Portfolio SIG etc.

2
A few questions around identity

• What is the connection between
• identity, as in identity cards
• identity, as in identity crisis? (see
  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Erikson )
• What is so difficult to grasp about personal
  identity?
• Identity is often linked to privacy
• why do people get so worked up about privacy?
• A possible way of beginning to answer
• personal information is linked to identity and
  privacy

3
Personal information and comfort

• What do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable
  with, about what personal information is known
  about you by various different groups of people?
• What kinds of information are comfort-sensitive?
• (discuss...)
• Data Protection acts are relevant but
  unenlightening
• This is a start, but doesn't help a great deal to
  define identity

4
Consequential knowledge

• If people know some things, what else can they
  find out or work out?
• e.g. if people can identify you but what does
  this mean?
• it may imply using identifiers to query databases
• What might happen if the wrong people knew what
  they shouldn't?
• This is more like a plausible connection between
  identity and privacy, and seems to be the kind of
  thing people (rightly) worry about

5
Institutional identity

• meaning, your identity with the institution a
  suitable starting point for the Enterprise SIG?
• Identifying you on (institutional) databases
• student number
• staff number
• ULN?
• customer number
• name, address, etc.
• What information can be found through those IDs?
• Particularly in an HEI with little personal
  contact, is identity just what is held on the
  databases?

6
Approach from another angle

• What do you want (or expect) people /
  institutions / organisations to know you as?
• Let's call this consensual identity
• Different information relevant to different
  groups
• systems like Facebook, and good e-portfolio
  systems, allow users to selectively reveal or
  hide information from different people or groups
  of people.
• Facebook also asks, how do you know this person?
• This reminds us of the significance of the
  context of relationships to identity and
  self-presentation.

7
The basis of consensual identity

• Who are these groups of people?
• What are you happy with them knowing about you?
• what you expect them to know, and that's OK with
  you
• what you would like them to know and take into
  account
• this is quite likely to differ with different
  groups
• Note
• some people appear in more than one group or
  context
• one location (e.g. university) has many possible
  groups of people where consensual identity may
  differ
• peer groups (class mates, club / society members,
  etc.)
• academic staff and tutors
• administrators

8
Clues to identity distinctions

• In different situations, or with different
  people
• your different physical appearance
• clothing grooming / cosmetic posture
• the different ways you speak
• language, accent, tone
• vocabulary quantity
• particular behaviour
• what you do with your own clothes / body
• what you do to others
• what you eat / drink, and how
• emotional approach or response

9
Fleshing out

• Start from any particular clue that applies to
  you, think of typical, familiar situation where
  this applies
• Fill in the other variables in this kind of
  situation
• Who are the people involved?
• To get you started, think of e.g.
• football match
• CETIS SIG meeting team meeting
• job interview
• More examples of your own?

10
Piecing together

• If you can flesh out familiar scenarios like
  this, probably you will be able to consider, for
  each one
• what information about you is relevant to this
  situation?
• what are people likely to know about you?
• what do others want to know about you?
• what would you like to put across about yourself?
• what information about you may be a threat?
• what is your role in this situation?
• what rules govern your behaviour?
• what are the predominant or preferred values in
  this situation?
• (that takes rather more reflection and insight)

11
Consolidation

• If you can fill in clues and answer questions
  coherently, there may be a familiar set of
  situations with the same or similar answers
• Think of this as relating to one of your
  identities
• your identity (in this context) covers
• the personal sense of who you are in this
  context
• the set of information noted as consensual
  identity
• how you come across in that context
• Let's call the set of situations which relate to
  the same identity an "identity context"

12
Things to reflect on

• How many different identity contexts do you think
  you have?
• How are they articulated and structured?
• Different people manage their identities in
  different ways
• you can't assume that other people have just one
  identity for each one of yours
• Role of skills and competencies across identity
  contexts - do they transfer?

13
Institutional identity

• Institutions probably don't distinguish between
  different identity contexts
• For them, there is normally assumed to be one
  context
• you as student
• you as staff member
• problems can arise when you are both!
• Institutional systems have a good reason to start
  distinguishing between identity contexts
• how many different roles / identities may there
  be?
• distinguish identities from principal /
  individual

14
Learner identity

• What information is relevant to me
• as a learner?
• in the learner role?
• (whatever those terms may mean...)
• How do I feel as a learner?
• How do I come across as a learner?

15
Personal identity

• Potentially highly diverse
• information management requirement
• It would be really nice if portfolio tools (and
  personal information management tools more
  generally) helped to organise information along
  identity context lines

16
What I'd like from smart systems

• to know what information who is holding about me
  more easily and cheaply than through Data
  Protection legislation
• to know who is given my information from a
  database, and when
• to be able to organise my life information into
  easily managed chunks which mirror my chosen
  identity contexts
• not to waste time filling in forms with anything
  that I've typed in before

17
Answering the questions?

• What is the connection between
• identity, as in identity cards
• identity, as in identity crisis?
• What is so difficult to grasp about personal
  identity?
• Why do people get so worked up about privacy?

18
The question which intrigues me

• How do identities develop and change though time?
• Erik Erikson
• seems to treat identity as a single thing
• Perry Intellectual and Ethical Development
• doesn't use the concept of identity much
• Goffman Jourard
• more about end points
• others?
• I haven't come across anyone who has convincingly
  dealt with both development and multiplicity of
  identities

19
Future

• We (CETIS, Portfolio SIG, CRA) are considering a
  one-day conference on identity in the autumn
• Please let us know about
• your support for such an event
• what issues you would like to cover
• Stay in touch with me or the Portfolio SIG
• Help develop the theory, to inform
• development of portfolio and PIM tools
• institutional records strategy
• Thanks!