Informatics

Our online identities are collaborations between user behavior and technology. Increasingly, computers speak on our behalf, representing our identities in configurations that are shaped by the technological systems through which they are communicated. This sociotechnical relationship is particularly evident in the user profiles seen on social network sites. Given the rise of technologies that utilize identity, this thesis examines the role of persistence by considering the ways in which users and technology collaborate in the creation of digital identities, the ways in which technology structures and stores these identities, and the social behaviors these identities enable.

The concept of identity persistence is explored through two case studies: persistent identities on the popular social network site Facebook, and non-persistent or “single-use identities” seen on craigslist Missed Connections, an online equivalent to “I saw you” personal ads. Facebook allows users to capture and store personal and interpersonal information that can then be reused across social activities and system features. This universal profile however, results in a singular self-presentation that must represent the user across the various social networks to which his Facebook profile is exposed. Users on craigslist engage in much of the same behavior, but without technology to structure and maintain their identities. Instead users produce “single-use identities” for each post by resourcing interpretive resources from outside of the craigslist system.

This thesis concludes with a consideration of digital identities and identity persistence as a part of our larger social and institutional infrastructures. Software such as Facebook is built around essentialized conceptions of identity that, once stored as a set of categories and classifications in a database, can become rigid and unusable. Approaching identities from the perspective of the work they perform, I argue for a reexamination of digital identity as a functional unit of larger infrastructures, and articulate some of the potential challenges when storing something as dynamic as identity.

Many theories of self-construction in memory narratives point to their potential for making sense of major identity changes. Across multiple narrative tellings, individuals’ stories are shaped by selective encouragement and suppression of story elements in relation to the social contexts of storytelling. While previous contextual work has concentrated on the effect of listeners, other important contextual factors include shared beliefs and understanding about how identity changes occur. Repeated sharing may result in stories that increasingly reflect those shared beliefs about identity, evidenced in the stories told by individual group members. Thus, the longer an individual has identified as part of a particular group, the more his or her narrative will reflect the shared beliefs of this group. The present study examines whether the coming out stories of gay men (aged 18-28) increasingly reflect shared beliefs about the coming out process as length of time since coming out increases. Results (N=21) suggest that time since coming out positively predicts the degree to which individuals’ stories reflect group beliefs. Individual’s who stories more closely reflected shared group beliefs reported greater levels of integration into the gay and lesbian community. Results are discussed in terms of theories of storytelling and identity development, as well as implications for social support.

Digital identities are a collaboration between users and technology. Increasingly, computers speak on our behalf, instantiating identities stored in databases, and technologically producing profiles through servers. The representational work performed by our digital proxies is best demonstrated through social sites such as Facebook where users are ostensibly in control of the shape and behavior of their self-presentation. These identities, however, are constrained by the classification systems utilized and produced by software.

This paper considers digital identities technologies relative to our social and institutional infrastructures. Drawing from Star’s theory of infrastructure and Bowker’s work on databases and data architecture, I utilize ethnographic methods and systems analysis to compare the distinct forms of digital identity seen on Facebook and craigslist Missed Connections. On Facebook, user profiles are structured around a central “User ID” that ensures a legible identity across various systems. Users develop robust identities inside of a structured profile system, utilizing a variety of categories and classification systems decidedly embedded into the software. Meanwhile, users of craigslist Missed Connections are given little of the structure seen on Facebook. Instead, users establish a kind of temporary social network, describing themselves and others, the relationships they share, and the social spaces in which those relationships existed. Because there is no profile system to structure these digital identities, users turn to sources of identification that persist beyond the lifespan of their post, often from their physical world.

Facebook and craigslist Missed Connections give us insight into the ways in which individuals negotiate various infrastructures of self-presentation in mediated environments. Most digital identity architectures are built around essentialized conceptions of identity that, stored as a set of categories and classifications in a database, can become rigid and unusable. Approaching identities from the perspective of the work they perform, I argue for a reexamination of digital identity as a functional unit of larger infrastructures, and articulate the challenges associated with persisting something as dynamic as identity.

We examine the patient networking site PatientsLikeMe relative to current trends in medicine toward patientcentered care and empowerment. We focus on both patient and institutional demands for personal medical data. Given PatientsLikeMe’s mixture of social networking and health management tools, we consider the role of online health communities in the changing patient/provider relationship, and the use of patient-provided medical data.

We analyze profiles and associated comments on social network sites following the death of the user to suggest two novel approaches to death and computing. Using the dead as examples of “extreme users”, we develop recommendations for design of Web2.0 applications that consider the importance of intersubjectivity in online identity construction and management, and the ubiquity of technospiritual practice.

Visual media has a history of using text to both frame and augment an audience's understanding of visual content. This paper compares the recent LOLcat Internet phenomenon with intertitles from silent film to explore the ways in which filmmakers and LOLcat creators have each used text to expand the narrative possibilities of digital imagery and film. LOLcats and intertitles both use text to establish content diagesis, and both utilize expository and dialogic text to establish specific points of view. These uses of text-based Barthesian anchors tell viewers exactly how the visual content should be read. These mediums differ, however, in their relationship with technology. Intertitles provided filmmakers a temporary narrative solution that was largely abandoned upon the advent of sound. LOLcat creators, on the other hand, made purposeful use of text despite richer alternatives. As such, LOLcats may seek to invent new textual practices, but the use of text is integrated into their definition

"The proliferation of social network sites has resulted in an
increasing number of profiles representing deceased users.
In this paper, we present the results of a mixed-methods
empirical study of 205,068 comments posted to 1,369
MySpace profiles of  users who have died. Our results
reveal interesting practices surrounding issues of authorship
and audience, temporal patterns in posting, and continued
social networking with the dead. These results suggest that
post-mortem commenting behavior blends memorializing
practices with existing practices and communication
patterns for social network sites. We conclude by outlining
future directions for research and implications for the
understanding and  use of social network sites in light of a
deeper understanding of post-mortem comments."

As use of, and experiences with, social media continue to
grow, the systems of representation that underlie  their use
become increasingly influential. In this paper, we present
results from empirical studies of two online communities—
Facebook and craigslist Missed Connections—that
highlight the ways in which this underlying infrastructure
and the user practices  on these sites are inherently
intertwined.  We make particular use of a framework first
introduced by Agre that focuses  on  the  influence of eight
underlying features of computing practice: ontology,
standards, instrumentation, authentication, interpretation,
selection, bias, and performance. The results of this analysis
indicate how representational systems do more than simply
represent the physical world; they are  deeply intertwined
with the social and material practices of everyday life.

The experience of coconstructing autobiographical narratives provides rich opportunities for adolescent and adult development. Recreating one's autobiographical narrative can be an effective means by which to incorporate a new sense of identity, while exploring the past gives insight into the transformation. The process of coming out for gay and lesbian individuals provides opportunities for a unique identity shift through the development of their new social identity.

Abstract In this paper, we consider how the life story develops through the creation of selfevent connections in narrating experiences. We first outline the ways in which such connections have been implied by existing work on the life story, and then consider the varieties of such connections that we see in our own work. That work suggests that selfevent connections can construct both a stable sense of self as well as a sense of how the self has changed across time.

Online identities survive the deaths of those they represent, leaving friends and families to struggle with the appropriate ways to incorporate these identities into the practices of grief and mourning, raising important questions. How are practices of online memorialization connected to conventional rituals of grief and mourning? What is the role of online digital identity post-mortem? How do trajectories of death and dying incorporate both online and offline concerns?

Supporting students with disabilities, particularly those with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), to transition from school into adulthood can be a difficult challenge (Schall & Wehman, 2008; Sitlington & Clark, 2006). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1997) requires schools to promote transition planning: movement from school to post-school activities (eg., work, further education and training, and independent living).

Abstract Even with the investment of significant resources, video communication in professional settings has not gained mass appeal. This contrasts with the consumer space where, despite limited resources and low quality solutions, services such as Skype have seen widespread adoption. In this paper, we explore the behavior and attitudes of individuals who actively use video communication in both their personal and professional lives.

Abstract People turn to social media to express their emotions surrounding major life events. Death of a loved one is one scenario in which people share their feelings in the semipublic space of social networking sites. In this paper, we present the results of a two-part investigation of grief and distress in the context of messages posted to the profiles of deceased MySpace users.

The recent emergence of RFID tags capable of performing public key operations has enabled a number of new applications in commerce (eg, RFID-enabled credit cards) and security (eg, ePassports and access-control badges). While the use of public key cryptography in RFID tags mitigates many difficult security issues, certain important usability-related issues remain, particularly when RFID tags are used for financial transactions or for bearer identification.

Before user modeling servers can be deployed to real-world application environments with potentially millions of users, their runtime behavior must be experimentally verified under realistic workload conditions to ascertain their satisfactory performance in the target domain. This paper discusses performance experiments which systematically vary the number of profiles available in the user modeling server, and the frequency of page requests that simulated users submit to a hypothetical personalized website.

Abstract This paper describes a comparative experiment with five well-known tree visualization systems, and Windows Explorer as a baseline system. Subjects performed tasks relating to the structure of a directory hierarchy, and to attributes of files and directories. Task completion times, correctness and user satisfaction were measured, and video recordings of subjects' interaction with the systems were made. Significant system and task type effects and an interaction between system and task type were found.