JISC has launched a new resource to help universities safeguard staff and student identities. Identities need to be protected even when staff and students are using a personal username and password to log onto social media site like Facebook. The reason is that through them they can access applications listing library books they have on loan, log on to Google docs stores of academic papers, or develop a twitter hashtag for course discussions.
I gave a talk recently about blogging (twittering, etc) and how we create online identities for ourselves. The slidecast is above. I wanted to explore some ideas, the main ones being: It is about identity, not technology X; Your identity will be constituted from several different tools/services; Your configuration and emphasis of those tools is part of what makes the identity (as well as what you put in them); An online identity is becoming default for academics now; All this is driven by really easy and diverse ways of sharing; There are numerous benefits to you as an academic. I concluded with two propositions, which you might like to disagree with: 1. Soon, your online identity will be your academic identity, 2. There is an online identity of some form out there for everyone.