(This is the third post of a multi-post series on the relationship between the real and digital world. To read them all, start here, and continue here.)

Say you spot a cute guy across the dance floor, and try to make a move, only to get blocked by his posse. It happens to us all. This is a prime candidate for a Missed Connection, right? “blocked by posse at Town – m4m – 24.” Town, that new DC gay club that is harvesting club kids’ personal information, is interested in a more immediate response. My friend John brought me up to speed.

“So as soon as they scan your driver’s license, they slap a number on you.” The look on my face must have been priceless. Not only are they scanning you like a number, but then they actually slap a number on you. In this case, however, the numbers aren’t for Town. Instead, they are for Town’s “users.”

“You can just look at some guy’s number,” John continued, “and then write a message on a piece of paper, and you hand it to this guy, and he types it up. Then the message goes up on these screens in the club. So like ‘342, you are totally hot – let me buy you a drink – 126.'” (more…)

(This is the second post of a multi-post series on the relationship between the real and digital world. To read them all, start here.)

Last year I attended a session at the Aspen Institute featuring John Clippinger of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. His book, A Crowd of One: The Future of Individual Identity, was about to hit the shelves and so a conversation ensued about how digital identity (in the technical sense) was transmitted and authenticated in digital environments. What struck me about the group, however, was the absence of discussion about protocols and authentication schemas. Instead, this group was looking for examples from outside of technology (policy, biology, psychology, etc.) to help guide technical efforts. It was not an easy conversation.

“The problem with identity on the internet,” Clippinger said, cutting through the palatable frustration in the room (and paraphrased of course), “is the same as going to a bar.” The room held its breath, waiting to see the connection. “When you hand the bouncer your driver’s license, how much of that information does he need?” (more…)

What is the relationship between ‘real’ and digital world? Anyone who reads my blog knows that much of my research revolves around this very question, but I wanted to return to the topic explicitly. It seems that in many recent conversations I have been arguing that they are tightly coupled. Castranova seems to agree with me:

There is certainly a relationship between the synthetic world and the real one… people are crossing all the time,… carrying their behavioral assumptions and attitudes with them. (Edward Castranova, Synthetic Worlds)

While I feel it is theoretically sound, and have spent most of my time discussing implications of this connection, my more pragmatic peers have been looking for an example. I can’t blame them. When I argue, for example, that the m4m section on craigslist is a proxy for the gay community, they want to know where I get off making such a claim. If that isn’t enough to get them riled up, I frequently continue on to insist that the distinctions between online and offline selves are not as tidy as we might like.

We are going to trying something new over the next couple of posts, and try to build out these concepts with some interesting examples based on recent occurrences locally in DC and across the broader interwebs. What is on the agenda? Privacy, relationships, and Missed Connections, of course.

(Image credit: SecondLife via abcNews, and on a side note… I probably need to invest some more time there.)

A quick note here to point out Google’s latest approach to breaking down social network data warehousing.

One of the current struggles of which all social networking evangelists are aware is centered around who owns your data. Google’s embryonic OpenSocial seems to hold some promise there.

What is sometimes missed, but becoming more pervasive as we are now users of multiple different social networking sites, is how to create relationships beyond the boundaries of Facebook, MySpace or Friendster. Google seems to have a solution via their SocialGraph API that would let you scrape various online spaces in order to navigate interpersonal relationships across various platforms.

To top it all off, they gave us a nice video!

The links are based on XFN and FOAF markup, so I can see some adoption problems there. My blogging software allows me to manage these, but it certainly isn’t foremost on my mind. Facebook app, anyone?

Read more about it at Google Code (link), and thanks to WeSeePeople for catching this.

A little bit of humor is needed for this Friday. Remember those LOL Theorists? (here and here) I thought I would try my hand.

These two theorists are the perfect signifiers of my week. Critical theory and economics. Same theory, completely different outcomes, leaving you with no where to go. Yep, that kind of sums up this week. What’s one to do? Sit back and LOL, I guess.

(Thanks Patrick for loosing sleep for the sake of the lulz.)

New semesters bring challenges, for sure. I was expecting that. What I wasn’t expecting was how disorienting my economics class would be. This semester I am taking “The Networked Economy” from Dr. Garcia. After enjoying her lectures in our Communication, Culture and Technology course last semester, I decided to take her course and see if economics was as interesting as her lectures and Freakonomics had made it seem. (more…)

I usually keep my posts about craigslist to the Missed Connections section, but when Steve sent me this ad, it made me laugh – so I am sharing it with you!

RE: Cannondale R600c Compact Frame –
NEW – $900 Stop posting! – $1

Reply to: sale-562997321@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-02-04, 6:32PM EST

I think I am not alone in saying I am sick and tired of seeing this post!!

Look buddy new or not your bike has the lowest level of components there is.

People can buy a new bike at the bike store that is a current model with current components for half of what you are asking. Give up!!

I have never flagged your ad but I see others have. They are sick of looking at it too.

A BLACK and White TV was once a thousand dollars too!! New or not you cant give it away unless it was to a museum

* Location: NoVa
* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 562997321

(Academic note: Isn’t it interesting how a post about an item — the bike — can be posted multiple times, but if someone were to follow suite in a missed connection it would be disastrous? Instead the entire online dating genre is plagued with “I don’t normally do this kind of thing…” disclaimers. Something to think about.)

Just to put us all at ease, here is some more typical craigslist based regulation:

I am gay but,I have to stop reading these CL listings. I am getting sick of what people are writing it makes me sick to my stomach sometimes. It shames me to be gay ,how did gay come to be basically all about sex. I am good looking and enjoy my sexually but some of you are just sick and perverts.If half of you that hang out in the suana and showers actually spent sometime on the floor working out you would not have to lower or degrade yourself. My gym has placed a camera in the showers and locker room, theirs a small notice at the desk to cover them for any law sui.t I will not tell you what gym. (The  bold is all me.)