I am now several months into my project of exploring increasing one’s digital presence and maybe having a digital afterlife presence. Here I will make some comments on attempts to increase the pervasiveness of my presence within the world wide web. I am now seeing a presence as being something like weaving links to create a type of electronic fabric. Some sections of the fabric I may not even create, and other sections may emerge as an interaction between several parts of the fabric. Further activities and observations related to this process are:
A useful measure of presence on the internet is to Google your name and count, say, the proportion of search returns with your name in the first 100 hits.
By noticing the type of search returns including your name, you will get an idea of the type of material that is getting noticed. Material that I am currently placing on the internet includes:
o Video (YouTube, Facebook, Myspace)
o Blogs
o Reviews (eg., Amazon.com)
o Comments in response to other people’s Blogs and Reviews
o Own personal website (eg., using Google Sites)
o Photos (multiple sites)
o Comments in response to other peoples photos and videos
o Program code
o Twitter comments
I have found, so far, that video tends to come up most frequently in Google searches. The next most frequent hit seems to be comments in response to other peoples blogs and so on.
When responding to other peoples Blogs, Video, you can often insert a web page address for yourself. It is important that this link is consistent and robust so it can act as a portal to other web based activities you are involved in.
In general internet search engines search out page links, and the use of those links. Therefore, the more you can interweave links into your personal electronic fabric – either created by yourself or others as they explore your material – the more pervasive your presence will become.