Data and information about an individual on the internet is like a jigsaw puzzle, the image or reputation that we perceive of ourselves is not always what is seen by others. Some individuals may find many different pieces of information about them available on the internet, enabling one to construct an image of that individual (Solove, 2007 p. 31). We must ensure that every piece of data belonging to ourselves is part of our own perceived image, creating a positive and cohesive web presence helps others see the image that we want to create of ourselves and our online reputation. A puzzle assembled of many pieces might also be missing some pieces or the pieces may have the wrong orientation these represent unwanted pieces and fragments of data or digital shadows, insignificant pieces of the overall image especially if there are other more prominent and more positive pieces altogether, combining the many distributed fragments of our online presence(Helmond, 2010). I have attempted to build a cohesive web presence that focuses on me and my passion for photographic imagery as part of my online identity but intentionally somewhat anonymous until I decide which path my professional career will follow next, bearing in mind my personal digital shadow and footprints.

My design choices for my online web presence were fairly clear cut for me, in trying to create a reputation online I selected a pseudo name being; “DJ’s Photo Stop”, representing my initials (DJS) and thus allowing me to expand on its presence at a later date. I chose to base my central node or “Identity Hub” (Helmond, 2010, p. 19) utilising a somewhat static web site on the premise that I would be able to manage and control the sites content better. Should I need to in the future, I may be able to remove all traces of it from the server on which it resides with the hope that pages will not be archived online. In my selection criteria for my supporting nodes I wanted to create and allow community building through comments and critiquing of other users (Gunelius, 2010, p. 438), so with this in mind selecting from a vast array of Web 2.0 platforms and applications, I chose Twitter, Photobucket and Blogger as my contributing nodes to round off my social media river.

When thinking about the choices for my central node, I wanted to be able to present a portal or entry point to my other contributing nodes. I also wanted to incorporate feeds from both Blogger and Twitter into my central nodes front page, I scoured the internet for a javascript script to enable this, finding many free scripts available my chosen one was from Mio Planet, being the least complex with suitable terms and conditions of use. Other aesthetic considerations I had for my web presence and central node were in the choice of colours, logo and design which are uniform and provide visual recognition across all my chosen platforms. Apart from two iconic web buttons which I downloaded from Social Bookmarking Icons, the rest of my graphics, photographs and design elements were all created by me, and although not an assignment requirement the web pages were hand coded by myself. The layout of my central node is a simplistic two column design with a header and footer, a navigation pane in the left column is clear and designed with contrasting colours (Duckett, 2005, p.137), visitors will be able to visit my contributing nodes from prominent iconic links at the top of this pane.

The use of Photobucket as one of my contributing nodes was chosen due to its ability to allow others to follow me and the images that I wish to share, comments and critiquing can also be made by other members of the Photobucket community. Photobucket allows me to insert photo slide shows of different albums into my central node, updating each time I add a new image to that specific album, I am also able to make albums and images private should I wish to do so, I utilised the privacy feature to store photographs that I have used in the design of my blog and blog posts. Finally I was also able to alter the look and design of my albums to form a uniform look and feel of my web presence.

My choice of utilising Blogger as a contributing node is to enable me to communicate and share the many images and photographic tips that I have learnt, collected and used over the past thirty years, a voice to share a part of who I am in a journalistic style with anyone that is interested in learning basic visual and technical skills that can be used in photography or any form of art, this also being the sole purpose of my web presence. Bogger also allows its members to pass comment and critique my work as a hobbyist photographer and thus help build on my online reputation.

Twitter is the final contributing node I selected, most importantly though it ties all of my web presence nodes together and builds a context for the existence of my central node. Twitter’s ability to provide a fast portable messaging system with RSS feeds and an API that facilitates the aggregation of my Blogger and Twitter posts to the central node (Java, Finin, Song & Tseng, 2007). Twitter also allows me to have a convenient non formal way of communicating my thoughts and links to interesting online web sites or to share my activities, without having to resort to forming a traditional email list of followers and having to mail out a newsletter.

In conclusion, the overall design and presentation of my online persona is achieved by using traditional and Web 2.0 technologies, it allows me to build positive foot steps and a media river over the Internet. Although I purposefully chose not to reveal my true identity in my web presence, I do appreciate the need to create positive footprints to counteract any negative digital shadows that may one day become apparent. However I believe that I have demonstrated to the best of my ability a cohesive web presence and a media river that represents me and my reputation positively.