This is my post on the subject

http://perfectpath.wordpress.com/2007/08/20/danger-danger-will-robinson/

Boiled down, it’s about being conscious of one’s own boundaries, respecting everyone else’s right to think and behave differently and how we negotiate those differences in order to get along well. That’s my approach to real life and it’s what I try to practice online too – though sometimes I will mess up.

One of the things I find interesting is the way that I feel I’ve got a more immediate idea of who people are through Seesmic. All those visual cues really are important and they add so much to the picture one forms of someone by reading their writing, or even hearing their voice.

I love what you do with Seesmic and I’m warmed by your sense of fun and the laugh that’s always just below the surface ready to burst out. And that goes for @ledretch & @fred2baro too

Seesmic ya later!

What makes that work for me? I’m older and less of a target for one. Another is that I no longer have small defenseless children at home.

What do i feel safe about revealing? It’s changed. These days I’m good with name, city, type of job, hobbies, interests and showing off my wife and sons.

But like Susan said, we are all different. We have different circumstances, differing comfort levels, and vastly differing world views I’d wager.

It must be a balance. However, another balance factor to be considered is control. Now in this explosion of online information, much of which is available regardless of how much you share, it is important to establish who you are, be it a persona, a more real representation of yourself, or just a name. It’s important because your future employers, coworkers, spouse, in-laws, and that snot nosed kid down the street are looking you up, viewing your pics, and reading what you write.

Weighing all that, I find it easiest to be honest, even tempered and modest all at once…if I can pull it. off.

So ending this rant, my advice is balance, and moderation. Do what you feel safe with, but share with confidence that what you say about yourself will be heard.

On the other hand there are parts of my life that are more open than others. One is that I use my real life name that people can find me by googling, that I’ve sold paintings under for 35 years. I include a bio with my work and when I do art exhibitions and there’s no reason for me to change that now that the audience multiplied by a couple thousand more people. Honestly, I just don’t think that any more people are interested in _me_ now than there were 20 years ago when I – or rather my work – was hot.

And that’s in part just something I was taught in art school – to be identified as a real person behind the paintings, always consistent. The same woman in the community as one is in the larger world, whether a story is running about me in the Northern VA Gazette or the New Yorker I’ll have the same approach I always have.

But my advantage is that I’m not just coming to this public persona NOW, when one can be so easily stalked, singled out at work, or tracked a a bazillion ways I don’t understand.

But what people are being advised now in art school or any other school that prepares people who will be in the public eye isn’t really the question. My adult daughters don’t use their full names online and I’m cognizant of that. They, and you, have a different set of challenges.

I’d like to know more about you, but from my perspective your right to feel comfortable always always outweighs the public interest in knowing more.

I think the answers are being created by all of us who use these tools, each day we use them… Some people would never feel comfortable sharing as much information as I’ve shared on my blog, but then to me, it’s probably much different than what I would share if I met you and we were talking in person… I don’t give out person-ably identifiable information when I post and have maintained the level of privacy I’ve been comfortable with so far. Some people are more open/exhibitionist by nature and feel more comfortable sharing who they are and how they got there… some are more closed off… I think we all have a voyeuristic side and that can be quenched nicely with things like twitter and blog reading (can you smell my lasagna?) …in any case we should all be careful in what we say in public, how we display our persona, because it is now very often held against us and a matter of public record. Don’t share anything on your public media vent that you don’t want everyone to know about you, period.