Identity Management Goes Mobile

From first to last… If seeing an iPad in real life can spark fascination and intrigue from the masses, imagine what it does in the virtual space. People have created, chatted, and dated in virtual space for a while now, but most of this has taken place behind a stable computer, but this is changing greatly. As previously mentioned, the netbook was thought to revolutionize mobile computing, but it just didn’t cut the mustard. Enter the iPad. Managing your online identity while on the move has grown exponentially over the past few years, with cell phones working to offer users some of the same functionality they could do on their computers, but small screens and cramped keyboards only allow for so much. Our book explains that “…the Internet allows you to completely rework your appearance in an online environment…” “You are free to describe how you look, your expressions, posture, gestures, reactions, and so on. You can “try on” other appearances and personalities that would be impossible (or embarrassing) to carry off in real life” (Slack + Wise, 164). The iPad has become the perfect solution. The issue many faced with computers is that they could only update their statuses, profiles, and blogs while they were in front of a computer. What does this mean for representational space? They could only occupy their online identities for a short period of time. If, as in real life, we facilitate many different identities depending on our situations, if these occupancies become mobile, then we can inhabit as many online as we choose. The transformational factor, though, is that the lines begin to blur as never before because we are managing our virtual identities at the same time we are embodying our “real” selves. This assemblage shifts and changes the independence of these identities. Although, they may never morph into one complete identity, the management of these different identities will continue to intermingle closer and closer together. The iPad makes this fusion of real and virtual identities easier than ever. With the iPad’s architecture, applications to manage your virtual persona are made specifically for it. One could manage a different identity in each app they use. From the Foursquares to the Twitters, to the Facebooks, they are all available and are with you anywhere you are, complete with a large interactive screen that you can touch and feel as if your digital friends were real ones (kinda sad in a way…). An app, such as Sociable, can even bring these various identities together in one interface. Apps such as Flickr and Photo Wall allow the users to present pictures of their glorious lives and travels, letting viewers from around the world into their lives. On another level, the virtual world, Second Life, where you create a digital avatar of yourself (whoever that is at the moment) and move around in an entirely digital world. It is one of the closest experiences to a fully functioning digital representational space you can find. The world can now be traversed portably through the iPad, by using the Pocket Metaverse. Now you can enjoy the digital world (the Matrix) while sitting on a train in the real world (Earth-or so you think it is…the Matrix has you).
With many more people able to navigate these digital spaces more frequently and efficiently, what happens to this space? Identity markers such as race and gender may be able to be kept oblivious online, at least for a while, but the outside “physical” world still has major influence in the digital space and this causes the same tensions and separations as it can in reality, although, in some cases, indirectly. When you think about cultural implications such as status…does this mean now that those who can afford these high price devices are the ones who will now dominate this space since they have the ability to affect the virtual world at any place and at any time in a more effective manner (Slack + Wise, 166-167) ? Ipads are becoming the dominant player in the mobile computing space and with them brings massive amounts of control, flexibility, navigation, and resources. In a sense, the iPad is a major tool where one can do their online management anyplace and at any time, which becomes a powerful medium.

Think about information sources such as news organizations. Who has the power; who draws the crowds? Those who can get as much information to the people faster than others can. Who gets the information the fastest? The ones with the largest amount of resources: larger teams, better equipment, better technology. In turn they become more popular because people learn who the popular informants are. Transition into the digital realm. Say you create a digital persona in Second Life, how do you rise in the ranks? By having a persona that people want to watch or follow. This means having an active caricature that is always active. How do you become more active? Having the ability to manage the persona anytime, anywhere… the iPad rises.

The iPad: Enter The Revolution...right?

The iPad is a mobile computing device that has a 9.7 inch screen, a 1 Gigahertz processor, weighs 1.5 pounds, and an oleophobic (really?) coating that resists fingerprints. Interesting stuff, right? Not really. What IS an iPad? To some, it is a fun toy that provides an escape from the everyday monotony. To others it presents a new way to consume the ever growing mass media market, from social networks to emails to news outlets- all battling for space in front of each consumers eyeballs. The idea of the iPad is not necessarily a new one (it is proposed that the iPad was in development before the famed iPhone). It is not the first tablet computer either, whose touchscreen panels have been around for years. Apple CEO Steve Jobs had the idea to move away from the standard input devices consumers have come to rely on- the keyboard and mouse- and to create a flat, interchangeable multi-touch surface. The mission: to bring the internet to the palm of your hand, to have the ability to take it anywhere you want to go, and to make a ton of money doing it. Is it revolutionary? The true answer lies in the eyes of the beholder. The iPad means different things to different people. It attempts to usher in a new era of convenience, to be able to combine productivity and entertainment in one easy to use device that’s small enough to take with you. If you have ever been in a group of people and someone pulled out an iPad to update their Facebook status which resulted in an assortment of stares, oos, and aahhs of the surrounding group, then you know that the iPad is something special, but for whom? Is it a status device? Does it divide the population between the have and have nots? Does the device boost your productivity so much that you become the superior being, maneuvering through a sea of lower life forms? There are no single answers to these questions. The answers depend on your status, your wants, and desires. This iPad is a direct derivative of what the culture is asking for, but now it is beginning to change the culture itself, as many new iPad competitors prepare to enter the market, fighting for our hard earned money and time. As slick and sexy as it may be, the iPad’s true power and worth lies not with the device itself, but the applications that it houses. Think about the internet for a second. The value of the internet is the ability to bring everything the world has and has ever had to offer at your fingertips. Anything you have ever wondered or thought about, somewhere at some time someone else has thought about the same thing and had the wherewithal to create an article or post about it on the net. Classes are held online, you can learn how to play an instrument or send your vacation pictures instantly to grandma’s house without ever changing out of your pajamas. What the internet lacked was a viable portable way to take it with you. Consider the options for mobile internet we had before the iPad’s introduction. We had laptops, cell phones, and the newest was the netbook. The way we have viewed these technologies have evolved over time. As stated on page 30 of our textbook, the convenience of yesteryear only creates a new hurdle to overcome. The laptop- the biggest mobile computing system of the time, is now thought of as too bulky. Our cell phones eliminate the bulk issue, but provide small screens to view. The netbook was thought of as the perfect solution to these problems. It was more portable, had a midsized screen, and placed itself right in the middle of the traditional laptop and the cell phone, but it was plagued with sluggish behavior and processor limits that could only run a few programs at a time, if at all. This created the perfect atmosphere for the release of the iPad. It set out to be its own thing. It is portable, has a nice screen size, and runs programs well, since it only runs programs that are specifically made for the platform, and they are all at your fingertips in a device that not only can you take it anywhere, you actually WANT to. One question, though: Did you need an iPad before the iPad existed?