My stamp collection is increasing in size and variety. My brand is no longer static. I seem to change it the most on Twitter, my most active social network, followed by Facebook. Sometimes I change it in response to a frivolous experimental collaborative theme (like @chinposin) or a more compelling social call to action (@peavatar)

What does this mean for a company’s brand? Think about the Google homepage logo, always changing. Does your personal brand remain static? Or are you constantly transforming and evolving? Do you cling to a safe, acceptable and trusted online identity or do you look at new ways to communicate and express yourself?

If I have a relationship with you, we converse, you share your original thoughts, information and ideas (that’s your product ) then I find it completely acceptable for you to modify and update the packaging. What you say and do online etches a more permanent profile into the minds of others.

Visual representation of ourselves becomes a decoration, a declaration, an interaction. Do you have a “stamp” collection?

Avatar. Remember this music video about the person who dares to be different?

I like flexibility in choosing how my avatar looks, and I am always fascinated by the many different ways people choose to represent themselves. If you look “out of the box” I am less likely to approach you straight away. If your virtual world has limited choice of avatars, I will not connect well with my virtual environment. Avatars help us to connect

Social Networking. Groups. Chat History. Profiles. Who’s online now. That sort of thing.

Information Design. Choose a simple, powerful and even remarkable way to share your ideas, concepts and information. Don’t just try to impress me with things that spin or flash.

Interestingness. This should be even more than instant messaging on steroids. Think of novel ways to hold meeting. Be strategic in your approach. Instead of sitting boxed in a square room behind a table to have a meeting in a virtual world, be creative, make the experience immersive and interactive so I don’t end up checking my RSS feeds or Twitter instead.

Make it matter. Don’t waste my time. Stick to the agenda. Give me a reason. Think about purpose.

This was actually a response to a conversation behind the firewall, but I thought I would share it here too These are just five essentials, but of course there are so many more. What are yours?

Other virtual worlds have not given me the same connection. Even having the ability to select from a small smorgasbord of avatars in Active Worlds doesn’t seem to help, I want the ability to customise and be animated. In the same way, I find it difficult to relate to other avatars there, it doesn’t seem to be as “freestyle” as Secondlife.

Do you have an affinity with your avatar? Does your avatar selection help you connect with and be immersed in your virtual world environment?

Online Identity Development Manager

Seeking a community shepherd to implement and manage online identity within globally evolving learning and knowledge networks:

Implement the creation of an online Identity Development Plan for each employee. A plan to develop and maintain 2D and 3D avatars, eg profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, virtual worlds and other agreed social networking tools suitable for each job function, contribution to a professional individual or group blog, tagging of colleagues etc

Oversee the uptake of self-directed daily investment by employees developing and maintaining online identity and knowledge networks

Educate employees about profile personality attributes and avatar grooming, deportment and netiquette (for the aesthetically and socially challenged :p)

Enable employees to create knowledge networks by embracing and establishing leading online identities and social networks

Assist employees to use lifelogging and microblogging tools

Provide education around the practice of knowledge and profile sharing, profile (and personal) protection and adoption of business conduct guidelines

Promote telepresence, confidence, trust and authenticity

Develop micro-learning modules and identify key knowledge stakeholders for pervasive knowledge distribution

Introduce attention management and telepresence focussed time management skills

Promote innovative collaboration and quality contributions using social media

Provide reporting and analysis of networked activity

Potential candidates must have evident virtual learning communities and a Technorati ranking of less than 100,000 etc etc (heh, you can add to my list!!)

Will the Learning Development and Knowledge Manager role/s soon transform to assist employees developing their informal modes of learning (telepresence) and focus on virtual identity?

Strikes me that those not thinking about including profile and avatar maintenance as part of routine individual development will not be well equipped in the rapidly evolving and changing communications, learning and knowledge sharing space. Traditional learning will still exist and be important of course, but perhaps the pressing demand for telepresence, on demand relevant information and dynamic interactive knowledge networks will make classrooms, elearning, and hierarchal knowledge transfer seem less critical.

I’ll leave you with a nice visual example of profile driven learning – take a look at this map discovered on Jack Vinson’s blog recently.
Marlilyn Martin’s Learning Terrain

I certainly hope I am embedding and not so much embellishing my identity.

I hope my choice of flavour does not seem pretentious to others, as much as a reflection of my own perception to myself.

Whether willfully avatar wrangling or casually collecting a blog-full of cool

I fear not all are being sincere

Authentic voices in a mashed-up reality

I’m not completely cynical, really! The authentic voices are great and I’ve met some wonderful people through this mashed up reality! Embedding our identity in a digital form can do wonders to know ourselves and others a little better in this supersonically-paced (and often anonymous) world.

Embellishing identity (with wild untruths) on the other hand…well, I’m not sure how helpful that is. Embedding identity can still be playful and creative, without distorting the essence of “you”. I think!?

And to some, it doesn’t matter at all! Vanilla is as good as it gets.

How authentic is your digital reality?

So here’s the deal, a friend won a secondlife avatar makeover. So my husband and yours truly will be pimping this guy’s avatar.

He has given us full creative reign. He does not want to look normal.

I will also be embellishing his inventory with a few good groups and landmarks.

Anyways, as this is all about collaboration, feel free to collaborate with me and give this avatar a secondlife chance.

Share your very best ideas to make this avatar ROCK!