#digital-identity
Every item in the public site that shares this topic, gathered across writing, book notes, and publications.
- Entries
- 50 total
- Writing
- 47
- Book notes
- 0
- Publications
- 3
Writing
2026
- Feb 26, 2026 Beyond Zoom: Why We Took Control of Our Video Conferencing with Jitsi Meet
Why InitiatED moved from institutional Zoom to a self-hosted Jitsi server as part of a broader commitment to digital sovereignty.
- Feb 25, 2026 The Door Was Never Locked
A reflection on how default digital tools became invisible infrastructure, and why sovereignty starts by questioning what we were told to trust.
2025
- Nov 6, 2025 Building Human-Centered Digital Communities
How to build digital communities that support people, not just platforms.
- Oct 11, 2025 Privacy Isn’t Optional: The Expanding Data Dragnet in K-12 and Higher Education
Why privacy matters when data collection feels routine.
- Oct 11, 2025 When Your Campus ID Moves to Your Phone: Questions We Should Be Asking
What to consider when campus IDs move onto your phone.
2021
- Mar 11, 2021 Are You Guilty of ‘Orbiting’?
A look at orbiting, ghosting, and the weirdness of digital social distance.
- Jan 13, 2021 Monkeys Throwing Feces
A candid look at parenting, conflict, and the messy work of change.
- Jan 12, 2021 Fit Versus Fit
Why credentials help, but values and lived fit matter too.
- Jan 7, 2021 Before You Post That Hot Take
Why impulsive hot takes can make online moments worse.
2020
- Dec 1, 2020 Trust, But Verify
Why verification and reputation matter in online information.
- Oct 15, 2020 Be the Documentarian of Your Life
Why documenting your life can help you think more clearly and learn from mistakes.
- Oct 9, 2020 How & Why You Should Dox Yourself on the Internet
Why learning how doxing works is part of staying literate online.
- Oct 8, 2020 Building Up Your Digital Identity
How to start building your digital identity from the ground up.
- Oct 6, 2020 Sitting Between Life and Death
How digital life reshapes grief, memory, and the spaces between life and death.
- Mar 10, 2020 Building Ethical Communities
How to think about building ethical online communities.
2018
- Dec 13, 2018 Social Scholarship: Educators in digital, social spaces
How social scholarship prepares students for networked civic life.
- Nov 23, 2018 The Black Box & Educational Technologies
Why educational technologies often feel like black boxes.
- Sep 6, 2018 What is trust in digital, hybrid, & physical spaces?
How trust works across information, organizations, and relationships.
- Jun 27, 2018 What is IndieWeb & why should you care?
A plain-language introduction to the IndieWeb and what it offers.
- May 30, 2018 Blogging, small-b, Big B
Why blogging matters for open identity, learning, and the difference between small-b and Big B blogging.
- May 21, 2018 Better visions of ourselves: Human futures, user data, & The Selfish Ledger
Why ubiquitous tech should help us build better versions of ourselves.
- Apr 29, 2018 Switching up my signals
Why I changed my relationship with social networks and digital spaces.
- Mar 15, 2018 The four types of online discussion. Where are you?
How online discussion takes different forms across platforms.
- Feb 6, 2018 Negotiating the positive & negative as a citizen of the world
How internet-connected life reshapes our role as global citizens.
- Jan 18, 2018 Lyrics, Performance, & Power
How lyrics, performance, and poetry can build student power.
2017
- Dec 29, 2017 How to use two factor authentication to protect yourself online
A practical reminder to audit your digital hygiene and enable two-factor protection.
- Nov 2, 2017 The First Principles of Being Digitally Literate
How first-principles thinking can strengthen digital literacy.
- Mar 9, 2017 Becoming Literate Digitally in a Digitally Literate Environment of Their Own
Why students need a personalized online space to become digitally literate.
- Jan 4, 2017 Develop Your Own Personal Cyberinfrastructure
How to build a personal cyberinfrastructure for digital identity and control.
- Jan 2, 2017 Three steps to identify and develop your digital identity
Three steps for becoming a more digitally agile educator.
2016
- Nov 15, 2016 Developing a domain of one’s own for pre-service educators
How pre-service educators can build a domain of their own.
- Aug 19, 2016 Three reasons to become a digitally agile researcher
Why researchers need to stay digitally agile as tools and networks evolve.
- Apr 7, 2016 Becoming digitally literate in a domain of one’s own
How a domain of one's own supports digital identity and ownership.
- Feb 25, 2016 Cognitive Authority, Digital Badges, and the Oracle of the Blockchain
How digital badges raise questions of value, credibility, and trust.
- Feb 11, 2016 Lightweight Blogging, Publishing, and Sharing Using Known
A look at Known as a lightweight publishing platform for people who want a simpler way to blog, share, and own their work online.
2015
- Jul 2, 2015 Why You Should Build and Maintain Your One Space on the Internet
Why every educator should build and maintain one home base online.
- Jun 26, 2015 Critique and Construction of This Website
How building and breaking your own site helps sharpen your critique.
- Mar 14, 2015 The Voyage of the Anti-Hero, Barton Miki
A reflective piece on digital identity, unfinished work, and the fear of leaving imperfect traces of yourself online.
- Feb 20, 2015 Survey of Literacy and Identity within Digital Environments (SLIDE) instrument
A record of the Survey of Literacy and Identity within Digital Environments, used to study how educators build identity and participate in open online spaces.
- Jan 23, 2015 Building Your Front Door, or Hub for Digital Learning Spaces
How to think through the purpose, audience, and structure of an online hub that can serve as the front door to your digital identity.
- Jan 22, 2015 The Front Door to My Digital World
Why I think of a website as the front door to a digital life, and how that metaphor shapes the way I build and share online.
2014
- Dec 5, 2014 Social Scholars: Educators’ Digital Identity Construction in Social & Connected Online Learning Environments
Research materials and findings from a study of how educators construct digital identity and participate in social, connected learning environments.
- Jul 11, 2014 Creating and Sharing Your “One Page” on the Internet
How to create a one-page hub for your online identity.
- Jul 1, 2014 Facebook’s Secret Mood Experiment and the Challenges of Living Online
How the Facebook mood experiment raised questions about online ethics.
- Jun 27, 2014 Literacy practices in an open, networked, collaborative learning space
How literacy practices change in open, networked learning spaces.
- Jun 16, 2014 Safety, Identity, and Literacy in Online Spaces
Why safety, identity, and literacy are inseparable in online spaces.
2012
- Jun 28, 2012 I Blog…therefore I am…
Why blogging helps us think, write, and share online.
Publications
2021
- 2021 Pre-service educators developing a digital identity
Journal article · O'Byrne, W Ian; Hunter-Doniger, Tracey. (2021). Pre-service educators developing a digital identity. TechTrends.
2017
- 2017 Becoming literate digitally in a digitally literate environment of their own
Journal article · O’Byrne, W Ian; Pytash, Kristine E. (2017). Becoming literate digitally in a digitally literate environment of their own. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.
2015
- 2015 Social scholars: Educators’ digital identity construction in open, online learning environments
Journal article · Wise, Julie B; O’Byrne, W Ian. (2015). Social scholars: Educators’ digital identity construction in open, online learning environments. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice.