Writen by Cory Holt
When I think about all the tasks I do on the internet and all the great services that I use on a day to day basis, I have realized that my name and information is scattered all over the place. I have decided to try and organize and professionalize my online persona. This article is about my experience with different services and web sites that allow you to do just that. I am sure that there are all kinds of other services that will allow you to show off your stuff but the following sites our my favorite. If you think that I have missed any good services, please post them in the comments.
Organize Yourself
It is often hard to tell whether or not the person who goes by Cory on one website or service is the same Cory that you know from another website or service because it is not always possible to use the same user name for every service. For example, the username "coryholt" might be avalible on flickr but not on a forum that I frequent. It is always better for websites to use your email address as your user name for convience but not all sites are perfect. This is where you run into the problem of using multiple services, but having a long list of usernames.
So after doing a little research, I came across a great website that helps you do just that: keep track of your online persona. In short, ClaimID lets you track and share all the information on the internet that is about you. For example, my ClaimID profile shows links to all of my various pages such as this blog, Teen Tech Talk, and my flickr account as well as all of my profiles that I use such as my LinkedIn resume and my MySpace page.
Other uses include linking to places in which you are referenced for you work such as on a news site or even a CSS design gallery such as CSS Vault.
Now, with this innovative idea comes a new form of plagiarism or a kind of identity theft. Since ClaimID lets you link to pages that you claim to be owned by you or about you, anyone could simply add a link on thier ClaimID profile to teentechtalk.com and suddenly they are now a part of it; or atleast according to ClaimID. That is where MicroID comes in. MicroID is a standards-based way to claim a page that's yours. Basically, in order to verify that a link is genuinely yours, you must paste a block of code somewhere on the page.
Then you just tell the site that you have indeed pasted the code somewhere on your page, and withen an hour or so, the Mirco ID "Ninjas" will search your page looking for that code. Once your page is verified, you'll see a "Verified" mark show up next to your link in your claimID page. So, in the eyes of ClaimID, if you have write access to the page that you are linking to, then you must be the owner of it. Now, that is all fine and dandy, but what about a reference to you on another site that you feel like linking to. Well, there really isn't an answer to that… or atleast not yet.
Other problems that I have run into when trying to verify my various sites and profiles, is that if you are trying to verify your MySpace profile, for example, you are out of luck. When you paste the code that MicroID gives you, MySpace's horrible standards and code strips out important parts of that block of code, making it impossible for you to verify your profile. Also, other services like LinkedIn will not work because they do not allow you to insert the specific HTML tags that are needed for ClaimID to verify your page.
An Online Resume
Resumes have always been one of the most important things you need in order to get a decent job. People focus so much on their resumes because that one peice of paper (or more) is what determines whether or not you are even eligible to get the job that you are applying for. It is the first thing that employers/clients look at before even meeting you, so you want to get it right. Earlier in this post, I mentioned something I called my LinkedIn profile. As of now, it is my official proffesional online resume. LinkedIn is a great service focusing on more than just a plain online page with your experience, education, and what-have-you.
It also allows you to connect with other people that you may have worked with in the past. Once these people are connected with you, they can write endorsements or testimonials about you. According to LinkedIn, people with endorsments from people such as former managers, colleagues and co-workers, customers and clients, and business partners are up to 3x more likely to be found in searches. Not only do they help you get out there and found, but they also make your resume look good.
The only con that I can find with LinkedIn's method of endorsements is that in order for someone to write an endorsement for you, they must have a LinkedIn account for themself. They can't simply send an email or use some other method as I have seen on other online resume websites.
Conclusion
So, as I have said in this article, there are all kinds of great and innovative services out there to get yourself out there and stay organized with who is you and who is not. If you know of any other great services like the ones mentioned above, please leave a link to them in the comments. Thanks for reading.
For more articles like this, please read my blog linked below:
Cory Holt cholt.net |
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