My Life in the Cloud

I have recently heard the Internet and it’s blogs, websites, wikis, and other uses, referred to as the “Cloud.”  Here, I will take a moment to reflect on what my life looks like in the cloud. 

My reputation is very important to me.  The Internet is a massive tool that can be beneficial or harmful to my reputation.  The Internet is permanent and not going anywhere.  This makes the information on the Internet permanent.  It is important to me to have the right information about me on the Internet.  As part of my effort to protect my reputation I have created a Google profile.  It can be viewed by clicking here or by clicking on the link in my blog.  I have included my name and employer so that people are sure that they are viewing the correct profile.  I would not want another Timothy Reese that has a sketchy character to be clicked on instead of me.  Hopefully, this and other small steps can help build a strong and honest name. 

The Internet is a type of village.  The people on the Internet mingle among each other and learn about each other.  This is comparable the villages of 100 years ago.  Those people knew each other well and knew each other’s darkest secrets and never forgot.  The Internet is similar.  When I post comments on a blog they are here for all to see.  I could delete them later but if someone read them they will not forget what I said.  It is important to think about what I have said before I hit the “submit” button.  While the Internet has added to globalization it is also helping to make the world smaller and this village feel.

Reputation is earned.  A person must earn their reputation.  This very blog is going to be a part of my reputation whether it is viewed as a positive or negative aspect of my reputation.  People will read this blog or other websites that I use and make judgments against or for my character.  I must make sure that these judgments are based on true statements.  Using passwords is a way to protect my blog from allowing other people to use it and make statements that I do not say.  This is a very simple way to protect my reputation.

Sometimes there is information on the Internet that is not true about your character.  I do know of one website that quotes me as saying something and I never said it.  This was the result of some people thinking they were funny and pretending to be me and calling a newspaper about a certain event.  As part of protecting my reputation I immediately called the paper and they retracted their story.  Even though they did that I can search the quote and still find it on the Internet.  I have been emailing the website that has the quote for two years and they have not responded to me.  As part of the defense of my reputation I have a copy of the original story and the retraction and can refute any information that is wrong. 

My life is in the cloud but is it my life that people see or another Timothy Reese’s life?  My name is a pretty common name and I got over four million hits when I searched it on google.com.  There is a Timothy Reese that is a member of the United States military.  There is a Timothy Reese that has a lawn company.  Those are just a few.  I would not want people to be confused about which one is the real Timothy Reese that they are looking for.  The Google profile that I created should help with this because I included information that people would recognize as the Timothy Reese that they have met.

I am up there in the cloud.  Can you see me?  I hope you see the real me.