Managing an online identity is much more challenging that managing a physical one. It feels like a constant battle between a professional presence and a personal presence. In the past when I switched contexts I would take down my blog and start over. For example, in grad school I blogged about my classes and project work. I took all that down when I graduated because I wanted to keep a personal blog for my friends and family to check in on me. Now I am reconsidering tearing this down and starting over, since I am back to work in an area that I want to blog about.

What complicates things is the fact that we exist not only in blogs but in several places with competing interests. Friends in MySpace and Facebook are now no longer just my high school or college buddies, it’s work friends, business partners, and more. Since I have friends who don’t care about technology and friends who would rather read about technology than see pictures of my dog doing tricks, I am stuck. Using one virtual identity in all these contexts is getting difficult, but managing several will be even more challenging. We use social software at work, where I know what my context is, and I know what my ‘audience’ is interested in, but the line is not so clear when I step out of that work-only context.

I am looking for options I now have two blogs