Friend and fellow blogger Daniel Rezac sent me a link to Ionz, a neat little tool that will build an infographic representing your life. Answer a few simple questions and Ionz will build an infographic like this:
While it's neat, the information collected isn't all that useful or in depth. For instance, you will be asked to choose your favorite social network (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc), but after answering, no analysis of your use of that social network is performed. I would be interested in seeing stats such as total number of tweets, number of followers, most popular tweet, etc.
Similarly, there is lots of public data about me on the web that could also be included into this infographic. This information can be gleaned from my Google Profile, Blog, and Facebook profile, etc. Utilizing this information would provide a much richer summary of my life on the web.
If you like tools like IonZ, I would recommend that you check these digital footprint sites as well:
- Personas (created by an MIT graduate student to show the harshness of web search)
- Spezify (builds a search-cloud based on the tearm that you enter)
- Digital Footprint Calculator from EMC2 (must be downloaded and installed)
The concept of a digital footprint is a critically important idea that needs to be explained to this generation of students. Few of them realize that what they do on the web will impact them in the future. I highly recommend this short video for an explanation on the impact of one's digital footprint.
Nice post. Very helpful. I love learning about new ways to view my digital footprint. I didn't know about the digital footprint calculator -- will need to try that one. I have a common name, always a challenge. Thanks for your comment on my blog post, "Are You Google-Ready?"(http://fly2learn.blogspot.com/2011/04/are-you-google-ready.html). Always thrilled to meet a new educator with similar interests!
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