The Interactive Voice

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How do you know it’s me?

I get this very practical question every semester, but few of you create such an airtight pseudonym that I cannot, by process of elimination, discover who is who. Those of you who do not post your real name or picture directly under your Twitter handle, still sign into WordPress with a school email address or have a Gravatar following you around.

This is not a bad thing; it just shows how difficult it is to remain anonymous online.

The veneer of Internet privacy has been with us since we first created our chat room nicknames, but it was always artificial. There were always codes and coders behind the friendly GUIs. Now warped and peeling, the facade only convinces the people in denial.

Posting candid journals online under the assumption that no boss or friend will find them is still common. The impulse to write publically yet privately is a mixed message, but one that was in the first diary. Everyone wants to be famous and no one wants to be scrutinized.

I know many students who have put their thoughts and entire lives online next to their names since the day they could use a keyboard faster than their parents. They are cataloged and saved in numerous search engine servers whether they have reconsidered or not.

I was nearly convinced that a radical form of honesty was the rebellion that would separate the new generation from my own. Job recruiters everywhere would have to get used to hiring people whose nude pictures and flawed lives were only a Google search away, because that would be everyone.

You are already naked, as Mr. Jobs put it.

A few personal PowerPoint and Twitter scandals in the headlines over the past few years have all of us rethinking that revolution.

However, few of you have a detective searching every one of your quotes or tracking your tendency to split infinitives. If you comment on a web page and do not use your name, it will be difficult to associate the words with you. If you pay attention, create a fresh email account with a strange name, and then use that account to sign up with Twitter and WordPress, you can try a new voice.

It is enough of a mask to get a lot of people writing who would not have otherwise. Think how different you can feel in a Halloween costume.

Your writing should never be limited by the idea that all of it must be public. A pseudonym gives you opportunities to experiment, to focus, to reinvent, and to simply reconsider your byline, or what any byline can mean. It appears you can say anything and run for the highest office in the land, but it is up to you whether your byline or pen name is similarly blunt.

Your byline may mean nothing to you.

Your word can mean everything to an audience.

Hello class and welcome to ICM506, Writing for Interactive Media.

I am your professor, Bob Kalm, and I run 506 as a mix between a writer’s workshop and an online message board.

Over this coming semester, we are going to hold a continuous, virtual classroom conversation with our desktops, laptops, tablets and smart phones. You will contribute to class at anytime, from anywhere.

Utilizing various new and social media forms, you will each create and hone a distinct, written  online presence. In the process, we will revisit what is good writing and discuss how best to utilize good writing in the ever-changing online environment.

As graduate communication students, the best way for you to improve your ability to communicate in any field or medium, regardless of your skills, skill level, or interests, is to practice expressing yourself using the modern lingua franca of American English.

I will post the first class module next Monday night. You should do three things in the meantime:

First, pick a new name for yourself.

This class is a practice session. Your semester goal is to create a draft of an online presence to get you thinking about what that means to you and how you can communicate better using both words and the web.

Your voice is a precious thing. Once you say something publicly, it is very difficult to undo the connection between your byline and your words. We see examples of this on a daily basis. We will discuss the pros and cons of revealing one’s self online, but for the duration of this course you will do all of your work under a pen name or pseudonym, even if you are a veteran writer.

This will allow you to experiment freely.

Come up with a pseudonym this week and make sure it is something a good detective could not easily decipher and associate with you.

Second, come up with a topic to cover this semester.

I want you to develop a clear and unique written voice online. This means you have to edit yourself. The key to communication is having something specific and relevant to say. If I search for Jon Stewart or Martha Stewart or even Stewart’s beverages online, I know exactly what topics I’m going to find in their content. These are successful voices because I know their focus. I go to them for a reason.

What is your voice? What is its focus? Every piece of writing you do in this class, from essays to tweets, should fall under a single subject. You pick the subject. You can write about anything you want, but you need to concentrate on something. The topic can’t be you and all your many interests. No one is writing a diary. Imagine you are a journalist and you’ve been assigned a beat like the White House or Economics or Terrorism.

What is your beat?

Think about your capstone project for inspiration. If your capstone is going to be a documentary on fly-fishing, then a blog about fly-fishing and your pre-production and research for the documentary could be a tremendous help to you. Previous students have used this course to build their capstones from scratch.

Remember this is your beat for this one semester and course. I’m not asking you to pick your major or make a life decision. It is a brief experiment.

Think of a few options for your semester beat this week. Once you do, you might also rethink your pseudonym.

Third, post a sample of your work.

Each of you should create a blog account and a Twitter account under your new pseudonym. The blog should be separate from your ICM blog. Pick the simplest template – black text on a white background. Don’t use any elaborate themes, colors or graphics of any kind. We are starting with blank slates and devoting our attention to the words only.

The first sample you post shouldn’t be more than a page in length. It should be something you’ve written previously and not for this class. It should also be something of which you are proud.

It will be our first impression of you.

Post your new blog address and Twitter feed in the comments following this post once you register with me in the column to your right. You can use Blogger (or WordPress if you have a host) as long as we all have access to your work and can make comments. I will create a blogroll immediately.

Everyone should follow everyone else’s Twitter account. You can start with mine @bumpspark. I recommend using Tweetdeck as well.

If you search online, you will find previous versions of this course. Do not look back.

Writing is a process and so is this class. It will evolve with a new set of students. If you take your time with each module as they arrive, you will evolve too.

We will discuss how to critique one another’s work constructively next week. You will be broken down into groups to that end, but I want you to become interested in all of your fellow classmates’ goals as much as your time allows. The more input each of you gives, the more you will receive in conversation, and the more beneficial this class will become for everyone.

I will talk to you as the week progresses. Email me with questions.

A new class begins… May 14th.