Directions:

This workshop consists of a self-paced slide show, tasks for you to complete and bring to class, as well as links and basic information below. The slides are available in Keynote and PDFs (PDFs are accessible for screen readers). These slides are plain and designed to download fast and simply provide you with information you need for this course.

Once you have looked over these slides, you need to make at least one comment below (100 word minimum) that directly address the slides content for workshop credit, ask questions, etc.

While you are not quizzed on this workshop, you are responsible for using this information for your course projects. This is stuff you need to know. Refer back to these slides.

Keynote: Comm_Identity_Comm181F.key

PDF: Comm_Identity_Comm181F.pdf

Check out the huge bibliography on self-representation online <Self-Representation Online Sources> on this wiki.

"I Love Alaska"

Watch all 13 episodes on Vimeo or here:
minimovies.org/​documentaires/​view/​ilovealaska

August 4, 2006, the personal search queries of 650,000 AOL (America Online) users accidentally ended up on the Internet, for all to see. These search queries were entered in AOL's search engine over a three-month period. After three days AOL realized their blunder and removed the data from their site, but the sensitive private data had already leaked to several other sites.

I love Alaska tells the story of one of those AOL users. We get to know a religious middle-aged woman from Houston, Texas, who spends her days at home behind her TV and computer. Her unique style of phrasing combined with her putting her ideas, convictions and obsessions into AOL's search engine, turn her personal story into a disconcerting novel of sorts.

Over a period of three months, a portrait of a woman emerges who is diligently searching for likeminded souls. The list of her search queries read aloud by a voice-over reads like a revealing character study of a somewhat obese middle-aged lady in her menopause, who is looking for a way to rejuvenate her sex life. In the end, when she cheats on her husband with a man she met online, her life seems to crumble around her. She regrets her deceit, admits to her Internet addiction and dreams of a new life in Alaska.

This is episode #1