“Tools that are designed to make intelligible something alive, the life of the network.” Interview of Hugues AUBIN, ICT Project Manager, City of Rennes (France)
Hughes Aubin is an tireless digital innovator, observing the impact of digital technologies on the society for years now. He mentored the project Identiscoop developed by Edouard Durand as final thesis work, a mobile application for a better control over one’s online digital identity. Hughes shares his reflection and experience, about extimacy or the subtle frontiers between what we hide, transform or exhibit from ourselves while being online…
Interview made by Grégoire Cliquet, course leader for the Virtual Reality Master’s program and head of the READi Design Lab, in october 2010.
From Hughes Aubin to Hugobiwan Zolnir and back, managing plural identities online
Grégoire Cliquet: You go by several pseudos, Hugues Aubin. Among them are “Hugobiwan” and “Zolnir.” Could you explain how you handle your digital identity via your social network experiences? Are there really three different identities?
Hugues Aubin: Actually, the names you’ve just mentioned refer only to two identities: “Hugobiwan Zolnir” and “Hugues Aubin.” I have other ones, which I am glad you haven’t found, because they were specifically made not to correlate. In my mind, “Hugues Aubin” is nothing other than a civil status, a kind of normative display of myself. I’ve chosen not to use my first or last name. My exposure under this pseudo is, for the most part, limited to my professional activities. If you google my name, you’ll mostly come across hits related to my duties as ICT Project Managerfor the city of Rennes. This identity is more functional than cultural, thus devoid of any sentimental hues. The second identity, “Hugobiwan Zolnir”, is reserved only for personal matters. After just a few clicks, any Internet user can discover the connection between this identity and that of “Hugues Aubin.” However, this second one does not at all serve the same purpose nor have the same status as the “Hugues Aubin” one. In fact, it is centered on my personal interests. Since I take an interest in my job, this identity serves to forge bonds between trend monitor tribes, experimentation fiends, the people whose paths I crossed during art- or digital-related projects, and those to whom I feel close be it on a sentimental or geographic note, for example, folks in Rennes. I have a professional identity called “Hugues Aubin” and another named “Hugobiwan Zolnir” that breeds a lifestream or network based on common interests and hobbies. In addition, I sometimes come up with digital identities for very specific tasks, such as experimenting with online services, and wherein the chances are slim to none for anyone to track down the link between these and “Hugues Aubin” or “Hugobiwan Zolnir.” I take caution even further by using a specific mailbox for each account. On the one hand, I sport a rather sentiment-neutral, normative image with a strong grip on my many work projects, and on the other, a pseudo that truly embodies my network, passions and projects. Both are very useful to me in that they enable me to weave fairly open networks knowing that “Hugues Aubin” stands but three clicks away from “Hugobiwan Zolnir” and vice versa.
Grégoire Cliquet: From this angle, there are two distinct identities.
Hugues Aubin: It’s how I use these two identities that accounts for the difference. Sometimes, for instance, I post comments to blogs under the name of “Hugues Aubin,” but only on professional blogs to which I post a professional opinion. When I put in my two cents to a community or personal collective by expressing a point of view or pointing out a must-see, then I use the other name.
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