Christopher ‘Moot’ Poole (Founder of 4chan and Canvas) gave a very interesting talk about online identity at the Web 2.0 summit in San Fransisco yesterday.
I definitely agree that people are multi-faceted and as Poole says, not one dimensional mirrors as Facebook would have you believe. I also agree that Google+ missed opportunities to innovate by being restrictive with user names.
For whoever is interested in new social media, Canvas is a relatively new site worth checking out. It was in part created by Christopher ‘Moot’ Poole, who also founded the now famous 4chan image board. Canvas is also an image board but with a much stricter Code of Conduct, as opposed to 4chan which basically has no rules or moderation whatsoever. Much like 4chan, Canvas does offer anonymity for its users, however users may also choose to create, add, rate and ‘remix’ content under a username visible to other users. An interesting function of the site is that users can initially post content anonymously, but are allowed to later ‘claim’ the content under their username .The fact that it’s an image board and the use of anonymity are the only actual similarities with 4chan, as it has a much more sophisticated interface and layout.
The site opened for the public very recently, however it still remains in a beta testing phase: http://canv.as/welcome?next=/
Feel free to post in the comments about your first impressions of Canvas. (English or Dutch)
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