but it's separate from the real me. as Ener Hax, i write without caps (a nod to Bauhaus principles btw), use lots of smilies, and am very much a distinct personna from rl me. but . . . it's all authentic. i believe you can have two personnas and be authentic (i reach out to my inner child). i think of Geico and their major ad campaigns running at the same time: caveman, money with googly eyes, and gecko. all represent the same thing

it is authentic because what that personna does is real (actions, not just words promising $$ with twitter!). well, virtually real anyway and backed up by real service solutions

in my case, it does not matter who the real person is, the virtual personna has to deliver and has a reputation to maintain and a real business to attend to

it becomes the brand for my real efforts and thus is authentic and credible

nice post (love the digressions!) =)

Go forward with the notion that you have a different color mask to go with whatever venue you're writing or speaking through. Get a sense for, in general what's inappropriate in all your venues, and what's on the edge of appropriate in those venues, too. Know the boundaries.

Wherever you're present, in whatever mask — write to the edge. Don't go over.

Hell-bound handbasket. Only you.

What I thought I was saying was that there's lots of time “wasted” even in a workplace where everyone's in the same physical location. “Wasted” in the sense that you're not actually grinding out deliverables.

Your point, which I agree with, is that at least some of this “waste” actually goes to forming and strengthening connections that can (though not necessarily will increase your effectiveness.

Those moments are just harder to count. And I had in mind a somewhat smug post I'd read on an HR-oriented site; its overall tone was clearly that internet access (much less social-site access) was simply a way to turbocharge the speed of your hell-bound handbasket.