What I hope is that the Web will remain, indeed, become more, expressive. More expressive of one's individualism. Yesterday at work I signed for a package-the UPS guy handed me one of those etch-a-sketch things for me to autograph. I was wondering if that could be adapted to a personal computer. Just as one uses a pen to sign at the bottom of a typed letter, I can imagine signing at the bottom of a post. What is desirable is a surface the size of a napkin so one can also doodle.

By dweinberger on Saturday, June 22, 2002 - 10:02 am:

Obviously there are pen-and-pad applications already that work really well. I have one from Wacom that I got for $100 18 months ago that I like a lot. But the real issue you're addressing is authentication and digital ID, I think. And for that we need something more secure than literal signatures. It's a tough problem but because of its importance, there are a number of initiatives underway. See http://www.digitalidworld.com/ for instance...

By Tim Walker on Saturday, June 22, 2002 - 11:01 am:

I was referring to literal signatures for the sake of individuality, but I have to agree that authentication is important. (Probably vital to the future of e-commerce). The time an imposter posted using my name, I sent an e-mail to the web master that included my password. But I think something better-something more robust-is needed.

By Tim Walker on Tuesday, August 06, 2002 - 04:02 pm:

Forbes ASAP, Summer 2002 issue-the editorial at the back by Owen Edwards. Edwards remembers staying on a Greek island, and paying boys to deliver hand written messages. Edwards thought this charming. But this custom vanished when telephones appeared, sacrificed to convenience. But in Edwards' view intimate messages have reappeared in the form of e-mail. He does wish that the digitalized writing used by UPS was a part of it.

By Dale Lature on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 02:28 pm:

"No matter what virtual personae I may create, they are all personae of the person typing the words, a person with a social security number and a single, fleshy body that is not nearly as nimble as its online voices are" (P. 175)

In talking about the close relationship of online personae and the "person behind the words" (or "behind the blog"), this observation brings to the surface a long standing problem I sense: that I often, to my chagrin, find myself feeling a LOT LESS articulate, a lot more impatient, and a lot less convincing than I perceive myself to be online. In other words, I have comments and emails about my weblog which express appreciation for the things I explore in my weblog. Offline, face-to-face, my experience is often dominated by that "glazed over" look I get (or perceive) from "recipients" of my offline rants. This comes from family members, acquaintances, and is probably ocurring by some of the Weblog readers from whom , of course, I will NEVER hear. The offline, face to face "failures" highlight the difference between the online personae I have, and even "feel" as I sit in front of my computer with my Weblog software fired up and ready to post some new thought, some new "discovery" via another's blog thoughts or their blog discoveries pointing to another.