Finished reading Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives as suggested reading for social technologies class. The book is written by lawyers John Palfrey and Urs Gasser and targeted towards parents and educators on the issues related to technology and today's Digital Natives. The book opens by talking about the world of Digital Natives and the dangers that they face in terms of having to navigate complex social technologies that disclose personal information and also expose youth to safety threats and threatened privacy. Palfrey and Gasser also talk about the identities of the new Digital Natives - that there is a blurring between private and public selves and a continual reinvention and fluidity of the identity. I think about some of my friends on Facebook who took a long time to join the network and never/rarely change their profiles, and it's interesting to me to think about how the pre-digital natives use the technology in a more stable/static way, then say some of the college-aged students I've taught over the years.

The authors spend a good amount of their time talking about their ideas for policy and practice, as well as discussing ethics, copyright law. I think the main take-away from the book for me, as it applies to museums and virtual exhibitions is that parents are concerned about good technological design, controls and privacy (collection and sharing of personal info), and that these concerns should be addressed through any online project. The other take-away is finding ways to channel the creative energy or groundswell that is part of the uprising in creators, a category of social technology users (there are also observers, critics, and other categories, with the creators being the most active and participatory in terms of generating new content). I.e. finding ways to involve or capitalize on youth/user innovation and expertise - tapping their ability as collaborators and innovators to help take a project to the next level.