On the internet, dogs aren't helping (in most cases)

The famous adage that on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog is becoming a thing of the past (true to form, the cartoon is over 18 years old already!). With Facebook authentication being a popular feature of many sites requiring login and the recent upheaval about the Google+ policy of requiring real names, more and more sites know who you are. 

Overall, this is a good thing. On various levels of an individual's online identity, it is useful to declare oneself: 

• Authentication becomes easier (no need to remember different passwords for different sites, and when you get to a site you visit frequently and that requires login - the cookies do the job in the background)

Why Renaissance Geek?

It's time for me to get serious about blogging. 

Frequently I catch myself feeling the urge to voice my opinion on a news item or vent about something. Often, I also feel like if I forced myself to write about a topic, I'd have a better chance of actually learning about it, sorting it in my head and have an educated, well-grounded opinion. 

Often, however, 140 Twitter characters don't do justice to a complex topic and my friends on Facebook are way too diverse to be interested in my narrow focus on technology.  

But what should be the theme? It's no good to simply go with "Michal's blog" as I used to do before - it's just too focused on me - without a theme that transcends my humble persona, that sounds like too much of a narcissistic thing to do. 

So while I knew that the playground of the blog would be technology and the internet, I felt like I should give it a bigger umbrella than just "my personal rants". 

On the quest for this overarching theme, three main convictions crystallized: 

1. The power of the internet to change societies to the better

I thought back to my early days at London Business School and that fateful moment in October 2007 when I decided that I would apply for a job at Google and leave Consulting.