One. Be who you are #edcmooc

Scholarly endeavour seeks the truth, the genuine article, the original idea. It further seeks expose the fake and the fraudulent from art forgery to forged artefacts. Scholars are expected to be present as themselves and build reputations on their integrity their "genuineness" as researchers and teachers. The worst sin is to plagiarise, to pass off someone else's work as their own.

In the age of advanced web technology we have a new kind of fakerey, the fake human. The animated characters that haunt corporate websites offering to help and answer questions. Even if they were able to pass a Turing Test the only honourable course of action is for them to announce their fake human credentials. "Hello, I am xxxxxx and I am a fake human. I can appear to answer your questions but in fact I only process your question against an algorithm and select the most likely pre-prepared answer." 

In the world of the web, not being who you really are, or being someone else or stealing someone else's identity is relatively easy. A fake profile, a fake Facebook or Linkedin account would be a logical starting point. If you can't be bothered you could hide as the ubiquitous "Anonymous". 

I would argue that we need to be assured of the identity of the person behind those we meet, even in a virtual world. Fakery corrupts and degrades the quality of discourse. Fakery is the equivalent of shifting sands, build your house here and it will surely fall.

"Be who  you are"