Unmasking Power: Alternative Futures for Empowering Our Digital Identities

As generations of new users are born into a radically interconnected world, digital identities are increasingly becoming a key determinant for how we interact with products, services, information, and each other. Yet, our digital futures seem to be in the hands of a few highly powerful platforms, instead of ourselves. In this paper I make the case that we’re building a future where inhabitants of digital communities may well be losing trust, choice, and human rights without awareness. This research project calls for and aims to demonstrate a kind of transformation of the design of digital services. The paper examines various models of power relationships in online digital identity ecosystems, revealing multiple leverage points for change. To help investigate alternative futures with an intersectional and systemic lens, I start an ongoing creative collaboration which explores the futures of digital identities through serious game design and development. The project is directed primarily toward design and innovation teams, and associated knowledge workers, whose efforts have significant influence on future technologies, platforms, and their impacts. This work explores how we might deconstruct power dynamics prevalent in digital service design today. Through multiple analyses, maps and models of these systems, the paper reveals multiple opportunities for change. The serious game prototype, developed and tested through iterative, participatory design, demonstrates promise in facilitating critical conversations about digital identities, enabling discovery of new insights