Your post is very intriguing to me and offers me an opportunity to stimulate the dialog from personal experience.

Years ago a partner and I started a company with an office in the student union at a local university to provide a place for students to record video resume’s. We proudly shared our plans and how this was only the beginning of this great idea. We intended to franchise our brilliant idea. We had everything set, the equipment bought, the space committed, and a solid business plan in place before having a bomb dropped on us.

We were told that major employers (at the time) had a system in place that stripped any photographs from employment submissions to avoid possible discrimination charges. The logic is that someone can say that they were not picked as a candidate because they are fat or thin, black or white, pretty or ugly, etc. Of course you eventually meet face-to-face further down the process during an interview but the point was that this initial appearance anonymity provided some protection from nuisance discrimination threats or legal action.

The game has changed completely – even in the few years you mentioned. I am interested in hearing opinions about the dynamic and consequences of the blending of personal life and professional life facilitated by this increased exposure of the social web. Who thinks that, for example: party pictures on your old high school MySpace, family clowning-around photos from your Flickr, and your emo stage blog may color the way you are perceived as they appear in the same search results with your Linkedin profile. Once on the internet always on the internet in one form or another.

I submit that there is an opportunity to start to shape the awareness of the permanence of your internet presence and how to best manage it. The social web is here to stay, it is new and dynamic, and your post is excellent in pointing out the new opportunities to use it. The purpose of my comment here is to open this discussion to some other dimensions.

That’s an awesome Christmas gift by the way. I hope she enjoys it!