
When I started writing this blog it was completely anonymous. I wanted it that way, I did not necessarily enjoy it because I wanted everyone I know to read it, but I felt that it had to be that way and that I had no choice.
My first ever web page in early 1999 had all my details on it. It was personal but at the same time since it was entirely hand-coded it was meant to me looked at by potential employers or consultancy clients in the IT business. It had a photo of my cat (a must at that time), it talked about my boyfriend, it even had my home address so people would know where I was based.
I sent all my contacts a link to it, and a friend came back to me horrified that I had published my full address. He begged me to remove it, and I did, and I am glad I did, because at that time the last thing I needed was a stalker.
Fast forward to 2002, when I made up a unique blog name (bitful) and started connecting to a blogging community (the way we use to do it, by linking to each other's blogs, since FriendFeed and Facebook were at the time but a twinkle in Tim Berners Lee's eye). I kept everything separate even when it took a lot of effort, and only disclosed my blog's URL to very close friends. Similarly, I would never post pictures of myself or of my friends on my bitful account on Flickr, and maintained two separate Yahoo! accounts, one for mail, the other for social stuff.
A lot has happened since then. I am probably more comfortable with myself. I also am very lucky to be doing a job I love in an institution I respect, with colleagues I trust. And little by little, the boundaries I had carefully drawn to separate my two online identities became blurred. I have always been much more active online as bitful than as lucabelletti, and I was eager to connect to people as bitful to create connections between them and my online identity.
I have come to a point where I am perfecly happy to feature my name openly on my blog. I feel it is for me a very natural progression, as I cannot see the point of hiding it any longer, and the public and private identities are now one and the same. They serve different purposes perhaps, but they complement each other, as two facets of who I am. I know many people who are still terrified of such openness, and I respect their position, but I know this is right for me now.
And after all, if you search for my first and last name in inverted commas on Google you already get links to my FriendFeed, delicious, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, and (empty) personal homepage/sandbox for work projects (as well as stuff from other people I share my name with).
So yes then, my name is Luca Belletti, I run a blog called bitful, and you are very welcome to my life.