Digital Identity Built on a Cooperative Relationship

Abstract

Digital identity may be classified as weak or strong. The weak digital identity is limited to virtual characters, avatars, or fakes, which play digital roles with no significant impact on the subjects’ lives. The strong digital identity is constructed when subjects use digital technologies as a support to convey meanings that extend into the subjects’ lives, and reach beyond a virtual concept. The cooperative relationship within a Virtual Environment may be an important method to build a strong digital identity. When the parties involved are genuinely interested, the cooperative relationship may lead to joint constructions of meanings and changes in the sociocultural context. In this chapter, the authors examine the conditions under which cooperative relationships may contribute to the construction of a strong digital identity in digitally excluded subjects. To this end, they present practices in the TelEduc Virtual Environment conducted together with community health agents, who used to be excluded from the information technology universe. The chapter discusses elements that may encourage the construction of a strong digital identity and how the process, which the authors refer to as spiral of transformation, reaches beyond the virtual environment.