It seems there’s been some confusion about my name.
My real first name is not Peter (which you’ll find on my F__book profile and emails I send).
After about 10 months on Twitter exclusively it became evident I needed to join F___Book to keep track of all the fine people I was meeting online, RSVP properly for events organized there, etc. If I recall correctly at the time the site required a first name longer than 2 characters (I tried for PR) initially. Well I didn’t want to just make up a name, I needed something that would be PR-ish.
Prometheus seemed a bit cocky, though it would almost certainly be obviously not a real first name. At the time we were also planning Masquertweet 1 and if I was going to be called by a ‘name’ (speaking of ‘Cog’ or ‘Hey You’ always works in person) it should be reasonable and so Peter seemed the best choice. Of course I wanted to spell it PeteR (ahh, now you see it – the P and the R).
The last name — I couldn’t find anything that worked properly in English, so I opened the scope a bit and fell back on the Latin-based languages. Cogito (and other various forms of knowledge) I was familiar with, and I figured it’s ok to be a little cocky (particularly with the nonsense BS others post about themselves in various degrees of truth) and so after a bit of a hunt Cognoscenti popped up. Part of the humor, of course, being that I don’t claim to be an expert in anything. I kept my avatar consistent so anyone I’d add as a friend would see the image and make the association.
So, now that the F___Book name was set I began to run into instances where it was worthwhile (i.e., not worth explaining) to use the name in email — reserving and booking locations for events, working with non-Twitterers, etc. and so it started to appear on my gmail account. Of course when emailing people who only knew me from Twitter I had a similar problem as previously, but in reverse.
Those I emailed with frequently (including the PRBC-ers) would know immediately if I was dealing with the ‘outside world’ by the name my emails came from. Once they saw “Peter C” they knew I was trying to book a space or work a similar arrangement. Once it went back to PRCog they knew plans had been finalized. Now it’s a consistent ‘Peter C [PRCog]’ to cover all my bases.
As far as what my real name actually is. Well that’s simple, it’s….(did you really think I was just gonna put it out there? 🙂 ).
And for when we meet in person — if it’s an ‘event’ I’ll introduce myself as Peter (unless we’ve had lots of discussions, then it’s ‘Cog’). What can you call me — anything – Peter, Cog, PR or just tap me on the shoulder; just not expert or guru.