What does portfolio actually mean?

Lucinda left me a helpful comment on the first post to this blog – and raised a really interesting question. I’m beginning to feel like ‘portfolio’ is one of those words like ‘culture’ – it means so many things to so many different people, across so many different contexts. I had a vague element of recall that suggested it was derived from the convergence of two Latin words meaning ‘to carry’ and ‘leaves’ (as in paper)… then I found a page on the web that suggested the word comes from the Italian word ‘portfiglio’ – I tested it out in Google using the helpful search facility – define: portfolio. It’s an interesting one… at it’s most basic, it’s a collection… of things… could be objects, could be skills, responsibilities, etc. I was reading something the other day that suggested that people who maintained online social networking tools and, in particular, the sharing of digital artefacts, were in fact activating some sort of digital curatorship… over images, narratives, moments in time… that’s also something interesting to think on in terms of the ePortfolio and notions of ownership, accountability, accessibility, audience and purpose.