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Anonymity unchained
I was recently watching a BBC broadcast called Click where various websites and technologies are featured. One website that came to my attention was Omegle. The premise here is completely anonymous conversations with total strangers. Now having just written that last sentence, the words bad idea popped into my head. This has already been done.
I tried it out anyway as an experiment to ascertain the true value of total transperency within an online environment. We all know Chris regularly streams live broadcasts. His name is Chris here and indeed in every other aspect of his life, Chris is his handle, identity, alias and name in all reasonble respects. There was of course a time when he may have been known as the LockerGnome. This was a handle, perhaps to protect a true identity.
Omegle is now as I type flashing away in the background. I'm chatting to what might be an Australian who has just made some rather unsavory remarks. These of course are entirely inconsequential since the chat will end, the person who was typing at the other end will for all intents and purposes disappear and life will go on as if Omegle had never happened. Much like all those raids you ran, all but a memory, seldom shared. Perhaps some forgettable sense of offense from snide comments or inappropriate remarks will remain, but these will pass into oblivion along with that list of groceries I meant to pick up on my way home.
I've ignored him (might be a her though, or maybe even a cat) for a while now, which you may call rude, maybe even scientifically unethical. I have for the purposes of an experiment given my username for this very site. Bad idea? Sure, but many of you may be aware of perhaps 1 of my online identities. I maintain several. They are disposable. Generally, people are lazy, so if I choose to delete this blog post, chances are it won't be reposted because none of you fine folks will have thought to copy and paste it to a medium outside my control. Nothing of importance ever happens on the Internet
Now what I want to get at here is the idea that total transperency has effective consequences for those who would do you ill. You who have opted for total transperency could be said to have transferable human rights, enforcable in both the real and virtual worlds. What is 'you' exists simultaneously here and there. If you are assaulted online by some blackguard buffoon, are you not left assaulted too in your real life?
Inversly, total online anonymity means you can come from planet Zargax without any fear of consequence for your actions. Act as you please, do as you will, vanish into the mystery that spawned you. Omegle is an interesting case. Cetainly, it's an interesting way of testing chatup lines (especially if that's another guy on the other end).
Transperency lends itself to accountability. This in turn could be said to enhance the value of what you say. The ear of the people might not so readily bend to hear the delegate from Zargax. Authenticating his message is practically impossible. When Chris puts up a video, we know it's value could be of value to us, the geeks community, and indeed the Internet at large.
It comes back to an old missive I once read. A true hacker has no handle. Why would a true hacker need one? I would ask then of my fellow geeks: DO you use a nickname or handle and if so, why?
I tried it out anyway as an experiment to ascertain the true value of total transperency within an online environment. We all know Chris regularly streams live broadcasts. His name is Chris here and indeed in every other aspect of his life, Chris is his handle, identity, alias and name in all reasonble respects. There was of course a time when he may have been known as the LockerGnome. This was a handle, perhaps to protect a true identity.
Omegle is now as I type flashing away in the background. I'm chatting to what might be an Australian who has just made some rather unsavory remarks. These of course are entirely inconsequential since the chat will end, the person who was typing at the other end will for all intents and purposes disappear and life will go on as if Omegle had never happened. Much like all those raids you ran, all but a memory, seldom shared. Perhaps some forgettable sense of offense from snide comments or inappropriate remarks will remain, but these will pass into oblivion along with that list of groceries I meant to pick up on my way home.
I've ignored him (might be a her though, or maybe even a cat) for a while now, which you may call rude, maybe even scientifically unethical. I have for the purposes of an experiment given my username for this very site. Bad idea? Sure, but many of you may be aware of perhaps 1 of my online identities. I maintain several. They are disposable. Generally, people are lazy, so if I choose to delete this blog post, chances are it won't be reposted because none of you fine folks will have thought to copy and paste it to a medium outside my control. Nothing of importance ever happens on the Internet
Now what I want to get at here is the idea that total transperency has effective consequences for those who would do you ill. You who have opted for total transperency could be said to have transferable human rights, enforcable in both the real and virtual worlds. What is 'you' exists simultaneously here and there. If you are assaulted online by some blackguard buffoon, are you not left assaulted too in your real life?
Inversly, total online anonymity means you can come from planet Zargax without any fear of consequence for your actions. Act as you please, do as you will, vanish into the mystery that spawned you. Omegle is an interesting case. Cetainly, it's an interesting way of testing chatup lines (especially if that's another guy on the other end).
Transperency lends itself to accountability. This in turn could be said to enhance the value of what you say. The ear of the people might not so readily bend to hear the delegate from Zargax. Authenticating his message is practically impossible. When Chris puts up a video, we know it's value could be of value to us, the geeks community, and indeed the Internet at large.
It comes back to an old missive I once read. A true hacker has no handle. Why would a true hacker need one? I would ask then of my fellow geeks: DO you use a nickname or handle and if so, why?
Comment
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Comment by Thomas Risley on June 30, 2009 at 11:44am -
I use a handle/nickname for sites, to hide my real name. I use as few as I can, which currently stands at 2, and use 2 different passwords associated with either account.
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Comment by Robin on June 30, 2009 at 2:39am -
It all depends in my case - mostly I used my standard handle on legit sites because it makes it easier for me to remember and keep track of it and gives me some sense of existence over the internet. Where some site seems dodgy I use random handle to hide my identity.
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Comment by Sol McNally Aka : Dmitri Girl on June 29, 2009 at 12:11am -
Oh yeah another reason why some people don't use their real name is they don't want to be found by certain people.
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Comment by Sol McNally Aka : Dmitri Girl on June 29, 2009 at 12:08am
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Well for most of the sites that I am a part of. I do not use a "handle" or nickname exactly. My first name is normally almost always part of my screen name. And when I do use a screen name persay it is normally to attract a certain type of people on a site. If I want to be known persay for who I am meaning on a site where I feel that there is less judgement involved then I usually use my real name. Cause I don't want the village idiot to contact me due to what my screen name is or what I look like. I want to be respected for who I am and not what I look like. As I said it depends on the site. But some part of my name is almost always part of my screen names. That are not my name.
© 2012 Created by Chris Pirillo.
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