Anonymity

when are we entitled to anonymity? this is a very interesting thing to ponder in the global village where we have moved from the clothes line, the pub, the square and coffee shop to the web to share our thoughts, happenings and gossip. In the real village we do not have anonymity, when we speak we are known and our thoughts and ideas are identified quickly and instantly with us, and are passed on with reference to us as their author. this is the case no matter what our position in the village, whatever our role official or unofficial.

So what makes the printed form or the electronic form different? If we have something to say, should we not be prepared to be identified as its source? Is being an ANON cowardly?

Nikki Gemmel wrote A Bride Stripped Bare as Anonymous. I seem to remember an article saying she chose to do that to protect her husband - which is a fair call. Yet what happened, as with the case you quote Alex is that it fuelled the fires of the curious - there are those among us who feel they have to know and have the right to know. With Nikki again it was a journalist who tracked her down. And that is a journalist's training, to assess something is interesting to readers and track it down. Writing as Anonymous gave A Bride Stripped Bare great publicity - that is not to denigrate the book at all, it's wonderfully crafted and opens the debate on female sexuality sharply and clearly - but it is to make the point that we find the anonymous a challenge.

We find them a challenge for two reasons. Firstly because we just crave to know, we don't like the separation from the water pump where we would know because we heard the person speak the words who was the author, that is we crave to know because we just need to. But secondly i think we find it challenging because the authority of the author is lost when they write anonymously - and we like to be sure of the credentials of the source.

All that is quite separate to your debate, Alex, which is do we have the RIGHT to remain anonymous when publishing on the web, since the web is a public resource and a public space, a little like speakers corner in Hyde Park! Actually i agree with the judge in this case - even though i would like to remain anonymous myself, i don't think we can afford to allow anonymity as a right. the web is so impersonal, and so easy to publish material on, and that can then be shared by so many that we need some way of being able to authenticate the content, and the only real way to do that is to identify the authors.

So we may choose to be anonymous, and while with no obvious irony the journalism.co.uk have posted an article on how to remain anonymous i don't think we can claim it as a right.