Treespotter: Anonymity and World Domination...

It is interesting to see interviews with anonymous people, particularly bloggers, become newsworthy. The Treespotter is certainly an anonymous blogger that is worthy of an interview of this kind.

I ummmed and ahhhhed about posting this only cause I did not want to seem like I was piggy backing on his fame. Yet, I like the man's work and I enjoy reading his views as he works on his plan of world domination.

Perhaps the "Puff Doggy" avatar by Daniel Peacock has more to do with the laid back plan of world domination than it does with anything else. According to the interview, but I knew this already, the "treespotting" moniker has to do with using trees as land marks or simply just as markers. The idea that a distinctive tree can guide you from place to place as you meander your way through this existence is an excellent one. As human beings we use markers all the time to measure and evaluate our progress.

It is also an apt choice because the Treespotter himself is a marker of sorts to many people. There are at least 13,000 Twitterers who use him as a marker for all things commentary on social, political, economic, technology and media issues.

So, it goes without saying that I subscribe to his blog and Twitter feeds. There is nothing quite like watching the to and fro on Twitter and other places once the Treespotter gets into the game.

The man has an innate ability to pose the real tricky questions, you know, the ones that everyone is thinking about but unsure of where or how to ask it. The man has no obvious fear of putting it out there. Yet, that is what probably attracts people, or "followers", to him. It is the idea that there is someone out there trying to "keep the bastards honest".

I once read a book, although I cannot remember the name of it, but the storyline is one where the world is run by this man who many people know, but nobody knows. To all intents and purposes a regular man with absolute power. I often remember that story line when I think of the Treespotter. I think I would be happy to live in a "treespotting" world.

Blog Housekeeping...

Dear All...

I have enabled comment moderation.

It seems that I have attracted some unwarranted attention and one particular thread has become a platform for defaming and slandering a number of individuals who do not voice an opinion that is in agreement with their views.

These commenters have opted to post anonymously or under pen names, but have so far failed to show the courage of their convictions and post under their real names. So, if you want your comment to be published use your name, or provide me with a reason why I should let you post under a pen name. That said, any tame comments posted by anonymous posters might make the grade provided they do not defame. If you post anonymously, then you take your chances with my discretion.

I feel that I have little choice but to enable comment moderation and prevent defamatory and slanderous comments from making their way into the public domain.

If you want to know what I am talking about then feel free to ask me and I will direct you to the relevant post and comments.

Anonymous Blogger -- Outed By the Courts & Google...

This is a follow-up to an earlier post on anonymous blogging and whether one can be truly anonymous when they blog, particularly if they are writing content that offends someone and they decide to take legal action. You can read that post here.

The anonymous blogger is Rosemary Port, a 29-year-old fashion student from New York, and she is so unhappy about Google giving up her identity and breaching her right to privacy that she is allegedly going to sue Google for USD 15 million.

Port's lawyer, Salvatore Strazzullo, seems to think that the case has enough legs to get all the way to the US Supreme Court. The arguments that Strazzullo are going to run with revolve around the fact that Google has "breached its fiduciary duty to protect her [Port] expectation of anonymity".

However, the other likely angles include that Cohen had a hand in publishing the sexually provocative pictures of herself and that the defamation action was nothing more than an attempt drum up some publicity for herself and defame Port into the bargain. Furthermore, Cohen has described herself as a "serial monogamist". Interesting choice of words to accompany the pictures posted of her.

This case would seem to have some ways to go.

A long story short, Port created a blog called "Skanks in NYC" and it seems that the only 'skank' Port focused on was Liskula Cohen. Cohen was offended and felt she had been defamed but was unable to proceed with any claim against the person doing the defaming because the blog was anonymous. Jumping forward, Cohen sues Google to get the identity of the anonymous blogger, the court decides that Google must hand over the identity, Google hands over the identity, and Port is outed.

Strangely enough, Cohen has 'forgiven' Port and pretty much brushed the matter off as Port being "an irrelevant person in my life". It would seem she knew Port, but obviously they were far from being friends. Although, they seem to have known each other well-enough that Cohen was comfortable allegedly trashing Port to Port's ex-boyfriend. Ahhhhh, the lives of models and fashion students.

It will be interesting to see if all the talk of taking this case all the way to the US Supreme Court comes to fruition.

How Anonymous Are You Really When You Blog?

Here is some food for thought for those of you out there, me included, who blog and say things that may or may not be considered defamatory.

A model, Liskula Cohen, has successfully sued Google for the name of an anonymous blogger who she alleges defamed her on a blog hosted by Google. The blog was called Skanks in NYC. The essence of the defamation case is that the anonymous blogger called Cohen a "skank" and an "old hag".

The anonymous blogger identified Cohen as the "skankiest in NYC". This was then followed with, "How old is this skank? 40 something? She's a psychotic, lying, whoring, still going to clubs at her age, skank." I am guessing that this does not leave much to one's imagination. Is it defamatory? On face value, probably.

However, there are defenses to defamation that if the decision survives appeal, assuming there is one, then the anonymous blogger would likely be arguing an extension of what the blogger's lawyer has put forward so far, namely: this was mere opinion and "trash talk" rather than any intent to defame. The extension here would be to argue that, in essence, what has been said is in fact true.

Judge Joan Madden has ruled in favour of Cohen and has ordered that Google must provide the name of the anonymous blogger. It is expected that the name of the anonymous blogger is to be revealed in court as a means of allowing Cohen to proceed with her defamation action against the currently anonymous blogger. According to Judge Madden the assertions made were that Cohen was sexually promiscuous and the accompanying photos on the blog bore this intent out sufficiently well.

Cohen's modelling career was seemingly cut short when she was glassed in 2007. The resulting injuries required 46 stitches to close the wounds. Cohen was glassed when she objected to some drunk bloke stealing a bottle of vodka off her table. The bloke decided his best course of action in response to this objection was to glass Cohen in the face. The bloke was sent to jail, and deservedly so.

The case is interesting because of the potential implications. These implications are that anyone who thinks they are blogging anonymously may not be so anonymous after all. There are undoubtedly many techno savvy individuals out there with the knowledge and means of ratcheting up their anonymity to make discovery of their true identities even more difficult or impossible.

I am not one of them. I have enough trouble just using the features of blogger to be worried about whether I am anonymous or not. That said, I am using my real name to blog. So, if I have defamed you then you know where I reside in cyberspace.

There is a belief that this decision will open the floodgates to litigation and defamation claims based on comments written online that people do not agree with. This would seemingly be the case.

It is worth noting that the blog in question was shut down in March of this year. The blog contained only five entries and all of them related to Cohen. My guess is that the anonymous blogger is likely someone she knows or someone she has had some acquaintance with. Alternatively, it is, or was, a cyber-stalker which is a scary thought.

Something for all you anonymous bloggers out there to consider is this statement from Google:

"We sympathise with anyone who may be the victim of cyber bullying. We also take great care to respect privacy concerns and will only provide information about a user in response to a subpoena or other court order." So, make sure you re-read the privacy statement from Google again if you thought what you clicked guaranteed your absolute privacy.

Food for thought.

Anonymous Blogging, Wordpress, and the Prophet

This story is a couple of days old and I have been too lazy to write about it before. However, I figured I should as I have recently made a presentation relating to the recently enacted Information and Electronic Transactions Law (ITE Law).

The story is that there is an anonymous blogger in town and they are posting a comic strip of the Prophet Muhammad which has riled the sensibilities of many Muslims. What caught my attention was the headline in the Jakarta Post which reads "Govt to pressurize Wordpress into disclosing blogger's ID". I am not sure that pressurize is the right word for this sentence. I am guessing that it is like terrorizing using pressure to get a pressurize situation.

The language choices aside, there are just a couple of points that are worth making here.

If you think that you are anonymous then make sure that you are smart enough to know how to use the technology to make it so. The government is demanding that Wordpress reveal the identity of the blogger because the content of the offending blog is deemed to be a cyber crime. The threat is that if Wordpress does not disclose the blogger's identity then the National Police Force's Digital Forensic Lab is going to get involved and uncover the blogger's identity themselves.

It seems that there is still a fair amount of road to be travelled in terms of what constitutes free speech and freedom of expression, particularly in light of Article 27 of the new ITE Law.

A Miserable Index

There has been much in the blogosphere in Indonesia at least examining how miserable expats are in Indonesia and if expats are so miserable why don't they just go back to wherever they have come from.

This got me thinking as to whether there was come kind of miserable index that could be used to give a verifiable and measurable number for how miserable someone is.

It seems that the miserable index is based on one criteria alone, namely: if you criticize the place you are living in, then you must be miserable.

I often criticize Indonesia and the way things are done. I often criticize my home country of Australia too. I am not miserable on Indonesia and I am not miserable on Australia either. I think as a resident and as a citizen this is a right that I have. My criticisms are constructive and aimed at seeing things get better.

However, I wonder whether other people wonder when an Indonesian criticizes Indonesia whether they are doing so because they are miserable or whether they are doing it because they lack patriotism? My personal opinion is that when an Indonesian criticizes Indonesia they do so because they see something that the do not agree with and would like to see it changed for the better. Therefore, to suggest that criticizing your country is tantamount to a lack of patriotism is ludicrous.

I am not miserable! I am not going to stop criticizing the things that I see to be wrong in Indonesia because some anonymous poster (maybe using a pen name maybe not) thinks that I am unhappy.

Thus endeth today's sermon!

Blogging Statistics...

This might be called a recurring theme for me but it remains one of interest! I would guess that based on my stats sex or sex-related material gets the visitors in but it does not get them back over and over again. So, then the real question is how to increase visitors, particularly repeat visitors, without resorting to time tested tactics relating to sex!

Controversy always works and my posts on the last supper still draw a good number of hits. The posting of the accompanying pictures to those posts was a worthwhile deal because some were hard to track down at first (although they are not so hard to track down anymore).

Yet, the killer here I think is that if what you are posting is readable and interesting then people will keep coming back. I also think that if you write it as you see it, the idea of calling things based on your personal experience, then you make a personal connection with the reader without ever having to meet them in person! So, in that sense it does not matter whether you are anonymous or you reveal your true identity. Two examples of this are my blogging colleagues Jakartass and Rima Fauzi.

I return to both their blogs because I enjoy reading what they write as much as I enjoy how it is written. I should also give a shout out to the other blogs I read, all of which are in my blog roll. But, a special mention to the ones I read most often such as Treespotter, GJ, Greenstump, Dilligaf, and Finally Woken (all linked in my blog roll -- check them out!).

However, as I have already written many times, I blog to amuse and humor myself! If I do happen to amuse and humor others along the way then so be it! I never really started doing this blogging thing for recognition, personal or otherwise, so stat numbers are not so crucial to me or my existence. The idea that someone is reading what I write is intriguing to me but that is about as far as it goes. Nah, I am competitive and I like to win and I like to be the best, but I am also a realist and this reminds me of an analogy involving bodybuilding and working out!

"There is always going to be someone bigger than you out there!" So, don't get too caught up in the ego of this. Simply, there is always some one out there prepared to work harder, do more, or take more steroids to be the best! I am struggling to be just happy being me right at this moment in time without putting on any added pressure on myself of having to be the absolute number one blogger in Indonesia and the world!

By the way...the other thing that seems to drive visitors is posting good pieces and posting often. If I can visit and see something new each time I visit I tend to keep visiting other blogs. So, I reckon it would be the same for others who visit me...

Anonymous Blogging

This is an old topic but one that I think is worth revisiting!

I am an avid reader of Indonesia Matters and it must be noted that the webmaster is one who prefers to protect his true identity with the anonymous moniker of Patung. However, this is not about Patung or Indonesia Matters per se but rather Indonesia Matters is a place where many prefer to blog anonymously and it is where I have found a good reason why anonymity is not always a good thing!

I am also for free speech. My previous posts attest to this. I am also generally comfortable with anonymous blogging and anonymous writing. Some great literature has been penned under pseudonyms. I am against hate speech and I am against vilification...but that's just me.

I am for a person who has the courage of their convictions to identify themselves when they are advancing arguments that are on the fringes of current debate or where those arguments are outright racist or sexist or premised on distortion of evidence or merely based on anectdotal personal opinion that does not stand up to scrutiny.

I am for people entering into open and frank debate in order to seek solutions rather than merely attempting to inflame and exacerbate old and tired stereotypes! If we are to live in a world that is truly at peace and in harmony then we need to find solutions to those things that harm us!

Thus endeth the sermon!