Anonymous Innovation a.k.a. Thought Theft

filed under Crossover · 1 comment in the original

Last month (1 ,2), I covered many different aspects of anonymity, mostly focused on how anonymity and our perceptions of it, were impacting our lives and decisions. As I categorized previously, there were three primary uses for anonymity:

Anonymity as control
Anonymity as convenience
Anonymity as security

Over the past week I have been secretly battling with another, more sinister form of anonymity, "Anonymity as observer". It seems that certain competitors of my soon to launch service have taken to visiting my web site with the intention of spying on the work and efforts undertaken on our end. Surely, it is expected that competitors would be interested. What peaked my interest was the effort put into this examination.

After discovering that I had blocked access to the site from their offices, the user switched to using the-cloak.com to anonymize their access, essentially giving them access once again. I mention this breach because it not only annoys the heck out of me, but it pulls back on my comments from just a couple of days ago regarding innovation and attribution.

In this case, attribution is not open for discussion nor remotely considered. In this case, the larger entity is specifically trying to co-opt the innovations of one system for use in their own. Hoping to leverage their size as the advantage, the goal of this is to launch features and thinking into the marketplace with a force that blurs the truth and minimizes our own contribution to the community. Clearly, this is the other side of the power law pressures -- the side where business rules, friendships flicker, and ethics fade into the scenery.