http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All
"According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated 'persona management' software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online."
Ok, this is kind of scary. It's apparently possible to make it look on a forum, or facebook, or other places online that there is a large group of people promoting one viewpoint or idea, when in fact it's possibly just one person with some fancy software. But even scarier than that, "the US Gov. is attempting to use this kind of technology. But it appears from the solicitation it is contracted for use in foreign theaters like Afghanistan and Iraq."
So, what to think of this? Will this destroy any credibility of an online chat group's concensus? Can one person sway a conversation on a forum by simply out sock-puppeting all conversation? Very bad. Very scary. But I assume there will be ways to expose such actions in the future. Or at least I hope so.
Internet Collective Action is people organizing in a nonhierarchical manner to accomplish a particular goal. The reward is in the doing, and how much or how little anyone participates is completely voluntary, depending on their abilities and commitment to the goal. By this process amazing things can be accomplished. ICA will grow so long as the Internet is free. http://www.lisamcpherson.org/pc.htm is an example of ICA.
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