Anonymity: Good for ideas or no?

[Linus]

The TED Conferences (Technology, Entertainment, Design) were created to help fuel ideas to be continued, extended and shared. Out of them I find come some of the most amazing things. And definitely get one thinking.

One discussion in this year's TED conference was called "Provocation" and Christopher Poole (as commented below from CNN) suggests that anonymous interaction online generates better ideas than would otherwise be there.

Anonymity promotes honesty

Christopher "Moot" Poole runs one of the seedier corners of the Internet. His site, called 4chan, is known as a den of porn, hacking and anonymous rants.


But Poole, a 22-year-old college student, says 4chan also protects its users privacy and promotes honest discourse. Without names in the way, people can focus on ideas, he said.


"It's anonymous and it has no memory. There's no archive. There are no barriers. There is no registration," he said of the site. "That's led to this discussion that's completely raw, completely unfiltered."

I don't know how true this is as anonymity has also opened up another side. Granted there may be many great ideas created but there is also the probability that some people will use this anonymity otherwise.

I'm curious what others think. Does anonymity truly lead to a greater focus on the ideas?