I actually predicted this back in March 2006, before I'd even heard of The Wikipedia Review. Unfortunately, it turns out that at least one other person predicted it earlier, and didn't do it on a parody site, so once I again I get screwed by the historians.

I wonder how much money there is in this sort of thing, really? Obviously if the US military is looking at it, it should be enough for at least one or two people to live on, right? It seems like it would be more fun than operating a hazmat cleaning service or a website design firm, though perhaps not as much fun as opening a trendy coffee house or being a sex-position consultant.

Eerie as that may be, more perplexing, however, is a federal contract from the 6th Contracting Squadron at MacDill Air Force Base, located south of Tampa, Florida, that solicits providers of "persona management software."

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that MacDill AFB is only a few miles from the former Wikimedia Foundation headquarters, and from Jimbo's second (not “ex”) wife.

Poetlister works for the Air Force?

Gmail ties to your gmail and other Google accounts. Outlook ties to some existing email account at some email provider. Facebook is tied to your Facebook account and is explicitly designed for making your information public.

The profound question here is, what do we even mean by being anonymous using these services? I would argue that the best one can manage is to be pseudonymous; that is to maintain a persistent and visible pseudonym / alias which, while discoverable, is not associated with your true identity.

U.S. Military Using Fake Online IDs In ‘Sock Puppet’ Operation

Watch it admin, the next sock puppet you go after may have the Pentagon backing him up:

Does this mean sock-hunters are enemies of the state potentially putting US national security at risk? Waiting for Gitmo to open a division for wikiadmins

The “sock puppets,” a term for fake online identities, will operate at the MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, where U.S. Central Command operates, and in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Baghdad, Iraq.

The cyber double agents will use social media and other websites, but “not Facebook or Twitter,” said Speaks. “This is not for use on U.S.-based websites. They are American companies.”

Each of the fake personas uses the Ntrepid software to create “cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographically consistent,” each with their own background, history, supporting details and “real-time local information” to fool their new-found online friends.

One person could be pulling the strings on 10 “sock puppets” at one time “from the same workstation and without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries,” the contract said.

Rotating the IP (Internet Protocol) addresses daily should help shield them from discovery.

“This traffic blending provides excellent cover and powerful deniability,” the contract says.

The software also creates an online history for them so that over time the picture is fleshed out.

One guesses that their new analyst "Ramsi Asmar" is their token A-rab. "Research Fellow at Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies." Might as well say "CIA" right on his linked-in site. On HIM they should have used their software.

I don't see why they didn't call him "Ramsi Ismar" and go for the full palindrome.