Pseudo-Anonymous Content Development

Okay, first off, what do I mean when I say Pseudo-anonymous? Just exactly that. True anonymity is one of those theoretical impossibilities, so by declaring up front (to yourself) that nothing is fool-proof, one can hedge his/her bets against losing the anonymity by taking certain precautions.

This idea came directly from a talk at the H.O.P.E. conference entitled Pseudononymous Software Development, but it occured to me that this kind of technique can be applied to any kind of content with the same set of benefits.  

The basic underlying idea is to create an identity which acts as the release name (just like a pen name), but takes it a step further.  In order to keep others from stealing your identity to release things under the same name, all content you release from this identity is signed with a PGP/GPG key, and as long as you mind your p's and q's (and as long as PGP remains viable), only you can sign your content because only you have the key.  This allows you to build up a reputation for your identity without being directly tied to it.  

There are of course various pitfalls to be avoided, but using common sense and layering yourself with other privacy increasing methods (mac spoofing, using public terminals, not using the same terminal twice, tor/privoxy, etc.) can further enhance the effectiveness of this type of strategy.