If anonymity is no longer needed, let's ditch the witness protection program

I asked a question of the Social Media: Engage panel at Internet Summit '09 about 30 minutes ago and since that moment I've been thinking about online anonymity. People seem to hate it.

When I blogged about the upside and relevance of anonymous comments as they relate to news stories, some people balked. Jason Falls said at Social Media Business Forum last month that he wishes newspaper sites would stop allowing anonymous comments altogether. I get that. I know the drama that ensues when...