Christopher "moot" Poole: The case for anonymity online

The founder of 4chan, a controversial, uncensored online imageboard, describes its subculture, some of the Internet "memes" it has launched, and the incident in which its users managed a very public, precision hack of a mainstream media website. The talk raises questions about the power -- and price -- of anonymity.

Christopher "moot" Poole is founder of 4chan, an online imageboard whose anonymous denizens have spawned the web's most bewildering -- and influential -- subculture.

Since its inception in 2003, Christopher "moot" Poole's controversial imageboard, 4chan, has gained worldwide notoriety as a breeding ground for many of the most recognizable Internet "memes" (think LOLcats). It was also the source of a high-profile hack of a mainstream media website and at least one spirited -- if morally inscrutable -- activist campaign in the real world.

Despite the server-crippling traffic it attracts, this last major enclave of the untamed Internet terrifies advertisers, and moot struggles to keep it afloat. Though you might regard much of its content as obscene or just plain weird, it's become a fixture on the fringe of the mainstream -- and a cultural force all its own.