O’Reilly Calls for Blogger’s Code of Conduct
29 Mar 2007 (Thu)
TIM O’REILLY, one of the web’s most influential thinkers, has just told BBC Radio Five Live that it could be time to formalise blogging behaviour:
“I do think we need some code of conduct around what is acceptable behaviour, I would hope that it doesn’t come through any kind of [legal/government] regulation it would come through self-regulation.”
While condemning the bloggers who issued the threats, Mr O’Reilly was keen that the whole blogosphere should not be tarred with the same brush.
“…The fact that there’s all these really messed-up people on the internet is not a statement about the internet.”
O’Reilly’s call came shortly after high-profile blogger Kathy Sierra reported feeling threatened and at risk online. Coincidentally, the Media Development Authority of Singapore has just opened some guidelines entitled Internet Code of Practice for public consultation a few days ago.
More details on BBC Technology News page, Susan Mernit’s post, Doc Searles’ post on this (based on a letter from Alan Herrell, apparently one of those who threatened Kathy on MeanKids) and a ChannelNewsAsia report.
Update 30-03-2007: See also Bjorn Lee’s Death Threats on the Blogosphere.
Update 09-04-2007: See also Blogger’s Code of Conduct at Wikia, BlogHer’s Community Guidelines and A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs at NYT.
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Posted by J.K. in News, Problems, Social Media, Technology | blog reactions | |
March 29th, 2007 at 10:45 am
It may be a good idea for blog aggregators like ping.sg and tomorrow.sg to take the lead in this in the Singapore context.
March 29th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Good point, Daniel. You could give this suggestion on the Forum or Shoutbox of Ping.sg. Not familiar with how feedback on tomorrow.sg works though.
March 29th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
see http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2007/03/kathy-sierra-and-ethics.html
JK’s Afternote 30-03-2007: This is James McGovern, Enterprise Architect for The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. and coauthor of Java Web Services Architecture, Practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture, and J2EE Bible. So, I’ve approved this “link without comment”. However, normally comments like this would not appear at all on this blog.
My comment on what he has written: Damned if you remain silent and damned if you speak up. So heck! Just follow your conscience and do the necessary. In Kathy’s case, a death threat is definitely not a trivial matter.