Tim O'Reilly can eat my ethical shorts

As a natural anti-authoritarian, I am always irritated when one or several persons in a "cloud" decide the cloud needs organizing and they are the ones to do it. Who can forget the lamentable Pro-Bloggers Association, whose aim was to "accredit bloggers?" Or Nick Denton's idea to set up a "blog ethics committee?"

And, now, another county heard from: Tim O'Reilly wants us to adopt his code of ethics -- and wear a badge. He wants us to either wear a "we play nice" badge or, if we cannot manage that, an "anything goes on our blog" badge. Nothing in between -- if you don't wear one of those badges, you are unethical and afraid to admit it. And he's serious enough to make the blogosphere jitter. Even Robert Scoble, not usually lacking in spine, decides:

"So, for now, I guess I'd have to wear the "anything goes" badge.

I do find disquieting the social pressure to get on board with this program. Tim O'Reilly is a guy who really can affect one's career online (and off, too). I do have to admit that I feel some pressure just to get on board here and that makes me feel very uneasy."

No, Robert, you don't have to wear no stinkin' badges. To give in to O'Reilly's hobbyhorse is to give in to every critic/skeptic of the Internet since the mid 90s: "it needs controlling...no one regulates it.... what if someone says.... people can say anything on the Innernet... " Don't do it.

I make ethical judgements about what I write, and about what I allow others to write on my blog, every damned day. I think I do pretty good. My "badge," in other words, is Desirable Roasted Coffee. Read it... if you think I am ethical, keep reading. If you think I am unethical, don't read it.. and let me know. I don't need a badge to proclaim my honesty. If I did, you'd have every right to be skeptical.

Tim O'Reilly....eat the Desirable Roasted Shorts and go set up your blogger police state somewhere else. We ain't wearin' no stinkin' badges.

Technorati : badges, blogging ethics codes, code of blogging ethics, ethics codes, robert scoble, stupid ideas, tim o'reilly

Posted by Allan Jenkins on April 9, 2007 at 09:50 PM in Ethics | Permalink

Comments

Allan,

I started to leave a response, but when it got too long, I converted it to a post on my blog.

Please read it and respond, if you'd like. Thanks for raising a really important point.

Tom

Posted by: Tom Keefe | Apr 9, 2007 11:13:41 PM

Strange, but the website URL went to my old blog. I hope this link is to my current WordPress blog that includes my response to your post.

Posted by: Tom Keefe | Apr 9, 2007 11:18:03 PM

Elegantly and most excellently put.

Posted by: meloukhia | Apr 11, 2007 3:27:00 AM

I pretty much said that folks can take their notion of a "distributed virtual nanny state" somewhere else... Where was this energy around online civility, the need for a "code", and the (woah!) NYT story when, say, Michelle Malkin received similar threats and, on top of that, out-and-out racial hate?

Posted by: Phil Gomes | Apr 11, 2007 6:11:54 PM

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