Blog de Puree

Tim O’Reilly, the man who is often credited with coining the term, “Web 2.0,” posted early this week that he’s working on a blogger code of conduct. While a code of conduct for Web sites is not a new idea, it is interesting that someone has blogged about a global standard for blogger, blog reader and commenter conduct, similar to html code standards or a set of rules in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

Many bloggers and Web professionals I’ve spoken to agree that rules and regulations are a good thing online because it fosters a constructive interaction that makes the Internet a productive and informative atmosphere. But one question that quickly comes up during conversation is that the Internet by its very nature is a democratic place where anyone and everyone shares their thoughts in any form or fashion that they like, so how you enforce a standard of behavior on a world-wide scale, especially when not everyone subscribes to the same standards?

Furthermore, there are many sites that make a lot of money or that are very popular because of their “wild west” like nature where anything is acceptable. Porn sites, sites that freely share questionable and copyrighted material, blogs containing scathing posts about celebrities and politicians are a few examples. The masses online flock to these places like moths to a light.

One aspect of O’Reilly’s idea that I thought would be very useful was an identity badge that bloggers could put on their blogs. A western style sheriff’s star to signify that the blog is monitored and civility is enforced, and a stick of dynamite with a burning fuse in front of a cannon ball that says “Anything Goes,” to signify that the blog is an open and uncensored forum where the site owner takes no responsibility for what’s being said.

The obvious use for the badges would be to help parents flag and prohibit certain sites, as well as give netizens one more piece of useful information to help decide which sites they want to read. I suspect this is also something the folks at WiredSafety.org would be interested in.

Regardless of whether you approve or disapprove of the idea of a blogger code of conduct, it’s a step in a constructive direction, at least, for some purposes.