Enforcement
OK, so we have clear consensus on Juho. As handsome as he is, he has to go back to Finland and play his accordion. I am still waiting on Dr. Val to produce a better mascot than the Llama. Is there a better mascot??
Clark Bartram entertained the ideal of the code and felt that it offered little help, as someone can still masquerade as someone they are not. How are you going to make sure this blog code has meaning? How are you going to protect the blogger and the reader at the same time? It seems to him that this code will not offer real protection because it is voluntary. Shinga echoed similar hesitations in comments on the same blog post.
Here are other interesting posts on the subject:
- Nurse Ratched’s post on bloggers being an endangered species
- Dr Val
- Thanks to Kevin for keeping us up to date with all of the news.
- Shadowfax from Movin’ Meat
Here are my thoughts on the issue:
I do not want to become the “police” (unless I get to meet Sting, that is) of the code. I would expect bloggers to police this and report any sites misusing the code of ethics.
- There should be a central site (this site, presumably) where a central list of people approved to display the code on their site can be found. Anyone using the code would also reference the site. If someone was abusing the code they would get a “cease and desist” note from me and would either change their blog or would be put on the “naughty” list on this site.
- I emphasize that the requirement for a statement of who you are and what you do is one for giving proper perspective. Perspective means simply representing your point of view accurately. This will be somewhat limited if there are anonymous bloggers, but I think that this can only be expected in a code like this.
- When I see more bloggers going down (most recently Trench Doc), it makes me again wonder if having a set of rules you can give to your administration would help.
So how should we proceed. I am really wanting this to gain more momentum and overall visibility. I want to keep it simple enough, yet give the code some meaning as well.
3 Responses to “Enforcement”
said on June 3rd, 2007 at 4:22 pm
I think it was Val that mentioned somewhere that we should only link to and blogroll other blogs that follow the code. Given that type of community involvement, I think we all will be “enforcing” the code to some extent.
said on June 4th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Enforcement to something voluntary… going to be hard ’cause I think that at the end of the day, it all comes down to what one accepts as risk. Like anything we have to know our environment/audience/stakeholders etc. when we “act”, even if it is free speech in blog.
Blogging has its inherent risk for each and every person & it becomes that person’s decision on how they are going to handle the repercussions of blogging & though I support the code, it may help, but I hope that people won’t use it as a shield- “I follow the code” thus you can’t be angry with me or tell me to fold it or suffer work related reprimands, etc.
Policing has to be voluntary - or it becomes cumbersome like ” I need a reference from someone who already is code ok’d, plus 2 months of blogging with no complaints & a $10 fee for the right to use the logo”.
I dont have answers.. just thoughts.
However - if you want to replace the llama with Sting.. way kwel
It will be interesting to see where this all goes.
said on June 6th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
The point is not to police each other but to have standards we all try to follow individually. This is about raising the bar collectively, as well as for each other.
I care less about whether folks know where I went to medical school and more about whether they know I’m willing to be ethical and take a close look at what I’m putting up on cyberspace. I care less about whether a blogger blogs by name or pseudonym and more by the code they adhere to and are willing to stand up for.
Does anyone know off hand how HON “enforces” their guidelines? It was my understanding that there was a bit of an honor system to continue to adhere to them once you were approved…I’m going double check that.
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