Nick Denton has the idea of a blog ethics committee, nominating Jason Calacanis and Jeff Jarvis to lead it.
Calacanis is willing, Jeff is more skeptical of the need.
I’ll need to think more on this, but my first reactions are:
– If you’re going to have a “code of ethics” that bloggers can declare they adhere to, I would think there would also need to be an enforcement mechanism — some kind of auditing, a complaint investigation process, and finally, some method for discipline. That’s the work of more than just a handful of bloggers; that’s right back to the old ‘blogger trade association’ idea.
– As a general principle, I don’t like the idea of attempting to homogenize the blogosphere in any way; see my post on a spectrum of standards. That said, there are a few areas where I would support standardization (in methodologies for tracking traffic statistics, for instance), and I can see the potential usefulness of a neutral “seal of approval” from a trade association for bloggers marketing themselves to advertisers and even readers.
– My doubts aside, my ideal conception of a blogopshere full of diversity is also wide enough to include the idea of such a trade association / ethics committee, as long as membership is voluntary and the association doesn’t abuse its (potentially powerful) position to strongarm non-member bloggers. In other words: if some bloggers want to write down their ethics and form a club around it, that’s fine by me, as long as they don’t try to force those rules on me (or on anybody).
More thoughts later, I’m sure…