Write and Wrong:A Framework forEthical Blogging

By Wade KwonSept. 26, 2009

WordCamp Birmingham

How can bad ethical decisions harm your blogging?

– Hurt your credibility. (90% of your value.)

– Being liable, legal ramifications. (Libel, slander, invasion of privacy.)

– Can hurt your access -- behind the scenes, products not on the market -- they won't trust you again.

Conversely, how can good ethical decisions help your blogging?

– Readership trusts you.– Referrals.– You can influence the conversation.– Good karma. :) (More likely that

people will credit and treat you well in the future.)

– Positive impact -- makes the web a better place.

What about Perez Hilton? Why is he so popular?

– Will.i.am smacked him.– Bad hair.– Hasn't built up much trust currency,

people aren't rooting for him.– Sensationalism vs. quality -- bad stuff

can be popular, it's human nature.– It's possible to be controversial and

credible at the same time.

Have you considered consequences of your blog posts?

– All the time.– (Mike Evans) I'm a lawyer, I don't put

anything that's not factual out there. Can still have edgy headlines -- Chinese drywall that smelled like rotten eggs had title "Who farted in my house?" Violated Mother's rule against using word "fart."

– If I'm writing about someone, I generally give them a chance to respond or comment.

Have you considered consequences of your blog posts?

– Punking of Techcrunch by Facebook. FB pushed out feature that every photo had a "eFax this photo" but only enabled it for Techcrunch employees to bait them.

– Techcrunch published internal Twitter documents. Who are the stakeholders? What are the ramifications?

Have you considered consequences of your blog posts?

– Controversy around "deep linking," what's the best way to credit sources? It was silly, they didn't understand the web, linking is fine. The more links the better, cite original sources.

– We all find out about news from RSS readers, Twitter, Facebook, Google News, Digg, del.icio.us, emails from friends.

Have you considered consequences of your blog posts?

– Some sites put information behind a login form so they can track their users, maybe encourage them to subscribe.

– Google Analytics is free stats software. See also: Woopra, WordPress.com Stats plugin (both .com and .org).

What are good practices in social media?

– Be authentic.– Give credit.– Separate facts and opinions.– Be transparent.

What are good practices in social media?

– Full disclosure -- no one really expects you to have a neutral point of view.

– Responding, being part of the conversation. Not talking to people, talking with people.

– Apologize! Humility. No one is perfect.– Put in corrections.– If you're getting paid for anything, put that

at the top of the post. (Disclosure, transparency.)

These overlap a lot with the "ethics walk."• First level: gut reaction. That's a

terrible place to make ethical decisions, it's hard to think of all the ramifications.

• Second level: rule obedience.• Third level: reflection and

reasoning.

The "ethics walk."• Gather people and talk to them, don't

do it by yourself• Name the stakeholders, anyone who

has a vested interest in the story.• Ask questions, like how you got the

documents, why are you hesitating, what kind of harm could be caused, do other folks have the docs.

The "ethics walk."• Brainstorm options.• Be accountable.• Be transparent.

How to post corrections?– <del> element is an HTML tag for

corrections. (Conversely, <ins>.)– "New video post, with a note from the old

one linking to the correction. People really appreciated it and I got a lot more traffic."

– If BIG mistake, change title, put "Updated:" at top.

– Blog posts with revision history, wiki-like. (After the Deadline plugin.)

How to post corrections?– "We err on putting the correction up

top."– If there's a privacy concern, you've

named someone who should not be named, take it out, don't strike it out.

How to post corrections?– GigaOM strikes out, NY Times puts

corrections at bottom of articles. When you write the correction you don't repeat erroneous information, also triple-check because you don't want to correct the correction.

– Alabama law says if you correct it within 5 days of a demand there are no punitive damages.

How to disclose affiliate links like Amazon?

– Say something about the links.– Put it somewhere on the site.– Whether it touches the editorial side

-- would you have written about this normally?

Today’s slides

http://snurl.com/ethicstalk

Thank you!