Blogosphere set for code of conduct

Today the BBC reports on web pioneer Tim O'Reilly coming up with the idea of a draft blogging code of conduct.

The draft can be found here.

Some of O'Reilly's proposals include:

We take responsibility for our own words and for the comments we allow on our blog

We won't say anything online that we wouldn't say in person

We connect privately before we respond publicly

When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action

We do not allow anonymous comments

We ignore the trolls

I understand why a code of conduct is being proposed, but I don't accept that rules and regulation that are common in everyday life should be the rules and regulation of a medium of communication that spans the globe.

For many people the Internet remains the only even playing field and to bind them up in regulations that typically favour the already powerful is wrong.

It seems to have escaped the attention of people like O'Reilly that we don't live in a totally civil society, as the past thirty years has seen national governments all over the world taking back democratic rights fought for ordinary people since the Industrial Revolution.

By all means regulate the blogosphere, but not before broader civil rights of citizens are reinstated to the level they were before the Regan and Thatcher days.

Blogging phenomenon is set to peak in 2007

According to a report by technology analysts Gartner, during the middle of next year the number of blogs will level out at about 100 million.

Further insights from a report they compiled also suggests:

- 200 million people have already stopped writing their blogs

- most people who would ever start a web blog had already done so

I'm not sure what the significance of the report is because the it's surely the quality of blogs and not the quantity that matters. A BBC News article summarises the report here.

More interestingly, however, is a BBC "have your say" on the findings about blogging.

Blogosphere continues to grow

According to the latest blogging statistics from Technorati, there appears to be little sign that the blogging phenomenon is beginning to wane.

Some statistics include:

1) Every day 100,000 new blogs are created
2) 1.3 million posts are made per day
3) There has also been an increase in the number of blogs being written in the Farsi language
4) Technorati tracks more than 57 million blogs, of which it believes around 55 per cent are 'active' - updated at least every three months
5) Technorati suggest there are around 4,000 elite blogs - have more than 500 blogs linking to them.

See Blogosphere sees healthy growth (BBC News: Technology) for more details and click here for the report itself.

The growing power of the blogosphere

The Guardian ran a full page story yesterday about the growing power of blogs - in terms of influencing how businesses are run.

The main premise of the article - Companies wake up to blogs' barking by Andrew Clark is, "many firms have started to pay attention as a rapidly expanding slice of cyberspace is devoted to vitriolic, often obsessive blogs listing the shortcomings of well-known companies."

The main blogs that are mentioned are critiques of Apple, Wal-Mart and Asda, Dell, McDonalds, and, United Airlines.

Clark goes on to suggest, "mostly, the contents of such sites are anecdotal. But they can become a significant rallying point for a company's critics."