[open-government] Civility Online - A Proposal

Mon Jan 17 21:22:22 UTC 2011

On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 11:49 AM, Tim McNamara
<paperless at timmcnamara.co.nz> wrote:
> On 11 January 2011 15:19, Steven Clift <clift at e-democracy.org> wrote:
>>
>> Given the recent discussions of online vitriol and incivility leading
>> us to greater social conflict and real violence in society,
>
> Steve, are you able to provide any references? I don't understand what you
> mean. Which events are you referring to?

The shooting is Tuscon. Note:
http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/1117

>
>>
>> I am
>> considering hosting a time-limited online dialogue for hosts of online
>> discussion to exchange ideas and lessons on how to foster greater
>> civility in their online efforts.
>
> The idea is admirable, but I don't see this achieving a great deal. I think
> a more productive solution would be for people such as yourself to curate
> and support disseminate resources on sites that support virtual communities.
> However, I don't even know if this would satisfy the requirements you have.
> Take, for example, the OpenStreetMap community that is plagued with
> in-fighting and hostility. Its leaders have tried for months to create a
> code of conduct, but it never really took off. If you have a spare hour, I
> strongly recommend Josh Berkus' talk[1]. It's software orientated, but its
> discussion of dealing with poisonous people is exemplary.

We are working up an idea for an online exchange among online news
hosts of political commenting who _want to improve the
quality/civility of commenting_:

http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/1117

I agree that it makes no sense to have civility promoters talk to
themselves nor to trying to convince virtual partisans to disarm. The
key is for those democratic institutions - major media, government,
think tanks, etc. - that bring people with different views together to
raise the value generated. In government you call it decorum. Without
spaces with decorum online, open government will come to be viewed as
an open sewer for governance.

> Tim McNamara
>   http://timmcnamara.co.nz/
> [1] http://2009.r2.co.nz/20100118/mfc-m-2.htm
>