Before catching up on my feeds after returning from vacation I cynically noted to my father in law as I read the New York Times in the airport that 'nothing good' had occurred in the world while we were off the grid. Little did I know how right I was.
There are times when we all need to be ashamed of what our community tolerates via apathy, ignorance or enablement and last week we seemed to have had a trifecta which has been focused in sharp relief via Kathy Sierra and her post "Death threats against bloggers are NOT 'protected speech' (Why I canceled my ETech presentations)."
I've got a little distance between when this started and I've been able to digest a number of perspectives on it. If there's a bit of hope in this travesty it's how our community quickly rose up to defend and champion someone that has been victimized in a despicable way. But there is also the darkness of a Star Chamber mentality whereas the blogosphere made a hasty rush to judgement against all that were allegedly involved. There's enough blame to go around for everyone here I'm afraid and there's also legitimate incredulousness at the folks that enabled the environments where the viciousness was posted but are now eager to wash their hands of it or submit that their hands weren't dirty in first place.
The truth of the matter is that hurtful deeds can't be taken back and hurtful things can't really be unsaid--by anyone. A voice has been silenced out of fear and uncertainty and the community is weaker and empty without her presence. We've also had a number of prominent people in our community summarily judged with little regard for due process or the pondering of what the impact of our actions will have on folks that have been accused of but may have really had nothing to do with this.
A former teacher of mine that taught me about the power that design and innovation can bring to problem solving when correctly applied often talked about how this knowledge bestowed 'special burdens' on its practitioners. That we had an OBLIGATION to use our knowledge to help and not hurt, to clarify and not obfuscate.
I believe bloggers have the same responsibility and special burden as well. We were reactive to this situation and it was eye opening for many of us and perhaps sadly sobering and familiar to anyone that has been involved in situations that involve threats or acts of violence (and spare me the bullshit about satire and thick skins required for blogging versus 'real' threats. I've been on the receiving end of both and what Kathy experienced is just a real as a phone call or a physical encounter).
It's important to have revolutionaries and people that have perspectives that counter and challenge others, but there are risks in how you manage those conversations. Regardless of who posted the actual comments about Kathy the creators and contributors to the sites where the postings occurred created an environment where this was allowed to occur. They bear some responsibility for creating an environment that encouraged trash talk and more about contemporaries or people that they felt were beneath their own intellect.
In effect, the creators of the meankids site were hoisted by their own petard and I'm not personally very sympathetic to their plight. They are the digital equivalent of bullies (perhaps luminary, witty and even satirical but bullies nonetheless) and they are reaping what they sow.
We really do need people to do this but it also requires the fortitude to acknowledge culpability when things go wrong and provide redress versus removing all evidence that something even occurred. If you're going to be this type of blogger perhaps some friendly advice in this area would run along the lines of "What would the Marquis de Sade do?" Can you take your lumps when things blow up? If your answer is hiding behind the nebulousness of the net when YOU are responsible for creating the environment that encourages this discourse you perhaps need to find a different mechanism to express yourself in this manner. Perhaps the real world where the natural controls (people beating the shit out you, your family, pets, federal statues, etc. will temper your enthusiasm towards misogynistic criticism.) So we need to be accountable for the environments we create. Ultimately I don't think the actions of the meankids.org creators and contributors have adequately fullfilled that obligation.
So the special burden I believe bloggers have is this and we'll all screw it up from time to time because we're human. We are accountable for our actions in the real world and we should presume we must be accountable for them in the online world too. This edict could be applied to all participants in this case to varying degrees, no? Our special burden as a blogger or personality that is influential is to be cognizant and accountable for our actions and how we enable others.
If there's a positive outcome to this it's that this fiasco is the result of bright and smart people pushing the boundaries of a new medium with porous and contantly changing boundaries, the coming dialog that will ensue when we get a little distance between last week's events and a full investigation and accounting will probably make us all wiser in understanding the power of words and our personal obligations in being stewards in this new medium.
Recent Comments