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Monday, September 29, 2008

The 10 Commandments for Bloggers


Last week I took part in a day on blogging hosted by the Evangelical Alliance (called Godblogs), it was an interesting day, hosted by Krish Kandiah. Mark Meynell from All Souls Langham Place, introduced us to some different types of blogs, (I think this blog has become the Pastor's Study). I did a short talk on the differences I've noticed between online and offline communities and then Pete Sanlon talked about a theology of web 2.0. So far, so good.

In the final session we discussed a proposed 10 commandments of blogging. It was all very nice and probably already done and done better elsewhere, such as the Bloggers Code of Conduct led by Tim O'Reilly (thanks to Jeremy for the HT). After some discussion, I suggested that it would be more interesting if they followed more closely the ten commandments in Exodus 20:1-17, and so quickly drafted a rough version. This, it seemed to me, was agreed was a bit more interesting and soon after that the day was brought to a close. A day or so later, I was sent an email with a polished up version of those 10 commandments. A few more days pass and another email is sent round, asking us to hold off talking about the day until the Times reported on the 10 commandments with follow up comment by Ruth Gledhill here.

It has generated a fair amount of discussion around the blogosphere - here's what I've found
Fans:
Empty Head seems reasonably positive as does PoliGazette

Critics:
Dave Warnock takes it a bit too seriously (IMHO) and really doesn't like them but shares his reasons why
Ben Myers doesn't like them but offers 10 (funnier) alternatives
Benediction thinks the EA missed a trick or too

Reports:
The EA press release is here with some worthier commitments at the end
Dave Walker's view of the day here
Richard Hall offers some other links and thinks the process was a bit faulty
The Times Mousetrap blog thinks at least one commandment is entertaining
Telegraph report here

Talking Points:
Dave Matthias reflects helpfully as always

Honourable Mentions:
Unashamed Workman
The Lead
Church Warnings
Jane Stranz
Alwyn ap Huw

More blogs on this here

3 comments:

DaveW on 30 September 2008 at 00:14 said...

"Dave Warnock takes it a bit too seriously"

What me! Shocking! I must be getting old, nobody ever used to accuse me of that.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link, and for providing other links.
This story has been captivating.

Blog on!

Bene D

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil
Thanks for this overview - helpful.
I really enjoyed the day - not least because of the chance to chat with different people. I do hope we can do it again - it's just a shame that the whole thing has got rather overshadowed by the business of the 10 commandments. I too was pretty surprised to see the completely revamped version. But such is life.
keep up the good work

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