Jarah Euston, who runs the Fresno, CA community site Fresno Famous, yesterday posted "A Note on Disclosure" in her personal blog Spontaneous Orders. With a nod to my earlier article "Open CitJ Sites: Why Not Require Transparency?" (thanks, Jarah), she wrote:
"We’re making some changes soon at Famous, and have made every effort to build transparency into the experience. Famous will have a disclosures field at then end of every user-submitted story, and profile pages for all contributors..."
"...We won’t ask for your life story, but if you’re writing about your friend or business, we’ll encourage you to disclose that. I don’t think that takes away from the information- on the contrary, I think it makes it much more credible. I want a band to tell me what their music is about, why I should check out a particular track. There is passion and authenticity in that content, and it builds a personal connection. And isn’t that what we want- to have our words connect with people, to have impact? Transparency and disclosure are things I find lacking in the MSM experience."
...Sounds like a good start. I'd encourage Fresno Famous to allow comments on stories too, or some other feedback mechanism to allow readers to point out potential omissions or misdirection in disclosure.
Good luck, Famous!
Thanks, Amy! We currently have comments on all our content, and will be adding trackbacks (and comment and trackback feeds) soon.
Posted by: Jarah | November 19, 2005 at 02:44 PM