Dan Zak of the Washington Post asked me to comment on the blogosphere and civility because, you know, I'm so civil:
"I don't think it's a waste of time," says California blogger Gina Cooper, founder of the liberal bloggers' convention Netroots Nation. "I think it's important: Online, you build a community, and communities are built around common values." It's up to individuals to create and uphold codes of conduct in their own spheres of influence, she says.
As a result of her work in politics and on the Web, a stream of explicit and hateful messages has flowed to Cooper's inbox. Responding would only reward bad behavior, she says. A forum with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at July's Netroots convention provided a keen example of how incivility benefits no one. The forum was addled by protesters bent on causing a ruckus, not contributing substantive objections to the debate, Cooper says. The same can be said for the heckling during Sen. John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention this month. There's a difference between calmly expressing frustration and disrupting an event.
Either way, Cooper expects online anonymity to erode as we live our lives more and more online.
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