We need your help naming the Online Ethics Seal.
The Online Ethics Seal has been the tentative name. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be the finalized name. In fact, many of you have said don’t like the connotation that a “seal” brings.
Maybe this is more of a code of ethics. Or, maybe it’s more of principles to aspire to. Or maybe it’s an ethics policy.
This is what the name we come up with must convey:
- The seals that are produced encompass a wide array of online products. We make no distinctions between The New York Times, a Typepad blog or a new media Web startup.
- This whole process is voluntary. We are not certifying anything. We are simply coming up with an open-source, free system to help Web sites formulate ethics policies. This is also a system to help users quickly identify the ethics that a Web site has.
- This process is all about transparency. We want to make it easier for our users to understand what we do. This isn’t about ranking sites, casting judgement or anything like that. It’s just about being open about what we do.
- This is not a blogger certification process. Yes, bloggers can adopt the seals/codes/whatever but this process is not aimed at them solely. Nor does this process hope to reign in blogger. Rather, this is aimed at anyone producing non-fiction content on the Web. It’s a service that benefits both content producers and consumers.
- This benefits participating organizations too. Most established print news organizations have an ethics policy. Those policies, however, can be time consuming and difficult to produce. We want to make it easy for online startups to be able to customize a policy for themselves.
Remember, Creative Commons is our inspiration. So, help us come up with a good name for this project!
