Spoken

Blog Disclosures: I was quoted in the Wall Street Journal today in a story about how a number of high-profile bloggers sit on the US advisory board for a startup called Fon which received $21 million in funding from two venture capital firms along with Skype and Google. The article raises the red flag about financial disclosure. The advisory board may receive compensation; they will probably get something, some board members posted, although no dollar amounts or the nature of it has been set.

I hope this article will raise awareness that bloggers who attempt to write factual coverage with opinion interspersed should consider the same standards of investment or disclosure as those who do so in print. Some of these bloggers, like Mr. Weinberger and Dan Gillmor (both of whom I admire immensely), write and have written for print, making it confusing to readers precisely what their current role is. I don’t say that that role needs to be defined, but it does set a higher bar for making clear to an audience whether you have a money bias, even if money doesn’t motivate you. [Folks have complained about articles I’ve posted where I do not disclose an affiliate link and relationship… so now I do, or any other meta that might affect a reader’s perception of my stance.]
Source: GlennLog