[...]... to world, the Internet is dissolving the boundaries between professional journalists and amateurs Glenn Reynolds, a law professor and author of the very popular blog Instapundit, extols the virtues of the amateur journalist in his book, An Army of Davids With the growth of blogs, he observes, “power once concentrated in the hands of a professional few has been redistributed into the hands of the amateur... for about $580 million.41 The social network component to MySpace involves the way people can link their profiles to those of their friends There is a place on a person’s profile called “Friend Space,” which contains links to the profiles of a person’s “friends” and often a picture of each friend At the top of the Friend Space section is a tally of the total number of friends in the person’s network A “friend”... in the act No longer can people hide in obscurity and escape accountability for their actions People can readily document and record each other’s norm violations, and they can then post them online The global village not only revives features of the small village but also amplifies and alters them in profound ways The global village is worldwide and it encompasses millions of people The people of the. .. allows people to protect their reputations from being sullied by falsehoods But why? Since reputation is bestowed upon us by others in society and consists of what others think about us, why should we have a right to control it at all? Under one theory of reputation, the law professor Robert Post observes, it is a form of property People earn the esteem of others by the fruit of personal exertion.”93 Indeed,... information available about us Our reputation is one of our most cherished assets As the Book of Proverbs states: “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.”75 In William Shakespeare’s Othello, Cassio, whose reputation is ruined by the evil plotting of Iago, laments: Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of my self and what remains is... media would bring the world closer together into a “global village.”89 The Internet is the fulfillment of his prophecy People scattered across the globe can now all congregate together in cyberspace to share ideas and information Ironically, the global village leads us toward a future that revives part of the past—life in the small village of several centuries ago With the prevalence of cell phone cameras,... Epstein contends that the plea for privacy is often a plea for the right to misrepresent one’s self to the rest of the world.”99 Is there a justification for allowing people to conceal information about themselves that will lower their reputations? It is one thing to ensure that the information factored into the assessment of a person’s reputation is truthful; it is quite another to allow people to... fades It is available around the world, and with Google it can be readily found in less than a second Why Should We Be Able to Control Our Reputations? There’s a paradox at the heart of reputation despite the fact we talk about reputation as earned and the product of our behavior and character, it is something given to us by others in the community Reputation is a core component of our identity—it reflects... videos, they are forever altering their futures—and those of their friends, relatives, and others SOCIAL NETWORK WEBSITES In addition to blogs, social network websites are emerging as a way people are sharing personal information online These websites allow users to post a profile of themselves and link to the profiles of friends The first social network websites emerged in the mid-1990s Today there are... own reputation, we also want to know the reputation of others While privacy gives people greater control over their reputations, it also “makes it difficult to know others’ reputations.”80 We have a lot at stake in our relationships with others, and we are vulnerable to great loss if we are let down or betrayed In many circumstances, we look to people’s reputation to decide whether to trust them As the . links to the profiles of a person’s “friends” and often a picture of each friend. At the top of the Friend Space section is a tally of the total number of friends. y0 w0 h1" alt="" The Future of Reputation This page intentionally left blank The Future of Reputation Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet Daniel