Am I trustworthy? Perhaps. May be not.
Really what evidence do you have to go on? If you’ve never meet me all you have are glimpses of who I am. Words here, photos there, a few videos, way too many tweets and whatever interactions we have online.
Why do I care if I’m trustyworthy?
Because trust is an important part of the blogosphere. Building trust online takes time; it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s something you earn through your actions. Transparency is an important of maintaining trust and as a blogger part of being transparent is revealing any potential influences (especially monetary ones). While we all know that words can easily be misinterpreted the words we leave out can cause worse misinterpretations.
What brought up this conversation on transparency and trust?
Well today Stephen Downes called Steve Dembo and I out on this issue:
How about a little disclosure here? Are Steve Dembo and Sue Waters getting paid to promote a commercial product (I assume Alan Levine’s rah rah post is unpaid, though you’d never know from the tenor)? Was Dembo being paid when he started plugging it on his site back in early April? I don’t care if people want to make a little money, but let’s keep the advertising content in the edublogosphere clearly labeled as such, OK? Because, as it stands now, I can’t trust anything Sue Waters and Steve Dembo write – and that’s an unhappy state to be in.
Well Stephen right I didn’t provide a full disclosure and left it up to interpretation. So let me provide full disclosures to hopefully clarify all matters:
MyStudiyo Competition
Steve Dembo and I am not getting paid by MyStudiyo to judge their competition.
MyStudiyo contacted me, explained that they were planning this competition and asked if I could be a judge with Steve Dembo. I thought about it and decided I was happy to be involved because I had seen Steve’s quiz, liked the product and saw the value for educators.
In response to Stephen’s comment “Don’t you think that being given a computer to give away to your readers is a form of payment?” my answer is sorry, no I don’t because the competition is open to anyone.
The Edublogger
When James Farmer, founder of Edublogs, approached me to ask if I was willing to be the editor of The Edublogger the concept was that I would keep doing the kind of stuff that I already do well, but also do it at a central place within Edublogs. My passion has always been about HELPING OTHERS learn how to use these technologies; so that is why I jumped at the opportunity!
I’m paid to blog by Edublogs to write posts for The Edublogger based on payment per post only (which works out to less than the “minimum wage” i.e. wouldn’t even pay for a takeaway meal for the family).
The Comment Challenge
The Comment Challenge came about because commenting is a crucial aspect of blogging conversations for achieving the greatest learning. Trouble is factors often limit people’s commenting practices so they don’t experience this learning and fail to appreciate it’s value. I, and others, felt strongly that we needed to do more to engage others, especially new people, in commenting. This Challenge is being sponsored by CoComment and Edublogs. None of the coordinators are being paid by CoComment.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There is a difference between being paid to blog and being paid to blog about a product. I’m not being paid to promote any product and if I was I would fully disclose it.
Sue Waters 
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