Rita J. King in her recent interview with JD Lasica.

While at the June 2009 140Conf, Rita J. King was interviewed by long-time Online Journalism guru, JD Lasica about the ethics of cultural collaboration, online identity and the evolution of journalism with the advent of social media. Lots of great nuggets inside. Take a look

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[Originally published on DIP's Dispatches from the Imagination Age.]

By Rita J. King

At the #140conf in NYC yesterday I served on a panel moderated by Joshua Fouts, Digital Diplomacy and Cultural Collaboration. 44 tweets and retweets were generated by the comments, and I received several requests for fielding ethical questions related to the use of Twitter as well as the publication of Twitter names in a major publication. I wrote a statement prior to the panel, and while I didn’t deliver directly from the written comments, that statement, which sums up my position, is pasted below:

Twitter’s #iranelection demonstrates that the digital culture is tied irrevocably to the physical world. The digital is real.

The developing ethics of cultural collaboration can help us avoid turning this magnificent tool for greater understanding into an instrument of further destruction through misinformation, a tragedy made all the more ironic for its motivation: the desire to meaningfully connect with others or, in the case of #iranelection, to participate in the world’s first digitized revolution.

Understanding issues related to anonymity and the creative construction of digital identities is critical. In 2001 I wrote a cover story for the Village Voice, “Terms of Service: Sweaty Scenes from the Life of an AOL Censor.”

“Just as playing Dungeons & Dragons doesn’t turn a kid into a wizard, pretending to be a homicidal maniac on line doesn’t make a man a killer. But what it does make him is one of the greatest ethical dilemmas facing modern society.”

Last night one of my friends called after midnight because she needed to know how to use Twitter so she could follow #iranelection. “What is RT?” she asked. “What is RT?”

“It means retweet,” I said. Then I explained the hashtag, and the etiquette of including handles in a retweet, and editing to stay within the 140 character limit.

“People are switching their locations to Tehran,” she said, “to protect protesters.”

I’ve been hearing people suggest this constantly in the last day, but is it the right thing to do? It might serve a purpose, but won’t it also deliberately obscure the ability of Iranians to communicate with one another? And won’t it give the impression that more Iranians are tweeting at a time when many people have reported that Iranians they follow have stopped?

Is switching your location to Tehran if you’re really not in Tehran ethical?

“But people are dying,” my friend said. “Look, is it unethical for a person in Second Life to create an avatar that can walk if that person is really in a wheelchair in the physical world? In that case, lying serves a purpose, to transcend limitations.”

I do not believe that creating an environment in which a paraplegic’s avatar can walk is the same as listing one’s location as Tehran. Human beings are well capable of suspension of disbelief, which amounts to trusting one another to create a collaborate narrative that highlights the most authentic aspects of how we see ourselves and one another, to explore, to push the boundaries of what it means to co-create the mixed-media, mixed-reality world in which we live.

Twitter is important. Clay Shirky just gave a TED talk to the State Department, and the State Department asked Twitter to postpone a shutdown to keep more Iranians communicating.

TED founder Chris Anderson said,”Spend half an hour looking at the #iranelection stream on twitter and browse some of the vivid individual accounts of what’s happening on the ground. Then see how a massive number of non-Iranians have begun declaring their solidarity. Feel nothing? (Are you human?!)”

We will move from here toward augmented realities and telepresence. We cannot go backward from this evolution in human consciousness, but the road ahead will be dangerous as the shift occurs. We are forming a sense of global ethics that sits like an overlay map on a three-dimensional framework of different rituals, customs and systems of belief. We are doing this together.

140Conf Twitter Conference

I’m pleased to be moderating a panel in a few weeks at the upcoming June 16 & 17, Twitter-themed “140Conf.” We blogged extensively last December about how the Israeli Consulate of New York was hosting a Twitter press conference as a new venue for public diplomacy outreach. Since then, governments, non-profits and NGOs have expanded their cultural outreach efforts using Twitter. Our panel will be exploring how Twitter is used for digital diplomacy, public diplomacy and cultural outreach.

Panelists include (with pictures from and links to their Twitter selves, natch):

Andrew Kneale from the British Council.

@andrewkneale's twitter page

Andrew Kneale is the Transatlantic Project Coordinator at the British Council, the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. Based in Washington DC, he joined the British Council in 2006 working first in education before taking up a role developing Transatlantic Network 2020 — an intercultural dialogue project aiming to bring new energy to the transatlantic relationship, and build coalitions of young European and North American influencers to take collaborative action on global issues. Andrew previously worked at Qorvis Communications — an independent public relations agency in Washington, DC. He is originally from the UK, but moved to the US when he was a teenager. Andrew holds a BA in Political Science and Psychology.

Michael J. Friedman from the US State Department.

@americagovprint twitter page

Michael is Division Chief of Print Publications at the U.S. Department of State, Public Diplomacy division. He leads a team that supports U.S. public diplomacy by creating book length manuscripts, article anthologies, poster shows, and other materials that “tell America’s story” to an international audience.

Evan O’Neill from the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. (You can also find Evan twittering here.)

@gpi's twitter page

Evan O’Neil is managing editor of Global Policy Innovations magazine. He has been with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs since October 2002. During this time, he worked on the Council’s Empire and Democracy Project, coordinator of the Fellows Program, and on numerous publications.

Rita J. King, CEO and Creative and Creative Director of Dancing Ink Productions.

@ritajking's twitter page

She has authored or co-authored numerous reports on Digital Diplomacyvirtual worlds for public diplomacy and cultural dialog. Her work has been widely profiled, including by CNN, The New York Times, the BBC, The Chronicle of Higher Education, MSNBC, NPR, the Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times. For seven years while working as an investigative reporter, Rita’s primary focus was reporting on corporate culture. This work culminated in her report, “Big, Easy Money: Disaster Profiteering on the American Gulf Coast,” followed by a civil rights quest with the president of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development across the Deep South. She now specializes in strategic development and creative content for a new global culture and economy.

More information about the 140 Conf can be found here. Thanks to Jeff Pulver for the invitation and hosting the conference.