The internet makes us all better people, according to Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard law professor and investigator for the OpenNet initiative.
The people who created the internet didn't do it for money, he told the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford, but because they were fascinated by it. This enthusiasm, and not a desire to make huge amounts of money, is behind many of the most successful websites.
Sites such as Wikipedia, he argued, depend on web citizens who want to protect the worth of the website and act as moral buffers.
"Wikipedia is always 45 minutes from total destruction," he said, "besieged by thousands of spambots wanting to fill entries with adverts of Rolex watches."
Zittrain went on to use the example the Star Wars Kid - a viral YouTube video of a boy pretending to fight with a light sabre. It went up without the boy's knowledge. Wikipedia created an entry and hosted a debate about whether to include his real name. The press already had, but the Wikipedia team opted not to.
"This story makes it possible for us to see that all of the data online reflects our experiences and emotions, and we can have an ethical moment when we decide how we want to treat it," he said.
Other speakers contributed more tales of online morality. Imogen Heap said that when an unscrupulous journalist tried to sell a promo single of hers before its release date, she mobilised her Twitter fans. They pushed the auction up to £10 million, forcing eBay to cancel it.
根據一位名叫喬納森。特瑞的哈佛法律教授兼主動開放網絡調查員的說法,因特網使我們全部成為較好的人。
他告訴位于牛津的全球TED協商會,因特網的創始人不是為了錢去做這個,而是因為他們被因特網迷住了。大部份最成功的網站背面蘊藏著這種熱情(不想賺大錢的欲望).
他說,像Wikipedia這樣的網站,信賴于那些想要保護網站價值同時作為道德緩沖器的網民。
他說:"Wikipedia 距離徹底毀滅總是只有45 分鐘","它被想要填滿勞力士手表廣告的數以千計的兜售信息平臺所包圍。"
特瑞繼續使用星際大戰小孩的例子--一段過濾過病毒的YouTube視頻,一個假裝用閃亮的馬刀戰斗的男孩,沒有顯示關于男孩的信息。Wikipedia創建了一個條目(發起話題),并發起了一場關于是否應該公開他真實名字的辯論。新聞媒體已經公開了那個男孩的名字, 但Wikipedia選擇了不公開。
他說:"這個故事使我們在線查看所有反映我們經歷和情感的數據成為可能,當我們決定如何應對的時候,我們能有一個從倫理上考慮的時刻。 "
其他人發表了更多關于網絡道德的看法。伊莫金。黑普說,當一個不道德的新聞記者想在自己的書出版發行之前賣掉一個單行版,她會動員她狂熱的支持者,他們會把拍賣價哄抬到1000萬英鎊,迫使 eBay 取消它。