The blogosphere is becoming the wild west with ambushes and shoot-outs and not a sherriff in site. Now, Web 2.0 gurus like Tim O’Reilly are talking about a code of ethics for this new frontier.

I agree that if the Internet is to reach its promise we will need law and order. The blogosphere is an example of a catalyst community where people who want information and opinions connect with those who have information and opinion. The Tsjukji Fish market in Tokyo, the Mannheim Auto Exchange, Visa’s credit card network, 8MinuteDating, and eBay are other examples of catalyst communities.

All of these are platforms where those who need each other can find each other and exchange value. But they also have something in common: They all have rules and regulations in place to make sure that the platform is safe and secure–and that those who come to the platform don’t do harm to one other. For example, eBay kicks off sellers who rip buyers off and Visa has all sorts of rules that protect cardholders from unscrupulous merchants.

The blogosphere is different from these for-profit platforms because no one runs it. No community has ever survived under anarchy and the blogosphere won’t be an exception. Either the community will have to self-regulate itself through the sorts of rules being proposed or people will start gravitating towards closed communities that can enforce trust.