#CanucksRiot, Social Media and Crowsourced Policing

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My friend and associate Kemp Edmonds who heads up Hootsuite University asked me an interesting question at a barbeque last weekend. He asked me what I thought about the crowdsourced policing that had occurred during the Vancouver Canucks Riot last week. I personally see it as a fact of life. Anything you do can end up on the internet and then on CBC or CNN or BBC — in seconds. The question of “should we be monitoring” each other is a tough one. The same people who think that citizens shouldn’t be monitoring each other are the same people who cry foul when a police officer objects to being recorded by a passerby’s cell phone camera during an arrest. Corporate accountability, the move toward open government, and citizen journalism (Even Yelp) has put us all under a microscope. Have a listen to today’s podcast and let me know your thoughts on the issue. Here’s the gist of my opinion:

If you don’t want it on the internet – DON’T DO IT – and if you do it and it ends up on the internet it’s not the crowd’s fault or the the social media communities fault — the responsibility is yours. This goes for executives, public figures and teenagers at a riot. We are humble today or we will be humbled tomorrow.