DailyKos is writing about ‘Credential Swapping’, a way of getting more people into the convention hall. Apparently, it is gotten so bad that they have locked the hall. It is interesting to think about ‘credentials’. Credentials are all about something being credible, being trustworthy.

Of course there is the issue of how you know that an authority issuing credentials is credible. The credentials that have been issued have one of those little holograms on it saying, ‘Authentic VALID’. Now that people have been swapping credentials, they have lost their credibility and the doors have been locked.

The credentialing of bloggers raises another issue. How do we determine if a blogger is credible? Doug Marlette drew this cartoon, which attempts to criticize the way credentials were dealt with for the bloggers.

This was brought up in a funny but pointed way at the Blogger’s Breakfast on Monday, when David Weinberger, asked Pulitzer prize winning correspondent Walter Mears, how we could account for his biases, or perhaps how we could trust him, if he wouldn’t reveal who he was supporting, that is, if he wouldn’t be more transparent. For bloggers, transparency provides a greater sense of trustworthiness that degrees, or awards.

I have stickers on my shirt for various candidates and causes I support, as well as my blogger credentials and a blogger button. I joke about wearing my biases on my shirtsleeves. It is part of the transparency that bloggers value.

My interview with alhurra echoed the same sort of issues. If anyone can publish, how do you know that they aren’t making things up? Some of it comes from the nature of dialog. People know what your biases are. Then, they challenge what you are saying in a dialog. This is why comments and cross linking are so important in blogs. They can create the two way dialog that gives the information needed for people to make up their own minds.

Ultimately, it is up to each one of us to decide who we believe, who is credible. If we believe in Freedom of Speech and improving the democratic process, then we should encourage a widespread dialog about what really matter. We should encourage people to think critically, be discerning and make up their own minds.

The question of credibility is now emerging with the professional media. The Move-On challenge of Fox News is all about credibility. Fox’s credibility is sinking. From my views in the blogger’s nest, I am finding myself questioning the credibility of some of the more respectable news organizations.

The idea of transparency plays itself out substantially in the discussions about the hidden records of Cheney’s energy commission. To a certain extent, we are looking at the same issue for John Kerry. The biography of John Kerry that is being painted is all about building trust in John Kerry, with veiled swipes at the credibility of George W. Bush. The Republicans will return fire and attempt to undermine the credibility of Kerry.

We will all have to decide who we trust and who seems less trustworthy. It will be a very important decision.

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