Estimated reading time: 6 minutes, 39 seconds

That’s a beautiful angle, Kate, and to be honest, one that now opens up all sorts of issues I had not thought about (i def agree about care vs requirements, also like Bonnie said on twitter: reasonable expectations of others). But I do think that people who work in “public” and do things that are meant to cause a splash (def the case for Steve Wheeler and Dehaye, both) expect the media/blogosphere reactions, possibly even seek it? I understand your point about them being human and i don’t mean to discount it, but they can take responsibility for what they have done and they have more power/following to respond (I would argue much more so than little old me). I am actually angrier at people in positions of power who do something that creates a backlash then fail to respond and defend themselves or explain. However, the case of the instructor in the Georgia Tech MOOC is important, too: she was distressed. Maybe Dehaye is, too, and that’s why he is quiet? I don’t know.
Trying to put myself in that frame of mind, there was a blogpost I wrote early during #rhizo14 that was meant to encourage inclusion by questioning privilege but instead ended up silencing and offending some ppl, while making others really appreciate my views. That post haunts me to this day, but what I did is do lots of backchanneling with ppl i thought i had affected negatively, even tho i believed in what I had initially done. It’s nothing of the scale of these more public ppl, I had v little power, I was still “no one special” yet in that community… But my point is about taking responsibility. I know Steve Wheeler explained himself, though many didn’t like it, either, and they had the right to be angry and disappointed, as we humans are.
Of course we can quote a blogger out of context, but they can always respond. So if little old me misquotes Big George Siemens, he can easily respond here or on twitter. He retweeted my post (and I don’t even know him beyond a couple of tweets) so i assume he was ok with what I wrote… That’s sort of, to me, what the pingback does, it tells bloggers they’ve been quoted, gives them a chance to check it out…
When you say getting permission to quote a blogger, do you mean for verbatim quotes or even for paraphrasing their ideas? Do u get permission before u post? That would take forever if ur citing several others… But I am writing something now that would involve citing several bloggers and now you’ve got me thinking. I usually think it is “flattering” to cite someone, esp if doing so with praise. Do I need permission for that?