Rules of The Internet

Recently, I have begun thinking about the laws of the Internet. It's so strange how something that isn't anything physical or concrete has it's own laws. Except there is no set guideline or rule book on the laws of the Internet, and which of them can and cannot be rendered. The internet has no president, no governing force. Although there are laws such as The Communications Decency Act (CDA), The Child Online Protection Act (COPA), and The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), there are no laws concerning posting, content, searching etc. merely restrictions. Would a law even work regulating such content? It seems to me that most people tend to make up there own rules as they go along. Different countries, cultures, and nations have unique "rules" concerning internet usage practices, with varying levels of morality and responsibility.

Below I have linked The Rules of The Internet....( "rules"). The amount of different re-writes of internet rules and amount of sheer sarcasm reflected in them, makes me wonder who and if anyone actually takes the idea of internet rules seriously or even cares..

The Advent of the "rules of the internet"

The idea of making “rules of the internet” originated from Anonymous conversations that took place on IRC and later spread to communities such as 4chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica.

On November 25th 2006, an Encyclopedia Dramatica user Zen444 created a new entry titled The 17 Original Rules of the Internet. An idea concerning “rules” ignited several rounds of debates and discussions in the Encyclopedia Dramatica forum.

Users were quick to strike out certain rules, but there were people who fancied the idea and began crafting the official “unofficial rules of the Internet”. In December 2006, a wiki project dedicated to the topic was posted at rulesoftheinternet.com.

The result of massive collaboration was a list of 47 rules on the Internet that are widely excepted to be true, with the word “Internet” used in a highly subjective sense.

“This will set a Guideline how the Internet can be structured. Politicians can not set these rules, the internet is for the people by the people. It needs to be the people that set the rules.”
-rulesoftheinternet.com

Extreme Sharing Networks: Everyone is An Expert at Something

The quote, "Everybody is an expert at something, and can contribute in meaningful ways", for me, defines the pull towards extreme sharing networks. Extreme sharing networks exist as a community, where the main focus is helping other members out. Message boards for sharing sites like Torrentpond and eMule act as a vector where all members can "meet" and share information with one another.
While investigating these extremes sharing networks it got me thinking about a sort of sub-group of sharing networks. One which I have come across in recent months is called Tinker. Tinker is a network created by Glam Media, a vertical content network, which offers an extreme sharing and combining of social networking sites. Their motto is "Stay on top of the buzz and create your own." With Tinker you can easily create or follow an event stream by typing a keyword into an event stream. An event stream could be anything from the Oscars to the ipad release. Tinker will pull up facebook status' as well as tweets that have anything to do with your specific event stream keyword. When you post a comment, tweet or status it will also update all of your other social networks that you have linked to your Tinker account.
The revolution of these extreme social sharing networks seem to be relentless in their growth and popularity. Networks such as Tinker seem to be as extreme as I can imagine, but it makes me think... what could possibly be next? Picture status'? Video status'? I think those may be a tad bit intrusive for my taste, but I wouldn't doubt their appearance once the community of extreme social networking sites becomes bored of regular old 'text' updates...