Yes, we have no payola

In a blog post on Friday, I mused on the creation of a "Guaranteed Payola-Free" accreditation for bloggers who vow not to accept payment to write about particular products. Tim King, a reader in Australia, went ahead and created a series of logos based on the idea.

Now all we need is somebody to create a system that actually evaluates blog authors for authenticity and trustworthiness. Maybe this is something that the reputation system RapLeaf could work on. Although it should be noted that RapLeaf might be a karmic balancing act for founder Auren Hoffman, who previously launched the Silicon Valley 100, which arranges for companies to send their products to Silicon Valley influencers, in hopes that they'll spread the word on how great the products are. (Disclosure: I recently moderated a technology showcase event put on by the group now running the SV100.)