I often write about transparency on the Internet, and am usually all for it. But tonight I just watched the show 
Moment Of Truth, where people are asked very personal questions and they get money for answering them honestly- whew, tough (don't waste your tivo space on it). But the fact that this show exists, and that people watch it, further reinforces the type of transparency and access to information that people desire and expect in this day and age.
When I think of other examples of total transparency two immediate examples come to mind:
1) Inman News Conference - Twice a year people pay hundred dollars plus the cost of travel to attend Brad Inman's news conferences in San Francisco and New York. Interesting content is created by the speakers, panelists and audience. Then what does Brad do with this valuable content when the conference is over? He gives it away! The weeks following the conference Brad features various sessions on his site, totally free to the public. Is he worried that by giving away this valuable content people will quit attending his shows? A 1.0 answer is yes. A 2.0 answer is no. Brad is a smart guy, if doing this would hurt his profit margins, he wouldn't do it. But Brad knows that by being totally transparent about the types of conversations and debates that happen at the conference he can spark interest and potentially attract even more attendees to his next show.
2) Today in USA Today I read how Random House let readers download all 432 pages of Charles Bock's just released book, Beautiful Children for free the first three days it was out. Further, this downloaded book could be emailed, shared or printed. Aren't they worried that by giving away the farm this will hurt sales? In the month that they book has been on the shelves, it has sold 12,000 companies, a good sales amount for a lesser-known author. In the article M.J. Rose, who runs www.authorbuzz.com a marketing company for authors says, "we found we were selling more, not less, copies of the books we were giving away".
Today people want all the information. They want it on their terms. They want it now. And they want a lot of it for free. Does ability for home buyers and sellers to collect mounds of data on their own ultimately cut into a Realtor's business? If we answer that question based on the principles of the above two examples, the answer is no. And if fact, when putting transparent, honest and interesting content out there on the web, it appears you get it back in spades.
So for all you out there who bank on not displaying a listing address because you want the person to call you for it, this is something to think about. I can guarantee doing a full disclose of your property listing details will be much easier to disclose than some of the question this poor women had to answer on national television! Ultimately though it paid off big for her and she won $100,000. It can pay off big for you too.
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