Last week in San Francisco, Inman News, a real estate new aggregator and content provider, sponsored a real estate tech symposium called "Real Estate Connect". It welcomed 100's of speakers involved in the real estate business, including San Francisco-based attorney David Barry. Barry, who's known for suing Realtor associations and MLS's across the country, participated in a discussion about the future of the MLS and explained his latest venture to form a nonprofit open MLS.

His organization, the Open MLS Institute, is funded in part by companies who want to be able to use copyrighted information that belong to brokerages (real estate listings) and use that information on their own websites. Their largest contributor, as noted on their website, is Redfin, followed by Catalist Homes, e-ListState.com, Artie Gilad, Trust MLS and Voyager 360.

The stated goal of the Open MLS Institute is as follows:

"The Institute intends to create open MLS's in which:

1. Information on homes for sale and rent is viewable for free on the web
2. Anyone can list a home for sale or rent for a reasonable fee without regard to their professional status
3. Content is downloadable by anyone for free without any copyright restrictions
4. Data and applications are interoperable with other open MLS's
5. Search features return results without regard to the business interests of the person listing the property in the open MLS.

By spearheading MLS reform, the Institute seeks to end such unethical practices as steering, spooking, pocket listings, and withholding purchase offers that have long prevailed in the real estate industry."

Sounds good, doesn't it? But the National Association of Realtors has a Code of Ethics which addresses each of these unethical practices.

But does David Barry support the National Association of Realtors? No. He wants to eliminate them, he wants to make National Association of Realtors membership optional, and he has even sued the NAR to make the term "Realtor" generic.

Who is the largest contributor to the Open MLS Institute? Redfin. Are they Realtors, sworn to uphold a Code of Ethics? No, they are not.

Mr. Barry claims to want to clean up the real estate industry, yet does not support an organization that makes adhering to the Realtor "Code of Ethics" mandatory for membership.

Some may say that his goal is not ethics or reform, but destroying the NAR and the privately-owned MLS's so companies that do not share these goals, or, in some cases, even actively participate in the buying and selling of real estate, can use the privately held data (listings) for their own benefit and profit.

In July 2006, the Open MLS Institute director, Stavros Mendros, filed an initiative with the Maine Secretary of State to establish the first open MLS in the U.S. in the state of Maine. The Institute actively supports that initiative, aiming for the Nov. 2007 election and, if that succeeds, I assume they will seek people to sponsor open MLS initiatives in the remaining states.

Obviously, we will follow their progress very closely, as this could have a huge impact on real estate in the U.S.

Greg Swann at Bloodhound Realty has some interesting opinions on the same subject and shares those on his blog, "Bloodhound Blog -- there's always something to how about!"