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Blogging Policies

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Dollie

Dollie

MIS
May 2, 2000
765
US
Has anyone been asked to create a blogging policy, or edit their existing computer usage policy to accomodate blogs? Has anyone had to deal with OJT blogging, or bloggers who have caused conflict in the workplace?

The number of work-related blogging incidents in the news is increasing and has led me to start thinking about it. I'm interested to see if the professionals here have any opinions.

Thanks!
 
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Dollie,

It sounds like you are thinking about blogging as an adjunct to your business/professional environment. If this is the case, remember, any decision that affects (or is part of) your business environment must first pass the "Litmus Test of Business": You must be able to show definitively that the choice will cause either a net increase to business revenue or a net decrease to business expenses.

In the case of blogging for your business, I cannot see how the practice will reduce business risks/expenses or improve your business's revenue. And the justification that "everybody out there is doing it" certainly is not a good reason to allow blogging on company resources (any more than "everybody out there is doing drugs/alcohol, so we should do it at work").

If you can counter my assertion (about no company net benefit from blogging), then you can proceed to the next step: gathering "blogging policy". At that point, you then derive your policy in pretty much the same fashion: Create a mission/objectives for in-company blogging which result in net reduction to business risks/expenses or a net increase to revenue.

Let us know if this helps your objective.

[santa]Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA?
Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.
 
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If you're worried about employees blogging, and saying bad things about the company, that should probably already be covered under an existing employee agreement, and there shouldn't be a need to specifically include blogging.

Something like: "Employee will not disparage the firm while in their employ".

Non-employees saying bad things? Good luck enforcing that one!

Chip H.


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Unless your company is using employee blogs as a method of communicating with customers, OJT blogging would be covered under a combination of company time for company work and company equipment/resources for company work policies.

Employees blogging on their own time, as chiph said, should be covered by standard agreements to always reperesent the company positivley and not disclose propreitary information.

As far as former employees goes, it would depend on what was in any non-compete and severance policies.

Non-employees can do what they want as long as they don't cross into libel/slander.

[purple]Jeff
It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
 
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SantaMufasa - Blogging here in our office failed the very first litmus test... "Do you think...? Nah."

I'm still boggled by the fact that blogging is on the rise? I guess there's a niche for everyone there.

I think my biggest business concern arises from the many articles I've read lately about personal blogs coming back to bite the company in the [censored].

After reading about the flashy flight attendant, the former employee of a search engine, as well as the former $oftware company employee, it led me to other articles screaming about the need for a policy. It also led me to articles screaming about the Second Amendment and how corporations have no business in a person's "private blog" (that just happens to be available on the internet for the whole world). It's my feeling that I probably don't need to make any adjustments to our existing policies. I'm just afraid that I may need to actually spell it out for the Eternally Clueless (the people who think no one reads their blog) and for the Potentially Wreckless (the one person who always thinks policy doesn't apply to them).

I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.
 
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Er, a minor correction to my 2nd post before someone smacks me with a Clue by Four(tm)...

I meant First Amendment, not the Second. Armed blogs are a scary thought.
 
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If someone really wants to use their Second Amendment rights to have a blog, I'd be tempted to let them have it. Don't want anyone going postal over a blog.

Good Luck
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One could be on "Protecting the Hybernation Habitat".

Good Luck
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In another quirk of timing...

It appears that the disclosure of trade secrets in a blog is not a right protected by the First Amendment.

"The right to keep and maintain proprietary information as such is a right which the (California) Legislature and courts have long affirmed and which is essential to the future of technology and innovation generally."

 
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Disclosure of trade secrets should not be protected by the First Amendment. The purpose is to protect free expression of ideas and opinion, not to protect espionage.

[purple]Jeff
It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
 
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Lawmakers: Hands off Web logs

Although this is more geared to organized blogging as a political activity, it does show that kind of attention that blogging is now getting.

Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
 
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CajunCenturion, I saw that article over the weekend. Hopefully lawmakers know enough about blogs to make any legal decisions detailed enough to protect employers as well as bloggers. This is something that could be interpreted too broadly by bloggers that will end up being fodder for frivolous lawsuits.

 
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==> lawmakers know enough about

I know it's Monday morning, but really ... :-D

All kidding aside, there is a common misconception about the First Amendment. It does provide for criminal protection, with rare exceptions (like yelling 'fire' in a theater), with respect to free speech, but it does not guarantee you protection from civil remedies. Libel, slander, copyright violations, divulging trade secrets, and the like may not, but in some cases could, result in any sort of criminal prosecution, but they can certainly land you on the short side of civil litigation.

Good Luck
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To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
 
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