Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » Big Blue says to employees 'blog, but follow these rules'

May 16, 2005 | Comments: (0)

Big Blue says to employees 'blog, but follow these rules'

TAGS: Applications

IBM, it seems, has embraced the idea of letting its employees have their own blogs -- but not without providing a set of guidelines for would-be-bloggers to follow.

The short and sweet list, posted by IBM employee James Snell, consists of 11 items.

1. Know and follow IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines.
2. Blogs, wikis and other forms of online discourse are individual interactions, not corporate communications. IBMers are personally responsible for their posts. Be mindful that what you write will be public for a long time -- protect your privacy.
3. Identify yourself -- name and, when relevant, role at IBM -- when you blog about IBM or IBM-related matters. And write in the first person. You must make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of IBM.
4. If you publish a blog or post to a blog and it has something to do with work you do or subjects associated with IBM, use a disclaimer such as this: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."
5. Respect copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws.
6. Don’t provide IBM’s or another’s confidential or other proprietary information.
7. Don't cite or reference clients, partners or suppliers without their approval.
8. Respect your audience. Don't use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, etc., and show proper consideration for others' privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory -- such as politics and religion.
9. Find out who else is blogging on the topic, and cite them.
10. Don't pick fights, be the first to correct your own mistakes, and don't alter previous posts without indicating that you have done so.
11. Try to add value. Provide worthwhile information and perspective.

Naturally, IBM goes on to provide greater depth for each point, but I'll let you read about that at Snell's blog.

With the high-profile firing of some bloggers during the last year for various reasons, some reasonable and some not, this is unquestionably a good idea, and IBM is doing more for its bloggers than just protecting the corporate hide.

Some people in the industry have been calling for blogging guidelines. Technorati founder and CEO Dave Sifry, for instance, spoke about this very topic at the end of April, and my colleague Paul Krill blogged about it here. In fact, Sifry suggested several policies that companies should outline for employee bloggers, most of which showed up in IBM's list.

Sifry's point was that blogging works well for companies that have a culture of trust, not one of fear.

Indeed. The same goes for just about everything else employees do while at work.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on May 16, 2005 02:42 PM

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