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	Phil's Blogservations Monday, May 16, 2005 Posted by philgomes 7:32 PM IBM's Blogging Rules IBM's Blogging Rules InfoWorld has a post about IBM's blogging rules. Glad to see it. One of the points that I harped on during my Oct. 2004 PRSA talk was the need for clearly drawn policies with regard to employee-run blogs, whether they be corporate-sponsored or otherwise. Generally speaking, it's a company's right to describe a code-of-conduct for its employees. One thing you'll quickly notice about IBM's blogger guidelines, though, is that they aren't very blog-specific. Indeed, many of these admonitions are media-neutral and would apply to static web pages, leaflets, Morse code transmissions, and so on. The perceived motivation to recast these policies as blogging guidelines underscores the dramatic effect that personal publishing has created. The term "blogging," rightly or wrongly, evokes both a convenient online publishing method as well as a kind of cause celebre. Also consider that the technology-industry halo effect is also at work here. While there are many facts surrounding the case that make it fodder for a rich debate, consider that no one would have cared much about the Friendster "Troutgirl" situation last year if Joyce "Troutgirl" Park worked for Ford Motor Company, her publishing platform was a Kinko's photocopier, and she wrote about the performance shortcomings of an earlier fuel injector design. (That said, based on my own reading of those events, she didn't do anything termination-worthy by a long shot and I tend to agree with Jon Udell on this one.) | HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil's demented imagination. Hell, to be perfectly honest, even Phil disagrees with what he thinks sometimes. This site has virtually no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Clicking on a link doesn't automatically send a 1/2-cent donation to UNICEF. You can't buy, sell, auction, swap, find a date, win friends, influence people, cross the chasm, or decode the human genome using this site. You won't get free email. You won't win a free video game console. This site will not end world hunger, foster peace in the Middle East, help you smell better, teach you how to swing dance, or move the global economy from petroleum to hydrogen fuels. You'll learn a lot about this site's master, though, which amounts to a haphazard collection of strange and useless facts that pretty much won't help you at all.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This is the blog of Phil Gomes, SVP with Edelman Digital and senior advisor to the Society for New Communications Research. This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. Phil currently resides in Chicago, IL. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes.com View my page on PROpenMic SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.