Talking Back
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Does your employer have an acceptable use policy for blogging?
It was an interesting question put to me by a reader a few weeks back and he wondered if there was a general policy out there. It's such a new phenomenon and people have different views on it. Sun loves blogging, at least by some people. O'Reilly has done it for years and Tim O'Reilly has written some great ones, well worth the time to read. It's an integral part of Joel Spolsky's FogBugz business and of course, the ones that we look through and cull for Database Daily are mostly from Microsoft and a few others mixed in.
However, there are some companies that have had issues. Google had a widely publicized issue was debated all across the 'Net. I ran across this look at some issues and if employers can intervene.
There's also an interesting perspective from Ben Silverman on blogging. He has some good points about employers needing to protect their brand and image and blogs can damage those brands if things are posted by those inside the company.
It's an interesting conundrum. Is everyone that blogs a journalist? Is blogging about internal events at a company journalism or is it unfairly disclosing inside information? How long before corporations start hiring people to go work at a competitor and blog about poor quality control or some other topic that could hurt the competitor? Who's to say that's not already happening? 🙂
I write these editorials for a living, so it's likely that I could get away with being a journalist. But when I worked at a large company, I was careful about what I wrote in my blog. I didn't seek permission for blogging because I mostly did that for myself and my extended family. I did seek permission for writing articles about events and problems that had occurred and I always mention that in my interviews.
But I'm not sure that the everyday employee who starts his own website or blog can just write about anything and invoke freedom of speech. I'm curious if anyone has a policy at their company, but my advice would be to be aware that what you write reflects on the company and not write things that you wouldn't want your boss, or the CEO, or read.
Also, should we implement blogs at SQLServerCentral.com? We're torn and not sure anyone cares to read, or write, here, but I wonder if anyone would use them.
Steve Jones
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Depending on who is putting up a blog here, I would certainly read it. So, my answer is Yes, implement blogs here. Even if it is just to stay on the same "service" level as other SQL Server sites.
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Frank Kalis
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url] -
Hi Steve,
Another winner of a topic!
Blogs are double-edged swords but I believe the net results are positive - especially if you allow (and then read) feedback from readers.
I encourage you to implement them.
Andy
Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics
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Our company allows *** complete *********** when ********** our policies, and furthermore ********** ****** ***********.
As you can see there is ** ************** for saying anying *** against our company or our *********** of Canada.
"Nothing travels faster than light, with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own rules."
DA
A well placed tangental reference from another forum thread, to sum up my opinion. and yes "a well placed quote is a reasonable substitute for wit."
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I blog a little bit using the free Blogger service. I think it would be neat if you added blogs to the site but I don't know if you need any more to maintain.
It would certainly be a revenue generator if you put ads on them. Trying to see things from the SQLServerCentral Admin point-of-view I am kind of 50-50 on the subject. I think it would be good enough if you allowed members to put a SQL Blog URL in their profile and have it show up with their user information in the forums and on articles they publish. I would definitely limit the blog subjects to SQL Server if you do add this to the site. If people want to post on other topics there are plenty of free blog services out there for that.[font="Tahoma"]Bryant E. Byrd, BSSE MCDBA MCAD[/font]
Business Intelligence Administrator
MSBI Administration Blog
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