eastwikkers

Blogger Beware?

As many as 10 million Americans now have blogs, estimates the Pew Internet & American Life Project. How do blogs and work life mix (or do they?) While a few companies have drafted “blogging policies,” what effect could such guidelines have on attracting new talent? Will companies check out potential hires’ blogging activities?

Questions to ponder as blogging continues to take off and considering that currently, a fifth of companies perform general Internet searches on job candidates, according to one survey.

Read more in “Blogs Can Help Boost a Career or Sink It,” reprinted in the San Jose Mercury News.

The Best Filter

So, you'll be hearing a lot from the folks at eastwikkers about frames and filters.  We were reminded of this topic this week when Yahoo!'s Jeremy Zawodny began an interesting conversation about blacklisting PR spammers.  Not sure this is the right way to tackle what appears to be an increasingly difficult problem for journalists and A-List bloggers, and in some cases it might even be defamatory (we'd sure hate to wind up on a list like this).  But PR bloggers take note:  best way to get filtered -- literally, not just figuratively -- is to annoy your peers. 

Structured Blogging

PubSub has launched what it calls Structured Blogging, an XML-based platform that applies tags to Web pages and blog postings. The press release says it relies on a structured data format that changes simple text into rich data, adding more robust indexing and searching capabilities to content. PubSub has created a separate site with more info on the structured blogging initiative.

USA Today/Churchill Event Bars Other Media

See Tom Foremski's post on this event, co-sponsored by one of Silicon Valley's preeminent speaking clubs. All press barred except for USA Today. Sounds like an "exclusive" to us.

PR in Heaven?

You may not agree with Rolando Tanglao's post on the idea that PR is dead, but you can't deny he's succeeded at engaging us and generating discussion. This intriguing look at blogging practices, new media vendors and communication behaviors lends itself to further study. He credits the influencers and offers up a clever collection of ideas and links. StreamLine :: PR is dead and blogging killed it.

Fired Blogger Writes Blogging Policy

File this one in the "we found the perfect person for the job" file.   In fact, let's create a category for that on this blog.

Boring Boss Blogs

The Washington Post's Amy Joyce takes boring executive blogs to task. Tip: beware the temptation to edit yourself into mainstream marketing speak -- it totally defeats the purpose.

Although corporate blogging gives many readers what they want from a company -- an avenue to listen to and talk to decision makers -- it also loses that edgy, voyeuristic feel of personal blogs about bad bosses, annoying roommates and flings. As much as personal bloggers blithely ignore the conventional boundaries of etiquette, corporate bloggers edit themselves to avoid disclosing a company secret or representing an organization in a way not intended by the marketing department.

Wikking a Corporate Blogging Policy

The Thomas Nelson publishing house is looking for help in drafting its corporate blogging policy, writes Steve Rubel. Steve suggests that "someone should throw this up on a wiki for editing to see what happens."  That would be one way to tap the wisdom of the crowd.

Here's a look at the current draft (as of March 17, 2005):

Thomas Nelson Blog Terms and Conditions
“House Work” is a blog aggregator site. Its purpose is to link to external blogs written by Thomas Nelson employees who (1) write about some aspect of the company and (2) agree to abide by the rules listed below. It is not a blog site per se. Employees who wish to blog about the company must use a service such as TypePad.com, Blogger.com, or MySpaces.com.

In order to have your blog considered for inclusion in “House Work,” you must submit it to the Blog Oversight Committee (BOC) for consideration. Before doing so, you should design your blog and write at least two entries. Once you have done this, send an e-mail to Gabe Wicks with a link to your blog. The BOC will then review your site and notify you whether or not it meets the criteria.

In order to participate in this program, you must agree to the following terms and conditions:

1. You agree to write under your own name.
2. You agree to write about the company, your job, or some aspect of our business on a regular basis.
3. You agree to include the following disclaimer on your site: “The opinions expressed on this site are the opinions of the participating user. Thomas Nelson acts only as a passive conduit for the online distribution and publication of user-submitted material, content and/or links and expressly DOES NOT endorse any user-submitted material, content and/or links or assume any liability for any actions of the participating user.”
4. You agree not to attack personally fellow employees, authors, customers, vendors, or shareholders. You may disagree with the company and its officers, provided your tone is respectful and you do not resort to personal attacks.
5. You agree not to disclose any sensitive, proprietary, confidential, or financial information about the company, other than what is publicly available in our SEC filings and corporate press releases. This includes revenues, profits, forecasts, and other financial information related to specific authors, brands, products, product lines, customers, operating units, etc.
6. You may comment on the company’s competitors, but you agree to do so respectfully without ridiculing, defaming, or libeling them in any way.
7. You agree not to post any material that is obscene, defamatory, profane, libelous, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful or embarrassing to another person or any other person or entity.
8. You agree not to post advertisements, solicitations and/or market and/or promote any business or commercial interest, chain letters or pyramid schemes.
9. You agree not to post any material that is copyrighted unless (a) you are the copyright owner, (b) have the express, written permission of the copyright owner to post the copyrighted material on your blog, or (c) are reasonably sure that the use of any copyrighted material conforms to the doctrine of “fair use.”
10. You agree not to post any material that violates the privacy or publicity rights of another.
11. You agree to conform to the rules of the Thomas Nelson Company Handbook, especially as it relates to rules regarding conduct outside of your employment and the Insider Trading Policy on file with Human Resources.
12. You agree not to post material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or any other computer programming routines or engines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data, or information.
13. You agree not to post or conduct any activity that fails to conform with any and all applicable local, state and/or federal laws, including, without limitation, 15 U.S.C. 6501 et seq. (the “Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998”).
14. You acknowledge that any reliance on material, content and/or links posted by other parties will be at your own risk. You assume full legal responsibility and liability for all actions arising from your posts.

Notes:
The BOC administration of “House Work” does not constitute control of free speech.  You are free to post content on any site you wish; however, the company is not obligated to link to any site that BOC does not believe is in the best interest of the company.

Nelson neither represents nor guarantees the truthfulness, accuracy or reliability of any content, including links to other content, posted by you or commentors on your blog.  Nelson does not endorse any opinions expressed by or affiliated with any commentors on your blog site.

Nelson acts as a passive conduit for the online distribution and publication of user-submitted material, content and/or links and has no obligation to screen communications or information in advance. Nelson is not responsible for screening or monitoring material, content and/or links posted by readers. If Nelson, however, is notified or becomes aware of material, content and/or links on your blog site that allegedly do not conform to these terms and conditions, Nelson may investigate such allegation and endeavor to determine in good faith and in its sole discretion whether to request the removal of such content.

Nelson has no liability or responsibility for performance or nonperformance of such monitoring and/or screening activities. Nelson, however, reserves the right to stop linking to your site and take appropriate action for any violation of the terms and conditions set forth herein or any violation of any applicable local, state or federal law.

If you have any questions about the above terms and conditions, we strongly urge you to check with the BOC before making your post public. If you violate the terms and conditions, you will be notified by BOC. You will be expected to edit or change the content.

Finally, by your signature below, you agree to abide by the terms and conditions set forth in this document.

CNET Misses the Mark?

See Neville Hobson's critique of CNET's recent FAQ on corporate blogging. Neville finds the FAQ superficial, U.S.-centric, and, in some places, just plain wrong. He points readers to The New PR Wiki for better info on this subject.

CNET Blogger FAQ

See CNET's FAQ on do's and don'ts in corporate blogging.

Businesses Keep Worrying About Worker Blogs

See Nick Jesdanun's article in AP: "Firms Take Action Against Worker Blogs." Not much new here, but Nick is helping to take this story to the mainstream. Excerpt:

"Flight attendant Ellen Simonetti and former Google employee Mark Jen have more in common than their love of blogging: They both got fired over it. Though many companies have Internet guidelines that prohibit visiting porn sites or forwarding racist jokes, few of the policies directly cover blogs, or Web journals, particularly those written outside of work hours.

"Simonetti had posted suggestive photographs of herself in uniform, while Jen speculated online about his employer's finances. In neither case were their bosses happy when they found out.

"'There needs to be a dialogue going on between employers and employees', said Heather Armstrong, a Web designer fired for commenting on her blog about goings on at work. 'There's this power of personal publishing, and there needs to be rules about what you can or cannot say about the workplace'."