Thought Leadership on Blog Policy @ Work

John Porcaro pointed out some interesting posts by Laurie Sefton, tonight that underscore some tensions going on in the blog-meets-employer space which have yet to play out to their fullest.

Here I am, smack in the middle of said corporate dilemma. As the leader of the E-commerce/web group, I feel that the responsiblity is ours to take for crafting an intelligent yet easy to implement corporate policy, similar to what Ray Ozzie has done with Groove Networks, which outlines our official stance on employee weblogs and websites. However, when I've approached people about this topic the answer that I've received has been that our "code of ethics" policy covers all such instances. I don't think so, but who am I to say.

Nevertheless, I did draft some bullet points which could one day comprise a fairly comprehensive policy on employee weblogs and websites. I don't think we'll be using this information, so here it is. Maybe one of your companies needs it.

The following are some general guidelines, which could be specifically cited or built into a more comprehensive policy:
* Unofficial and unmonitored websites and weblogs of employees or affiliates of may link to corporate websites, but is in no way responsible for the content of these pages and these pages do not necessarily represent positions, policies, or opinions of , its management, or employees.

* Should an employee of identify themselves as such on their personal website or weblog, they shall make it clear that views expressed on the personal website are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the company. A notice, such as the following, shall be applied to those pages mentioning KI.

The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

* Access to confidential or restricted data, as specified in the Code of Ethical Business Conduct, shall only be provided through corporate websites, as deemed necessary by management.

* Employees are not permitted to disclose any information, on their personal websites, that could represent a conflict of interest, or be deemed as a competitively damaging practice, as specified in the Code of Ethical Business Conduct.

* Employee websites or weblogs shall not be housed on equipment, nor shall and Employee’s email address be used as a main point of contact from a personal website, as specified in the Corporate Funds, Assets and Information section of the Code of Ethical Business Conduct.

* Since your personal website/weblog is public space, and open to the public domain, encourages you to be respectful to the company, employees, our customers, our partners and affiliates, and others (including our competitors) as the company itself endeavors to be.

* You may provide a link from your site to the company's website, if you wish. KI’s e-commerce group has created a graphic for links to the company's site, which you may use for this purpose during the term of your employment (subject to discontinuation in the company's discretion). Contact a member of the e-commerce group for details. Please do not use other company trademarks on your site without first obtaining permission.

* Enforcement of this policy will be done on an as needed basis.

Posted by Dana VanDen Heuvel at September 26, 2003 12:29 AM | TrackBack