Noted is the initiative taken by IBM to develop guidelines and encourage its 320,000 employees to blog. James Snell, a member of IBM's Software Standards Strategy Group, has posted those guidelines on his public blog. The corporate communications and legal teams at IBM worked collaboratively with the IBM Blogging Community to draft the Corporate Blogging Guidelines copied below over a period of ten days using an internal wiki. Jason also notes a CNN article that takes a very different approach to the positive initiative by IBM and its blogging community. Maybe it is time for a major mainstream media outlet to take similar visionary initiative.
Key highlights:
"IBMers are personally responsible for their posts. Be mindful that what you write will be public for a long time -- protect your privacy."
"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."
"Don't cite or reference clients, partners or suppliers without their approval."
"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.'"
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