The news that Microsoft is formally trying to get it’s arms around blogging both in terms of the implications and the opportunities, has spawned some interesting discussion.
There’s no question that as a communicator, weblogs do raise some issues. There have been some attempts at putting together guidelines that can clarify a corporate policy for blogs. most notably Ray Ozzie at Grove created these guidelines.
Personally I believe that blog policies should be coupled with internal e-mail guidelines (I am assuming you have e-mail guidelines!) that outline acceptable usage and behavior on e-mail. A common sense approach that incorporates real legal concerns, is probably the best means of managing blogs.
Jim Horton rightly points out that because some blogs will be written outside work hours they are less subject to legal restrictions. However, a policy should still be in place. Here’s an interesting question for you: Do you know if any of your employees have blogs?
As a first step take a look at Ray Ozzie’s guidelines. Weblogs do present some great opportunities for building personality and thought leadership for your company, but as with all opportunities there are threats – innocent or otherwise.
Other interesting reading:
Murphy's Law 