Corporate employee blogs: Lawsuits waiting to happen? | Tech news blog – CNET News.com
Tip of the hat to Chris Kobran for this del.icio.us link to a recent CNET story about a Cisco patent dude getting sued by some patent attorneys after the Cisco guy uncloaked his anonymous authorship of a personal blog about patent stuff:
“Cisco said it still believes “common sense” should be a guiding force for employees sharing information online, but it also added the following rule to its three-year-old Internet postings policy: “If you comment on any aspect of the company’s business or any policy issue the company is involved in where you have responsibility for Cisco’s engagement, you must clearly identify yourself as a Cisco employee in your postings or blog site(s) and include a disclaimer that the views are your own and not those of Cisco.”
Seems pretty clear to me what the dominant rule is: blog about whatever you want on your own time, but if you talk about the company you identify yourself as an employee. Sames goes for company related comments on other blogs, editing of corporate, competitor or industry related Wiki entries, forum postings, bathroom graffiti …..
All that is really required is honesty. Full, transparent disclosure so that the reader can make up their own mind about where you are coming from.
Anything else is un-ethical.
Tom O’Brien
Human Being
(and employee of MotiveQuest LLC)
Personally, the last thing I want to blog about is work….I have enough of work while I’m there…
I like to blog about fun things!
Occasionally I rant and rave about politics which I suppose is dangerous because my employer may not want me to share my political views but that would be un-American….wouldn’t it?
I don’t think anyone would want to hear about what I do anyway…corporate taxation…puts ’em right to sleep.