You can't do that on blogs !

posted by Heath Buckmaster on June 21, 2007

Many years ago there was a Canadian children’s TV program called “You Can’t Do That on Television” (wikipedia reference). On the program, if you said the wrong words like “water” or “I don’t know” you would get splattered with a bucket of water, or even worse, green slime.

We still have this process today if you say the wrong thing, either on television, or in your public blog. But the slime has been replaced with lawsuits for copyright violation, fines from the FCC, or claims of slander and libel. Reasonable precautions can be taken on your public blogs to avoid being slimed. You can make sure that text or images always reference their source (get in this practice even for public domain images); take advantage of videos and photos you have taken yourself; don’t make false or misleading statements about someone else that could damage their reputation.

But even with those “restrictions”, you can still pretty much blog about any topic that you want. You can talk about technology, fashion, business, pets, religion, hobbies, politics, movies, moral issues, whatever - because it’s your personal public blog - and a lot of what you talk about is covered under your Freedom of Speech.

But what about the multitude of intranet blogs that companies now offer to their employees? At most companies, you can create an account on their blogging platform in just a few minutes, and start blogging for all the world employee base to see. Do the same restrictions apply on the intranet as they do on the internet? Do you really have Freedom of Speech on an intranet? Will you get slime in the face if you say something you shouldn’t?

In the case of inappropriate intranet blogging, the slime might take the form of a moderator telling you that “Your blog has been unpublished”, a written warning from Human Resources that goes in your employee record, or in drastic situations - termination of employment. You can wash slime off with a shower - but a shower won’t get your job back if you say something wrong on your company blog.

So what can you talk about on the intranet? We ask this question of ourselves on a daily basis at Intel, because within the company we have a very extensive intranet, with billions of servers, websites, blogs, forums, podcasts, webcasts, and whatnots.

Ok, not billions, but a lot. Every employee has the opportunity to create their own intranet blog, participate in numerous community forums, and even create and post podcasts. But every employee also takes on the responsibility of blogging appropriately, since the systems they are using are Intel property and are governed by our computer usage guidelines. They are probably no different than other company’s policies - use the systems appropriately for a business environment.

But blogs have never really been something you can wrap a strict process around, otherwise they lose their value. The point of a blog is to put your thoughts out there, in whatever format you like, for people to interact with - whether they comment or just read it and think about it. Putting restrictions on blog content starts to devalue them and can make people second guess before they share information. However, there are some basic guidelines we use that are easy enough to follow. They might sound familiar.

Make sure you give attribution to images/videos/quotes that you use from other sources (don’t put your company at risk for a copyright violation); take advantage of collateral that you have created; don’t divulge confidential information that hasn’t been made public yet; minimize posts that relate to personal morals, politics or religion (as examples).

Yes, I said minimize, not “eliminate”. Even within the walls of a business entity, these types of conversations can be productive and in some cases appropriate (because you don’t turn your “self” off when you enter the building). Many companies have religious based employee groups - as long as they are not trying to influence others to their way of thinking, dialogue in support of their group is ok. Some companies have political action committees - for them it’s absolutely appropriate to discuss important issues as long as they aren’t trying to influence your political affiliation.

So even at your office there can be some flexibility in your blog topics. It’s all about being smart with your posts - make them relevant to a wide audience, and choose topics that aren’t divisive but generate interesting and hopefully productive dialogue with your peers. Personally, I use my intranet blog to meet new and interesting people who have opinions to share.

As an external blogger with Intel, I’ve also got a few additional restrictions on how I post. I can’t talk about our suppliers, partners, or vendors - unless they approve; I have to make sure we own the copyright for all images I use; I can’t share information that isn’t public yet; and I need to remember to focus more on what I have to say than what other people have to say. Hopefully, even after all of these restrictions as a business blogger, I still have something interesting and worthwhile to say…

What do you think?

External Site Reference: Intranet Blogging, by real Intranet blogger Ricardo Carreon.

* Image of girl on computer, and boy taking pictures provided by Intel Branding. All other company or product names are copyright their respective owners.

Comments (3)

tagged: blog, censorship, guidelines, intranet blogging