Blogging and the Corporation

I am sure this topic will be coming to an employment law seminar near you soon. In the news, Apple is pursuing a case against several blogs that have had inside product development information leaked to them. For those employees that might be involved, I believe that you will find that Apple is well within its rights to pursue you. The Judge has already ruled in Apples favor in two of the cases. While senior executives are oftentimes trained at length about protection of intellectual property, I doubt that little of this education filters down to the rank and file of the company in any meaningful way.

This leads me to a recent blog posting by Michael Hyatt - CEO concerning corporate blogging policy. Two approaches to blog policy are highlighted. Attributed to Microsoft there is the simple approach - "One Microsoft blogger told me that the only rule his company provided was, "Be smart." Then their is the not so simple approach put forth by the author that includes 14 terms and conditions, a list of acceptable blog hosting site, creation of a Blog Oversight Committee and paragraphs of disclaimers of possible liability.

My guess is that, since bloggers tend to be an independent bunch, Mr. Hyatt will find that the average employee blogger will simply forego his alliance site. This leads to the issue of training and communications. The malicious will be who they are. In a world of blogs, chat rooms and message boards we in the executive ranks will need to be constantly vigilant and educate our employees as best we can so that they can protect themselves from the pitfalls of their endeavors.