In my grad class, Politics and the New Media, we have talked and hypothesized about how blogs may change Democracy. Well, what about business?
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, blogging is having an impact on corporate America.
Recently a Google employee, Mark Jen, was FIRED for blogging at work. Well, ok, he may have been telling everyone on the internet about things going on inside Google and he might have leaked information about products not yet released but…ok no but. Yikes!
Once Mark left Google he went to Plaxo, Inc and began to help them write a company blogging policy.
A company blogging policy? Yes! Actually places like Sun, HP, and IBM even have internal company blog sites designed for their employees.
Blogs are changing more than Democracy - they’re changing business! In America, home of capitalism - that’s HUGE.
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I think that having internal company blogs is a great idea. Employees can discuss company issues that in theory could be read by the heads of the company. Having an employee blog would boost company moral being able to speak with other employees who might have similar problems or triumphs within the company.
Blogging is having an impact in different industries throughout America. I agree that the google employee should be fired for blogging company secrets at work, but he learned his lesson and put it to good use.
I believe that having an internal company blog is a great idea. Employees in different departments can share ideas to make the company more effective. An employee in human resources can write about how other employees should treat new clients. The blogs can also be used for employees to express their concerns about the company. This can help the heads of the company to better improve working conditions.
A good friend of mine works for Microsoft and had to sign a contract that gives Microsoft ownership of every bit of code he writes during his tenure there. Any blog, etc., that an employee runs in his or her free time is subject to the oversight of the corporation due to this clause in the contract. I’m curious: is this normal? To what extent do employers do this in other fields? Do reporters cede rights to books, etc., to their newspapers?
Would a solution to the problem be to have password protected blogs?
The overall solution, like others have mentioned, seems to be don’t write anything online that you don’t want to be publicized.
E-mail is the same way and can come back to haunt you. Jack Abramoff, uber-lobbyist, called his clients
“moronic” in e-mails, and federal investigators are able to track his daily progress through his e-mails.
Could they track an individual through a blog? Jessica Cutler was exposed for her sex life and blogging.
Never write anything you wouldn’t want the world to see on the internet because you’ll lose your job or it can come back to haunt you - especially politically.