Here is the Corporate Blogging Guidelines of Sun Microsystems. I wll try to put as many as possible docs from the ones I have read and used over the years so we can have them in one place and WordFrame Blog be another good reference point too.
Original Document available at:
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/05/02/Policy
_____________________
Sun Blogs
Many of us at Sun are doing work that could change the world. We need to do a better job of telling the world. As of now, you are encouraged to tell the world about your work, without asking permission first (but please do read and follow the advice in this note). Blogging is a good way to do this.
Advice By speaking directly to the world, without benefit of management approval, we are accepting higher risks in the interest of higher rewards. We don't want to micro-manage, but here is some advice.
It's a Two-Way Street The real goal isn't to get everyone at Sun blogging, it's to become part of the industry conversation. So, whether or not you're going to write, and especially if you are, look around and do some reading, so you learn where the conversation is and what people are saying.
If you start writing, remember the Web is all about links; when you see something interesting and relevant, link to it; you'll be doing your readers a service, and you'll also generate links back to you; a win-win.
Don't Tell Secrets Common sense at work here; it's perfectly OK to talk about your work and have a dialog with the community, but it's not OK to publish the recipe for one of our secret sauces. There's an official policy on protecting Sun's proprietary and confidential information, but there are still going to be judgment calls.
If the judgment call is tough-on secrets or one of the other issues discussed here-it's never a bad idea to get management sign-off before you publish.
Be Interesting Writing is hard work. There's no point doing it if people don't read it. Fortunately, if you're writing about a product that a lot of people are using, or are waiting for, and you know what you're talking about, you're probably going to be interesting. And because of the magic of hyperlinking and the Web, if you're interesting, you're going to be popular, at least among the people who understand your specialty.
Another way to be interesting is to expose your personality; almost all of the successful bloggers write about themselves, about families or movies or books or games; or they post pictures. People like to know what kind of a person is writing what they're reading. Once again, balance is called for; a blog is a public place and you should try to avoid embarrassing your readers or the company.
Write What You Know The best way to be interesting, stay out of trouble, and have fun is to write about what you know. If you have a deep understanding of some chunk of Solaris or a hot JSR, it's hard to get into too much trouble, or be boring, talking about the issues and challenges around that.
On the other hand, a Solaris architect who publishes rants on marketing strategy, or whether Java should be open-sourced, has a good chance of being embarrassed by a real expert, or of being boring.
Financial Rules There are all sorts of laws about what we can and can't say, business-wise. Talking about revenue, future product ship dates, roadmaps, or our share price is apt to get you, or the company, or both, into legal trouble.
Quality Matters Use a spell-checker. If you're not design-oriented, ask someone who is whether your blog looks decent, and take their advice on how to improve it.
You don't have to be a great or even a good writer to succeed at this, but you do have to make an effort to be clear, complete, and concise. Of course, "complete" and "concise" are to some degree in conflict; that's just the way life is. There are very few first drafts that can't be shortened, and usually improved in the process.
Think About Consequences The worst thing that can happen is that a Sun sales pro is in a meeting with a hot prospect, and someone on the customer's side pulls out a print-out of your blog and says "This person at Sun says that product sucks."
In general, "XXX sucks" is not only risky but unsubtle. Saying "Netbeans needs to have an easier learning curve for the first-time user" is fine; saying "Visual Development Environments for Java sucks" is just amateurish.
Once again, it's all about judgment: using your weblog to trash or embarrass the company, our customers, or your co-workers, is not only dangerous but stupid.
Disclaimers Many bloggers put a disclaimer on their front page saying who they work for, but that they're not speaking officially. This is good practice, but don't count on it to avoid trouble; it may not have much legal effect.
Tools We're starting to develop tools to make it easy for anyone to start publishing, but if you feel the urge, don't wait for us; there are lots of decent blogging tools and hosts out there.
This site contains blogs written by Sun employees and is governed by company policies, including Sun's Blogging Guidelines. When employees leave Sun, blogs written during their employment normally remain in place here and are subject to the same policies. Sun Alumni are invited to continue blogging on the friends.sun.com/blogs site, where additional terms and conditions apply.
Sun's Blogging Guidelines
Speaking to the world in public has potential risks for you and for Sun and you need to understand
them. Here are the big-picture risks.
Posting the wrong thing on your blog could:
? Lose Sun its right to export technology outside the U.S.
? Get Sun and you in legal trouble with U.S. and other government agencies.
? Lose Sun its trademark on key terms like Java and Solaris.
? Cost us the ability to get patents.
? Cost you your job at Sun.
Most of these risks can be avoided by just being careful and responsible. Here is a summary of the
important rules to follow to avoid getting in trouble. There is an applicable company policy for each of
the items listed. Links to these policies are included in the internal version of this document located at
https://akula.sfbay.sun.com:8443/blogs-admin/ Violation of any applicable company policy may result
in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.
Summary of the important rules:
1. Do not disclose or speculate on non-public financial or operational information. The legal
consequences could be swift and severe for you and Sun.
2. Do not disclose non-public technical information (for example, code) without approval. Sun
could instantly lose its right to export its products and technology to most of the world or to
protect its intellectual property.
3. Do not disclose personal information about other individuals.
4. Do not disclose confidential information, Sun's or anyone else's.
5. Do not discuss work-related legal proceedings or controversies, including communications with
Sun attorneys.
6. Always refer to Sun's trademarked names properly. For example, never use a trademark as a
noun, since this could result in a loss of our trademark rights.
7. Do not post others' material, for example photographs, articles, or music, without ensuring
they've granted appropriate permission to do this.
8. Follow Sun's Standards of Business Conduct and uphold Sun's reputation for integrity. In
particular, ensure that your comments about companies and products are truthful, accurate, and
fair and can be substantiated, and avoid disparaging comments about individuals.
No comments:
Post a Comment