Corporate Blogging Guidelines
For the past few months I've been an advocate for having
some sort of internal blogging guidelines for Microsoft employees.
Unfortunately, every time I start to write out my ideas, I realize that it's
a lot harder than it sounds. These guidelines wouldn't be intended
to dictate what people say, but rather to help them to make the right decisions on what is
appropriate.
My blog, as anyone who reads it is aware, is pretty non-Microsoft. I
don't like to talk about the things I do that are core to my job unless
something really compels me. Instead, most of my entries are about soda can
pyramids, silly one-liners, or steganographic codes for our once and future
overlords
kittens. I try to keep it humorous, which keeps me out of trouble, assuming I'm
careful enough not to cross into dangerous territory.
A lot of people write deeply technical entries,
observational entries, entries that comment on the state of code/tea/etc, and
even more. These are all very different kinds of blogs, so it's difficult to
come up with a single set of guidelines that guide them all. Today, however, I
noticed a post from Scoble
that sums it all up in a nice analogy:
If you're a skier, How do you make rules for skiing through the trees? I don't know how. Anyone who wants rules for skiing through the trees really shouldn't try it.
Maybe it is just that simple.