guyS's WebLog

You are asking a very complicated question, morally and technically. There's a chance your employer might disapprove of your blogging habit, but I guess the solution is very simple - go to your manager and get a written permission to blog, not before you make him realise how important it is for your professional experience.
My opinion is that if your employer disapproves of your blogging habit, you should seek another employer, who's more open minded and who truly understands what the internet is all about. There are millions of employed bloggers in the world and some of them are employed by huge corporations and I'm quite certain that their blogging habit has only done good for their business.

If you can't do that, maybe you should switch jobs.

Just another reason to be the boss of your own company. My partner and I left the corporate world a long time ago. We do consulting work for those companies. Our contracts are structured so that we can not talk about the items that are core to their business, but technology discussions are fine.

Wally

You're not the slave of your employer. An employment contract is very simple: You commit to the employeer that you'll do what is in your job description. The employer commits to you that he will pay you the salary stated in the agreement.

That's it.

So if you don't do what's in the job description, you violate the contract. If the employer doesn't pay you your salary, he's breaking the contract as well.

So the employer can't ask you to do things not in the agreement and you can't ask from the employer things not in the contract. If the contract doesn't say anything about rules being applied (like "The employee should obey corporate policies blabla") you're free to do whatever you like.

I can understand an employer not being fond of you blogging. Not because you say something, but because you spend time doing something not in your job description. It's that simple. :) If you blog about whatever you think in your spare time, he can't say anything about it, unless you've signed an explicit non-disclosure agreement.

If you find a great tip during your work and you write about it at home on your blog, your boss can't stop you. If you write about how the inner workings of the engine you're working on are constructed and which clever solutions you've found for problems competitors have to deal with as well, you are not blogging about a tip, but about corporate IP. Unless you work for Microsoft, ASP.NET is not corporate IP. The clever CMS engine written in ASP.NET is.

I'd agree with Wallym and Frans. Your company own the implementation of your idea, not the idea in itself.

If on company time, you figure out a tip, all that the company owns is how you put it into their software. The variable naming, any special code for their other objects, etc. Other than that, it is still your idea. You can still post online about it and share it, but not in the same form you used it at work. Instead of using the same code you inputted at work, make up a sample application to show it... something that doesn't contain anything particular to or referring to the company.

This is all IMHO though. I believe that companies pay for your time in the office and what you produce in the office for their projects. They don't own you or your thoughts.

Thanks everyone for your feedbacks.

I've decided that in the mean time I'll blog on subjects that I'm absolutely sure that I'm allowed to: tips, short walkthrough, links, articles & code samples that I've written during my spare time.

When I would like to share a code that I've written at work (also when I'm positive that it'll not going to damage my employer business in any way) then I will do what Ken suggested - transform it to a short code sample or I'll talk with my supervisor first. Just, to be on the safe side.

I agree with Wally's comment, that the problem can be resolved when u r "the boss of your own company". I wish I could, but I'm not ready for it right now (there are too much responsibilities that are not tech related which I'm not sure I have the skills to confront with)

Guy

Don't share stuff that you wouldn't tell your competitors over breakfast and you should be fine. :-)

I would also add, when in doubt--ask. There's nothing wrong with letting your boss know that you blog, and asking when you're not sure how he/she would feel about a potential topic.

Marcie

i think it is  great