Do I need Guidance?

On may 16th 2005, IBM gave their employee bloggers some guidelines. Based on a wiki made by IBM bloggers. Comments on this you can read here and here , specially about asking aproval when you cite or refer to clients and using a disclaimer.

Now I don't need guidance, I think. But if I did, could I live with:

Guidelines for IBM Bloggers: Executive Summary

1. Know and follow IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines.

2. Blogs, wikis and other forms of online discourse are individual interactions, not corporate communications. IBMers are personally responsible for their posts. Be mindful that what you write will be public for a long time – protect your privacy.

3. Identify yourself – name and, when relevant, role at IBM – when you blog about IBM or IBM-related matters. And write in the first person. You must make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of IBM.

4. If you publish a blog or post to a blog and it has something to do with work you do or subjects associated with IBM, use a disclaimer such as this: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."
   

5. Respect copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws.
   

6. Don’t provide IBM’s or another’s confidential or other proprietary information.
   

7. Don't cite or reference clients, partners or suppliers without their approval.
   

8. Respect your audience. Don't use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, etc., and show proper consideration for others' privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory – such as politics and religion.
   

9. Find out who else is blogging on the topic, and cite them.
   

10. Don't pick fights, be the first to correct your own mistakes, and don't alter previous posts without indicating that you have done so.
    

11. Try to add value. Provide worthwhile information and perspective.

ING Asia, 'My cup of Cha' blog wants to keep it simple & straight forward. Based on Charlene Li's (Forrester) blogger code of ethics, they made the following rules.

ING Blog policy

1. We will tell the truth. We will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly.
   We will not delete comments unless they are spam, off-topic, in bad taste or defamatory.

2. We reserve the right not to comment on particular responses in line with our disclosure requirements.

3. We will reply to comments when appropriate as promptly as possible.

4. We will disagree with other opinions respectfully.
   

5. We will link to online references and original source materials directly.
   

6. We will keep private issues and topics private.

Robert Scoble (Naked Conversations) knows about blogging policies. He advises also to read guidelines of these companies: Plaxo, Sun Microsystems, Feedster and Harvard Law School. Now Scoble worked for Microsoft and he wrote his Corporate Weblog Manifesto. These are guidelines, (34 when you take the updated version in his book) are helpful when you want to get more audience, and could help not to get fired. nr. 32 for instance: 'Have a conversation with your manager about blogging before you start and find out what kinds of blogging he or she will defend'. Scoble didn't get fired, though he criticized Steve Ballmer publicly. Scoble knew how to cover his ass. But he left Microsoft in June 2006 for a company called podtech.net, that gave him more salary, options, and his own Scoble show. Could company guidelines have prevented Scoble to leave the company? Maybe that's where a company should create guidelines for. It is likely to find the more innovative employees in the blogosphere. Meanwhile, for me the Microsoft imperative on blogging sounds the best: Just blog smart.