Blog nicely

There was an article in the news at lunch time today that made me think what guidelines a person should set for themselves when blogging, even if they are not under any formal rules from employers or others.

First, let me say straight off that I think that manners we adhere to from tradition and empathy with others are one of the unsung cornerstones of civilization. In our society, little problems stay little and can be solved with a little effort in no small part because of manners and common courtesy.

By the latter, I basically mean do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Good manners take it a step further, giving you a framework to deal with situation where someone was less kind than they should have or you would have been.

There are certain things I do not disclose at or about work. I think this is a common, good practice.

I do not tell coworkers my salary or wage since private employers compensate people differently. I do not want coworkers being envious of feeling sorry for any of us based on how much we make per hour or per year. I want us all focused on the job at hand. It is a private company, in most cases, so let the boss worry about how he compensates each individual.

I do not blog about my company. I figure if something happens in my office, people who work outside it do not care and it is none of their business. And when it comes to products, I know companies pay advertisers and have their own marketing departments and salesmen.

I do not dream to know how do do their job better than those public communicator professionals do. And as someone who benefits from their hard work, I do not want to make their work harder. It is up to them to formulate the message for the company and its product or service. Right?

I do blog about technology in my field since it is a reasonable, professional thing to do. There are a couple reasons for this.

Without consumers and users talking about technology themselves, we would all be swallowing and mouthing the opinions fed to us in ads and publications that accept advertising money. Those two things being largely the same, more often than not. Also, sometimes advertisements hit the nail on the head with their pronouncement and when that is the case I think that should be pointed out and discussed - meaning agreed and/or disagreed with.

When one expresses an opinion, sometimes one gets back information that changes one mind and educates one better about the subject of their comment. Quite often, in fact. Such feedback is not always helpful but often it is.

The news story about a Texas Tech coach banning players from blogging kind of struck a chord with me. I am sort of on both sides and neither of this issue, as you may have guessed.

I understand that some people feel the need for a diary and the comment twittered in this case would have been more than fitting for a diary. The mechanism for Twitter and an online diary are very similar with one important difference: Twitter is published.

Moreover, the coach is a public figure. The opinion of the public, not just his boss and his performance, largely determines how he fares professionally. That in turn reflects back in how fellow players perceive themselves and their team - and how others perceive them.

The coach who had several unflattering things said about him banned Twitter after this happened.

To his credit, it sounds like he did not lay down this edict after a single incident. And in defense of the players, they are very young men and this is probably the first time they are in the spotlight themselves or work for someone that is.

I think that both these things support the decision that the coach made if it is a temporary rule and later it is replaced with a more limited but permanent rule.

The rule I think should be in place is that the players do not Twitter or blog about people on the team.

Doing so undercuts PR professionals at the school, the coach, their teammates, and so forth. While yes, the Consitution does make free speech legal and protects that right, that does not make uninhimited publications good for business.

The ball team has a budget, it has costs, and it produces revenue for the school - it is a business.

Even though the players do not get paid they are very much in an apprenticeship situation at a business. In exchange for their labor they are gettng free training, including invididual attention.

The US press, which benefits professionally from freedom of speech used to carefully present both or even several sides of an issue, except on some cable stations and tabloid newspapers.

People using a blog like a diary are not likely to do that. They are not a journalist reporting a big picture or an overall scene. Just isolated events from their day.

People using Twitter from their portable electronic devices, even more so. They are unikely to have an impartial relative or professional proofread and approve/disapprove each entry. It is candid, on the spot information.

It puts the littlest things into a spotlight, potentially makng a mountain out of a molehill. Chances are, that molehill is somebody else's problem and making it into a mountain might not be fair.

Tact, manners, and empathy are all social skills. They take time to develop. Some people have peer groups and famiies that instill them from an early age. Just like grammar and good conversational skills they pick them up from a few individuals in their home and neighborhood.

The best censor is to think how things will affect other people and let that rule what you say and write. Everything does not have to be nice but not everything that is not nice has to be said.

The news story itself if not that big a deal. This happens every day somewhere. To me, the topic to mull over is the subject of courtesy. It is something that we as a nation need to dust off, even more so when it comes to the new types of personal communications that have been inroduced.