Lawyers blog too... And they read my blog...

Well, at least the posts that are scobelized. :-) I was hoping that some 3rd party lawyers might actually chime in once I posted my opinions. As far as I know Kevin @ techlawadvisor.com is the first. Check out this post.  He also suggests adding some more text that further seeks to drive a separation between the blogger and the employer. 

<RANT>My only issue with the text is that it IS part of some people's job.  I use my blog as a sounding board for ideas because the communities are great BS detectors.  I post community wins here as storage so I can accumulate them and send around internal community mail posts.  I post answers to questions about Visual Studio here because I know they will be helpful to the community of users who find my blog when searching for answers.  Blogging, because of the simplification to publishing it represents, is becoming a tool that people are using both for personal use AND for work use.  When C# team members ask for opinions on keyboard shortcuts they aren't joking, they are using feedback from the blog as a tool to help them deliver a world class product.  I know customers who blog to get more attention to their personal businesses.

All of this is done as a way to form relationships that lead to higher customer satisfaction.  There is nothing wrong with it.  Putting a human face on your product is a valuable thing to do and is a necessary step for forming a relationship with your customers.  Unfortunately, to reap the rewards, you need to accept the risks that are involved. 

I don't care what resources are used or what time of day someone does their blogging, unless you are truly blogging about things completely unrelated to your job then IMO the line is at least blurred beyond the black and white legalese text.  </RANT>

Anyway, Kevin links to some other posts including one where Lucent was found liable for an employees personal web site.  Kevin, thanks for the 2 cents.  I've learned a little more and think your feed will be valuable in the future.  Subscribed.

Oh, I was also in the MicrosoftMoniter as “Mr Legard”.  They also touch on the problems created by blurring the lines of employment that go beyond issues surrounding blogging.