Saying we need a blogging code of conduct to behave ...

... is like saying we need the bible to be moral.

Comments

[Matt Moore]

There's a big dollop of truth in there Euan.

I actually think codes of conduct can protect organisational bloggers from malicious attacks. "I followed the code, get off my back".

Of course the code is simply a tool to be used in a culture. Just as bibles have been used by different groups to further their own ends and beat people over the head with.

Most codes of conduct are not as well written as the King James version tho...

[Matt Moore]

Hang on - this is about blogging in general rather than organisational blogging isn't it?

The only people that will sign up to this are the ones that don't need to.

[Alex Manchester]

Is this is response to anything in particular, Euan?

[Dale Arseneault]

Euan.. provacative as usual.. ;-)

I'm flipping through interesting book, Blog Rules: A business Guide to Managing Policy, Public Relations, and Legal Issues by Nancy Flynn

It's quite a good look at the implications of corporate blogging (mostly) and personal blogging. It has some interesting notions about dangers, risks, and so on, but the author has some very good tips on how to avoid the pitfalls and maximize the value of blogs, with solid, pithy rules and action plans. I really like a couple of the author's key messages (my interpretation): don't put your foot in your mouth, and don't shoot yourself in the foot (before or after it's in your mouth); blogging policy is an extension / contextualization of conflict of interest / code of conduct type of policies.

On one hand, I agree with you.. people should just apply some common sense, or intuitively know what to do. But they don't all, do they? Despite a whole host of good reasons, at some point or other, we act in ways that do not make sense, or have been /are our own worst enemies. Or we have a fundamentally different "common sense" perspective than others.

Matt uses the word "culture" in his comment. Over time "culture" develops and communicates beliefs and behavioural norms in subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) ways. It's the status quo, and culture's number one job is to maintain it.

I think codes of conduct, whether for blogging or other topics, serve a number of valuable purposes. Their development generates a number of important conversations around important issues - conversations that may otherwise not be had, or be had behind closed boardroom doors. They build common understanding. They provide a "box" within which individuals can act without fear of repraisals (e.g. the Police Pressure Point System informs poice officers what they can comfortably do to subdue a suspect within the definition of "resonable force" in the eyes of the court system). And they are a vehicle for objective assessment and feedback of behavour - they help make us accountable for our actions in the eyes of our peers and colleagues. In essence they make "common sense" less subjective and more explicit. And also, perhaps, contain / reflect implicit knowledge of what does not work.

Admitedly many policies or codes of conduct lack a degree of ... "common sense"... themselves. We are all volunteers, after all. Important codes of conduct should be written realistically, and in ways that encourage volunteerism and not rebellion.

What would the world be without speed limits on our roadways?

[Euan Semple]

Interesting points Dale.

I wasn't suggesting something as nebulous as common sense would prevail more that if we each apply our own sense of right and wrong and take responsibility for reacting when we see something we think is damaging our emerging ecology then we give it a fighting chance of working.

Rules are not the way to do this as we are dealing with a more complex ystem than roadways.

[Dale Arseneault]

mmm.. never though you quite this much of an optimist ;-) ... I totally agree with you .. in the perfect world I would see people using their "own sense of right and wrong .." But are there not huge variances in what people think is right and wrong? True, there is a bit of larceny in all of us, but what about those who will easily sacrifice much, including the "common good" in favour of their own personal agendas. Because we're all human beings, is not a simple, commonly understood foundation for behavoural accountability (whether you call that policies, principles, guidelines, laws)not prudent? If people at large were good at using their own common sense, would we be facing the types and nature of problems we face in everything from organizational change to climate change?

[Antony Mayfield]

Hear, hear Euan. Besides once codes start being drawn up it means committees are coming and it's time to start ignoring them.

[Bedd Gelert]

If you are going to be rude, and make facile and demeaning comments about it, at least spell 'Bibles' with a capital 'B'.

Imbecile.

[Bedd Gelert]

"The internet enables “globally distributed, near instant, person to person conversations” "

Hmm...more bullshit here methinks. The phone has been doing that for donkey's years, and it hasn't exactly helped to eliminate world poverty. And most companies are swamped by vast volumes of crap in email form, hampering work, not helping.

Try the example of 'Phones4U' - he banned email, and the company flourished as a result. Your approach is just more hyperbole designed to sell us the vision that technology is the answer to our prayers.

Bollocks. As NatWest might put it 'There is another way'. I have worked in the multi national corporate environment. and the truth is that the squillions they have spent on 'Customer Relationship Management' and so on just hasn't been as profitable as idiots like EDS and IBM would have suckers believe.

[Euan Semple]

My you are angry aren't you Philip ....

[Dennis Howlett]

CRM has been a singular failure because it was never anything to do with managing customer relationships but about flogging more crap to customers who are already pissed off at shoddy service and/or managing notoriously unruly sales people with tools that were imposed and were utterly inappropriate. A real winner for the consultants and a real loser for everyone else. Enter daelsforce.com and if the indicators are real, we're looking at a different approach to solve the same problem...that has worked.

I don't go with codes for all the reasons stated. But I do go with guidelines as a way of establishing an invisible yet potentially porous boundary.

[Dennis Howlett]

Can't spell this morning - sorry - I meant salesforce.com