Teaching Elephants to Blog

IBM formally announced support for blogging both internally and externally today, in fact, they encourage it. This is great news because:

1. It says that blogging has more value then somebody just posting in their pajamas
1. It's all about community and reputation folks, the landscape is changing
   
2. Has my company adopting a healthy, open perspective on blogging
3. Has encouraged a lot of IBMers to look into Blogging

IBM has taken an open perspective to the blogging community and I thank them for it.


I wonder what the future of corporate blogging will hold?

• There will be more cases of employees being fired for inappropriate blogging against their company. I wonder if this will be frequent?
  
• I wonder what will happen when a blogger releases intellectual property, purposefully? Accidentally?
  
• Or better yet, what about when a blogger comes out with the next big idea, will their company claim ownership to it?
  
• Technically I don't think they could, because then it's a 'published' article. However, could a company sue at the point?
• I make these statements because when you work for a company (with a standard non-disclourse/anti-competitive agreement) they technical own all of your intellectual property relating to their core business. For instance, the Free Software Foundation does not accept code contributions without consent from the author's employer (to avoid any legal battles.)

This would be a great time for me to point out that I try to keep my blog somewhat professional and would encourage people who post comments to please keep an aire of professionalism as well. Thanks.

“The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.” ;)