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Denise Howell is a seasoned appellate and intellectual property litigator based in Los Angeles. Denise writes one of the first and most popular law-related blogs, Bag and Baggage, coined the term "blawg" and helped pioneer podcasting for lawyers. Microcontent obsessed since 2001, she is frequently quoted in the media on legal issues involving intellectual property and technology law. "Sound Policy" is Denise's show at IT Conversations, and it's also what she hopes results from the briefs she submits to court. Email Denise at dhowell@gmail.com.

Dennis Kennedy is a computer lawyer and legal technology expert based in St. Louis, Missouri. An award-winning author, a frequent speaker and a widely-read blogger, he has more than 300 publications on legal, technology and Internet topics, many of which are collected in his e-books. Dennis has been described as someone who knows almost every rock song in existence and, more importantly, how they apply to technology and law. Email Dennis at his gmail address.

Tom Mighell is Senior Counsel and Litigation Technology Support Coordinator at Cowles & Thompson in Dallas. He has published the Internet Legal Research Weekly newsletter since 2000 and blogged about the Internet and legal technology at Inter Alia since August of 2002. With Tom's singing, Ernie on guitar and Dennis' encylopedic knowledge of rock music, we may have the beginnings of a good band, if this whole blog thing doesn't work out. Email Tom at tmighell@swbell.net.

Marty Schwimmer left a partnership in the largest trademark practice in the world and founded Schwimmer Mitchell, a full-service IP micro-boutique in Westchester County, New York, where he represents owners of famous and not yet famous trademarks. He founded The Trademark Blog, the first IP law blog and the one with the most pictures. He is the first to come in and the last to leave in his firm. Email Marty at marty@schwimmerlegal.com.

Ernest Svenson practices law with a mid-sized law firm in New Orleans, specializing in business-related lawsuits. Most of his practice takes place in federal court, especially the Eastern District. He is best known for his weblog Ernie the Attorney, which he started as an experiment. Like many experiments it got out of control. Nevertheless, he continues to practice law and, occasionally, to seek enlightenment. Email Ernest at esvenson@gmail.com.
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June 23, 2005

Dave Pollard on Corporate Blogging Policies

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Posted by Dennis M. Kennedy

I mentioned the other day that I was interested in reading fresh perspectives on the issue of corporate blogging policies that reflected the views of actual bloggers.

One of my favorite bloggers, Dave Pollard, provides a great example of what I would like to see more of in his excellent and thoughtful post called "What Should Your Corporate Policy Be On Blogs?" I highly recommend it as a fresh take on the corporate blogging discussion.

An update on my recent post about blogging policies:

If you've followed the comments, you know that I've now had the chance to download and read the Covington & Burling article mentioned in that post. I've been thinking about the next-to-last paragraph in that article that says:

"Clearly, not every employee blog will reflect poorly on an employer or disclose sensitive information. On the contrary, blogging employees may be among the most creative, entrepreneurial and technologically savvy members of an organization, and may serve as powerful advocates for the companies they work for. Given that, and in light of the risks in banning off-site blogging, the better approach may be to balance the positive aspects of the blog with appropriate safeguards against the greatest risks."

I like this paragraph and wish that it would have led the article, but I want to focus on a couple of points raised by this paragraph.

Sentence #1 reflects the most common assumptions about employees who blog. If you make those assumptions, your blog policy will have a certain kind of substance and tone, the kind that lawyers excel at drafting.

Consider sentence #2, which reflects my general assumption about bloggers. Assume for a moment that your employees who blog are the types of employees described in sentence #2. Now aks yourself the following three questions:

1. How would the tone and substance of your blogging policy change?

2. How will those employees respond to a policy that is written based on the assumptions in sentence #1 of that paragraph in the article?

3. How wise is it to adopt some kind of "standard" or "one size fits all" policy to cover blogging?

Now, go take a look at Pollard's article

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