Tonight, the Ebig.org blogging SIG met at its new location at the University of Phoenix in Concord, California. Charles Smith, Chief Legal Council at Fastlane Ventures gave an excellent presentation on the legal implications of blogging - what you should know before putting fingers to the keyboard.
You can check out my notes and Eric Rice’s notes, too.
Biggest takeaways for me:
1) Employers should develop specific blogging policies
2) Employees need to use more common sense when posting.
(Disclaimer: These notes and this presentation do not constitute legal advice. You should consult a lawyer for legal advice. The views expressed by Charles Smith do not reflect the views of me or Tennant Consulting or its sponsors or clients.) (As you can see, I learned the importance of disclaimers)
My notes are here in a Word doc I converted to PDF (6 pages):
Download blogging_sig_notes_dec_7.pdf
Overall, this was an excellent session. Thanks to the speaker, Charles Smith, for his work and a great overview. And thanks to Bill Flitter for putting it on, and to the sponsors, the University of Phoenix, Pheedo and EBIG.org.
Excellent pdf notes. I have been searching the blogosphere looking for my specific situation. I am a registered nurse with passionate opinions about nursing care, which I publish on my blog.
As a matter of policy, I never mention my last name, and I never mention where I work. Frequently, I (harshly) criticize my leaders for making poor decisions (in an industry which, with absolute impunity, kills anywhere from 10-100 thousand people a year, I feel I am justified). So I feel I can say pretty much anything I want, so long as I don't mention anyone's names.
I try to stay on the intelligent side but the work I love makes me mad and at times I can't get my head around this.
No photos, insignia, logos, etc., where you can tell where I work. I never mention specific patients, or when I do, use only general terms that can not be used to identify them.
So... can I get in any trouble if, say, my boss somehow finds my blog (I never mention it at work, and I don't have time to work on it at work)? Another problem... my site is the primary google hit for terms like "nursing collaboration" and other topics which bring a lot of people to my site. If they run to my boss with it, can I get in trouble?
Eric, RN
Phoenix, AZ
Posted by: Eric | December 09, 2004 at 01:08 AM
It certainly is refreshing to see some good writing and I also have seen the pdfs. Great policy and good sense.
Take Care,
Pat
Posted by: Pat legal nurse consulting gal | August 29, 2005 at 07:56 PM