In a surprise move, IBM encouraged its 320,000 employees to blog. A set of draft rules was posted on the company’s Intranet site to govern blogs that are on IBM-related topics.

Big Blue’s own internal blogging system already hosts about 9,000 blogs (that’s less than 3% of employees). There are numerous employees that are hosted on external services and the draft rules will apply to them as well – at least with matters pertaining to IBM.

The author of the draft rules, James Snell, is a member of IBM’s Software Standards Strategy Group. “IBM believes in dialogue with among IBMers and with our partners, clients, members of the many communities in which we participate and the general public,” Snell wrote. “We believe that IBMers can both derive and and provide important benefits from exchanges of perspective.”

The rules encourage employees not to hide behind anonymity but to clearly identify their real name and their affiliation with IBM. Bloggers are also asked to exercise personal responsibility when posting and not to engage in covert marketing or PR plots.

“The core principles are designed to guide IBMers as they figure out what they’re going to blog about so that don’t end up like certain notable ex-employees of certain other notable companies,” the post states.

This is not an IBM insider’s joke. Snell is referring to Delta’s recent decision to fire a flight attendant because of her blog, Queen of the Sky. To cut a long story short, the flight attendant posted photos on her blog which were deemed “inappropriate.” The photos are not X-rated, it’s mostly leg and cleavage shots (non-nude).

In conclusion, it seems most companies feel at a crossroad regarding blogging. I’m very much in support of IBM’s position of clear rules for all. I doubt Queen of the Sky wanted to get fired, most probably, she claims she wasn’t aware of any regulations that Delta had in this regard.

Note: Originally posted at SmartApps