I think an entire month of really long posts could still not cover how big this topic really becomes. Some people may see opinions to be something that needs squashing while others may see them as indications of unrest in a company or even just a person.

I take pains to make sure there are "three" pseudo-layers between me and anything I say about a company I work for or have worked for. I try not to use my real name in very many places, which is a layer circumvented by someone dedicating themselves to Google for a day, really. Not a huge deal. I don't talk about where I work, which means only a few people I know in person or from work would be able to put two and two together. And I try not to say anything that would even be misconstrued as defamatory.

Granted, all of those are not hard-and-fast layers. Yeah, my name can be found quite readily, yeah some people know about subjects I might otherwise want obfuscated, and I am on my own judgement about the weightiness of my opines.

If I have one failing that is posting/blogging while at work (I'm at work right now). But thankfully I do try to make sure I blog or read only stuff pertinent to my career anyway. That is just a part of me just like others younger than me have text messaging as part of their everyday social network. It's a fabric of our social/cyber culture that I am very sympathetic towards (e.g in regards to IM I can argue as a network security dude on the dangers of it, but I can also argue for the personal happiness that can be imparted by allowing it for employees).

Tough, tough topics that really go deeper than many people realize when they breach them in the company...

I think a real danger is posts are given much more credence by default in Web 2.0 (your posts are excluded, of course. I can personally attest to your expertise and the excellence of your work). If an inappropriate entry about an organization is made in a blog, the entry may take on a life of its own if other folks repeat the entry in their blog. The more blogs that have the entry, the more credibility the entry is given (i.e., reality by consensus).

I recommend inviting Public Relations to the luncheon. That department should understand when and how to respond to malicious postings.

Thanks for your thoughts, LonerVamp and Alec!

Indeed, this is a complex topic and we could probably talk about this on an ongoing basis for an indefinite period of time.

On one hand there are situations in which anonymous postings should and need to be allowed. Otherwise important thoughts and ideas may never be shared. However, as you indicate, there are issues such as using time your employer is paying you to work to do these postings, which can very easily expand into hours of writing. Along with the real risk of not only having inappropriate things posted about the business, but also having personally identifiable information (PII) of customers or employees posted, purposefully or without realizing it.

Freedom of speech and expression of ideas is definitely a great right, and an important right, but people need to be sure they are not squashing the rights of others in the process, or putting others' PII at risk.

And yes, I agree, the things that can be the most fun and greatest tools personally can also pose some very great risks to business, employees and customers.

I, too, love using txt messages...but I only use them with 2 other people for non-work purposes. Same goes for IMs. This is just one way I keep these fun and handy tools from taking up too much of my time, and also keep them from becoming part of my way of doing business, or encroaching into the time I need to be doing business work.

BTW, an interesting article about the related issues was published today at the CSO site; see http://www2.csoonline.com/blog_view.html?CID=32881

Hi all if you truly want to protect your internet identity and mask yourself when surfing, chatting and the like you need a real VPN service like tiptunnel.com and not just a proxy service. Give it a go.

Then you can express yourself with freedom and ease.
www.tiptunnel.com

Tom

Great board, I just like it... sorry for offtop, but how do you connect to Internet ?
Through Internet provider's gate, which is closely monitored by almost anyone from technical personel to third party hackers, packets sniffers, cache servers, and so on - you wouldn't feel secure commiting your business in the center of the stadium, wouldn't you ?
That's exactly how you should feel using insecure connections from public Internet Service providers. But you can fix it with VPN encryption ! Since your connection is encrypted nobody (none!) can actually de-cipher your traffic and whatever passes through your internet connection stays completely hidden.
Did you hear about Patriot act? Since then - nothing is private anymore in States and major part of Europe. Most free private proxy servers and gateway can only pass your data with out encryption, hence make it visible for almost whole world - the trick called "packet sniffing" when the traffic captured analysed and extracted. But when your data is encrypted - it's impossible to decipher what is going in and out your computer, sensitive data, password and other impostant information.
I found this service, and feels better now.. http://www.step-host.com when I send my messages and letters, surely none will know.
btw, they even have a week test drive!

Hi All,

Just new not sure where to post. Having a look around.
Nice too see all the good stuff. I'll be back for more soon.


Regards,

Aaron

Hi

What do you think about this? When it happens?

Hello,
I'm Gerry.

Just saying hey - I'm new.

Hey

Just stopping in to say hi to y'all as a new member.

Aaron

Hi

Roy here and just saying hi (new).

Roy

Good afternoon. I the first time at a forum. Very much at you it was pleasant to me.

Regardless of which type you have, it's important to properly care for your laptop battery, in order to get as much life out of it as possible.

Hi everyone. I just joined the site and wanted to say hi.


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