Monday, February 14, 2005

Google Fires Blogger?

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 09, @09:57AM
from the lotsa-submissions-on-this-one dept.
Thomas Hawk writes "CNET is reporting that Mark Jen, a blogger whose candid comments about life on the job at Google sparked controversy last month, has left the company. CNET reports that it is not clear if he resigned or was fired but references a post at Google Blogoscoped where it was suggested that he may have been fired over his blog Ninetyninezeros. Given Google's push into the blogging space with their recent acquisition of Blogger it might be interesting to see how this shakes out."

blog in question
Monday, January 17, 2005
first day on the job, first post on the blog

Be Ye Not So Stupid

10 Feb 05 by Byron
To get, “dooced,” is to lose your job for something you posted in your blog. It comes from Dooce.com, the website where the first reported blogger was fired for her reports on drug-addicted executives and dotcom debauchery. The ol’ El Dooce’ came up again this week when a Google blogger got fired. It was also a topic during the sessions at BBS 05 and was discussed as “fear of blogs,” “freedom of speech,” and “PR” issues. I’ve seen countless emails on it and get asked a lot about employee blogs. My answer for bloggers is that your freedom of speech ends with your employer. For employers, your employees need to understand that they can and will be fired for their blog. Regarding getting fired for her website, Dooce.com notes, “Be Ye Not So Stupid.” Good advice.

Washington is an At Will state, meaning your contract can be terminated at any time for any reason. An employer could fire me because they didn’t like the tune I was humming, the coffee I brought in for the staff, or the way I like to say, “Byronicus Maximus!,” when I enter a room. The topics on my blog end at the work I do for companies and I’ll keep it that way. I will not risk pissing off the people that pay me and I’m not surpised when bloggers do get dooced.


dooced
Getting fired because of something that you wrote in your weblog.

"Blogger Heather B. Armstrong coined the phrase in 2002, after she was fired from her Web design job for writing about work and colleagues on her blog, Dooce.com" (Source: Yahoo.com)
Last October, Delta Air Lines flight attendant Ellen Simonetti was fired, she said, for what her supervisor called a misuse of uniform. Simonetti had posted on her personal blog, Queen of Sky (now called Diary of a Fired Flight Attendant), pictures of herself, in her uniform, on an empty plane. Her blog also contained thinly veiled work stories.

(Yahoo! News)
Source: Mary Bo Barry, Feb 11, 2005


Google blogger has left the building | CNET News.com... Google sees profits surge February 1, 2005. Google blogger reappears, redacted January 26, 2005. I was fired for blogging December 16, 2004. Friendster fires ...

Blog Business Summit

I'll be attending this conference in late January. I'll be happy to answer questions and gather feedback from our existing FeedBurner users and I hope to learn and converse with some of the notable talents in attendance. As FeedBurner's design lead, I enjoy hearing from everyone who has interacted with our service — I'm continually wowed by how individual and interpersonal business that involves bloggers has become. Just about everything you do involves starting, completing, or sometimes just locating a conversation that matters to you. Other voices may join in, but ultimately businesses that work with bloggers have to treat them as influential peers and get them the general or specific answers that meet their needs. The power in the customer service relationship has never been more in the hands of the customer than it is in the transparent world of online publishing, and I think that's a great thing.

And now, the conference link:
Stonewalling versus Honesty: A Lesson for Corporate Bloggers
13 Feb 05 by Steve Broback




from "It came from Black Background"