For the second time in two months I was contacted by a reporter about my blog. Howard Wen has written an article in InternetWeek entitled Blogging About Work is Risky Business on some of the concerns around blogging and the workplace. I referred him to our PR folks for answers to most of his questions but did have some words to say about what guidelines I use when deciding what to post. From the article

For the employee blogger, finding out what one's company policy is toward blogging would be the first step. If the company doesn't have one, or has one that is not exactly clear about the matter of blogging, it may be best to practice a little paranoia.

"I've had my blog postings appear in such publications as the Wall Street Journal," Microsoft employee Dare Obasanjo says. "So the exhortation to treat blog posts as if they could appear on the cover of a national newspaper is something I keep in mind whenever I write my blog."

Obasanjo keeps two blogs, one on the Microsoft developer network and another on a personal server for non-work-related topics.

I also sent him a link to some of Robert Scoble's blogging guidelines but I guess they didn't make it past editing. My original quote was longer and began with the principle that one should treat one's blog postings as if they were going to appear on the cover of a national newspaper. You never know which one of your posts some reporter or A-list blogger is going to decide to bring to prominence by quoting or linking to it so one should never put anything on their public weblog they wouldn't be comfortable with being read by their friends, family, coworkers as well as thousands of total strangers.

Speaking of reporters, I recently noticed that my blog post on Google Toolbar's AutoLink feature was referenced in the eWeek article Google's Tool Bar Links Stir Debate. Like I said, you never know if or when one of your posts could end up as fodder for a news stories so always think before you post.