NCAA Blogging Policy

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) serves as a voluntary governing body for colleges and universities to register their sports teams. The NCAA creates policies and guide lines that teams and coaches and reporters must abide by. One policy that must be followed is the NCAA Blogging Policy.

The NCAA blogging policy states that anyone, who chooses to blog on a NCAA event must follow certain regulations. When blogging on a NCAA sport, the writer must include the ncaasports.com URL in the blog and if it is a media writer, they must place the NCAA logo on their website. In each blog, the game conditions (score, time remaining on the clock, etc.) at the time of the post must be posted in the blog. The following amount of blogs are allowed during each sport. These amounts apply to both male and female sports, when applicable.

Fall Sports
Soccer: Five times per half; one at halftime
Field Hockey: Five times per half; one at halftime
Volleyball: Three per Competition; one in between Competitions
Football: Three per quarter; one at halftime
Cross Country: Ten per day/session
Men’s Water Polo: Three per quarter; one at the halftime
Winter Sports
Ice Hockey: Three per period – one in between (includes overtime)
Basketball: Five times per half; one at halftime; two times per overtime period
Wrestling: Ten per session
Indoor Track and Field: Ten per day/session
Swimming and Diving: Ten per day/session
Bowling: Ten per day/session
Gymnastics: Ten per session

Spring Sports
Baseball and Softball: one every inning (includes extra innings)
Women’s Water Polo: Three per quarter – one at halftime
Lacrosse: Three per quarter; one at halftime
Outdoor Track and Field: Ten per day/session
Golf: Ten per day/session
Tennis: Ten per day/session
Rowing: Ten per day/session
Fencing: Ten per day/session
Skiing: Ten per day/session
Rifle:Ten per day/session

Any media affiliate who blogs on an NCAA event is prohibited from releasing any information, concerning the event, to any other form of media without written consent from the NCAA. The blogger must understand that when following the NCAA blogging policy, he or she is releasing the NCAA, and essentially anyone else involved with the NCAA event, from all forms of liability that could potentially arise from the posted blog. The NCAA and their championship affiliates hold the power to decide whether a blogger is abiding the NCAA blogging policy or not.

Yahoo! and personal blog guidelines

Yahoo! an online company which upholds blogging as a valuable component of shared media. Their blogging guidelines outline the legal procedures and best procedures when it comes to blogging. Everything from legal liablity under what circumstances, and what is the correct procedure when approached by the media about your blog is included in the Yahoo! policy:

Legal Parameters

• Legal Liablity: If or when you decide to go public with your opinions or commentary you are legally held liable for anything said.
• For that reason you should be cautious when blogging. "Blog at your own risk!"
• Company Priviledged information: At no time are you allowed to disclose anything deemed private by Yahoo!-- All employees have signed an agreement to these procedures.
• Press Inquiries: At anytime if you are approached by the Media asking questions about Yahoo! or any of it's employees you must direct them to the PR Director.
• You must also ask about information being disclosed to the public by the PR dept. before you decide to blog about it.

Best Practice Guidelines

• Be respectful to your colleagues: Be thoughtful and accurate about the postings of fellow Yahoos ( employees of Yahoo!). Yahoo! employees are viewed as representatives of the company.
• If you post anything stating that you are an employee of Yahoo! and post anything about the company you should inform your Managers to avoid surprises.
• Get your facts straight: Make sure what you post is correct.
• Provide context to your argument: Make sure you are able to back up anything posted in your blogs with proof.
• Engage in private feedback: Have an option where your readers can privately respond to you.
  

All above are things that are included in the guidelines and after being involved with many company's they are rules that most company's have.

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems began in 1982 with just four employees. Today, the company has grown to over 34,000 employees and a Fortune 500 rank of 184. Sun Microsystems can be easliy recognized by the company's NYSE letters JAVA. The company also has several blogs available to employees. The Sun Guidelines to Public Discourse are the blogging tenants that attempt to guide employee blogging in a more meaningful direction of conversation.

• Blogging is a two way street
• Don't tell secrets
• No comment
• Policies apply
• Be respectful, interesting, and honest
• Write what you know
• Don't write annonymously
• Business outlook rules
• Think about consequences
• Other peoples information

These tenants attempt to cover a wide ground of blogging topics. Blogging is a two way street emphasizes reading and linking other peoples blogs. If the information is good, pass it along. The policy also follows the "golden rule" be respectful, keep personal information private, write what you know, and so on. This policy also has several components that are meant to guard company privacy such as, do not comment unless you are the spokesperson for that issue. Other company policies apply such as Standards of Business Conduct, export compliance, trademark guidelines, privacy requirements, confidential information protection, and anti-discrimination.

Sun Microsystems does not want to micro manage its employees. I feel they wish to create an interesting online community with its employees to facilitate many kinds of communication.

Thomas Nelson Publishers

Thomas Nelson Publishers is the World's largest publisher of Christian books and materials. Founded in Scotland in the late 1700's, Thomas Nelson is currently headquartered in Nashville, TN. Its President and CEO Michael Hyatt was on the forefront of the blogging phenomenon. As Michael began to blog and see its potential for his company.

He promoted blogging for his 675 employee company by creating a blog index on Thomas Nelson's website. The purpose of the index was to create interest and traffic for the employees' blogs. Hyatt encouraged employees to blog about what was going on within the company and its products. His goal was three-fold: to raise awareness of Thomas Nelson, to contribute to its industry, and to allow the public to get a picture of what goes on within the company. He created an easily navigable site that contains the blogs of all the employees. "House Work" is the blog index of Thomas Nelson's employees. This website is updated anytime an employee posts on the blog. It contains the basic information and first few lines of the blog, allowing for readers to skim and read the ones that are of interest.

Michael Hyatt also set guidelines for his employees' blogs. The guidelines cover different aspects of blogging. For example, users are required to use their real name and add a disclaimer to the end of every post explaining that their ideas are individual to themselves. Hyatt encourages to write often, advertise if they wish, be nice, and respect secrets and copyrights. If an employee has any question about whether a post might be in question, Hyatt reminds his employees to remember the handbook.

Thomas Nelson's blogging policy is found at Michael Hyatt's personal blog and has created an interesting communication style for one of the nation's largest trade publishers.

IBM's Social Computing Guidelines

IBM's blogging policy covers all areas that an employee might be concerned about when blogging online, and if the policy does not cover their question they recommend that the employee consult the Business Conduct Guidelines. IBM also states that is the employee's right as to whether or not they choose to participate in blogs, but they do encourage the practice. The company wishes to blog in order to learn and to contribute.

The first of the policy is the IBM employee is personally responsible for any information they publish. They are supposed to write in first person, identify who they are, and if it is relevant their role at IBM. If they publish anything to a website outside of IBM that has to do with their work or any subjects related to IBM they have to use a disclaimer that says these statements are the individual's and not IBM's. Employees are asked to follow copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws. They are not to provide confidential or proprietary information without permission and are not to cite anyone without their approval. They are not to engage in any conduct that would not be acceptable in IBM's workplace. Employees need to find others who are blogging or publishing on the topic and cite them and should link back to the source when referencing. Finally, they need to be consistent with how they wish to be seen in the workplace, not pick fights and they need to add value to what they write because it could be reflected back on the IBM brand.

The policy goes on to say that they regard blogs as a form of communication and relationship among individuals. IBM encourages honesty in blogs and managers and executives are not exempt from the rules.

I chose this policy because I thought they had a fair policy and were not being too strict, just sensible. They are trying to protect the employees and the company at the same time.

First Blog Post for Fall Semester 2008

This is a sample post for students in Comm 4020 at Austin Peay State University. Students will be making their first post about blogging policy.

I hope we all have a great semester and find many uses for blogs.