Saturday, February 12, 2005

Blogs in general...

There are a staggering number of blogs out there, for (I am quite certain) every subject or interest out there. I know mine is just a droplet in that vast ocean, and my interests range so widely and so disparately that I despair of trying to ever successfully maintain a manageable reading list. I will try to attach a noteworthy blog, then, every week or so, just for my reference and also for you, the accidental reader of this posting.

This week's blog:
99 Zeros, by Mark Jen, erstwhile employee of both Microsoft and now, infamously, Google, who let Jen go after he posted some sensitive information about them on his blog. This raised hackles internally, and although the execs at Google called him in on it and his postings subsequently deleted the information that Google did not like, others in the company apparently were upset about what Mark had (in all innocence, I believe, if not completely thought out) divulged, likely about compensation packages and the like. Nobody ever wants to know that someone got relocation expenses, for example, to come from Seattle to California, if they didn't get the same deal.
I'm just guessing about this. For all I know, Google could just be pissed off that Mark had revealed some hints about their future financial performance and technology initiatives.
This paves the way for the formation of a corporate blogging policy that will restrict and otherwise inhibit, at the very least, a person's divulging their true identity if they post unflattering information or comments about their boss. It will certainly ensure that the only job-related blogs that do make it out there are either a) toothless or b) nothing more than shills for their creators' employers. Too bad, if yet another example of corporate interference in the Internet.
In any case, it is an interesting read, if unlikely to be updated past where it is now. A cautionary tale in this increasingly blog-centric world.

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