BEA Public Blogging Policy

Abstract

Blogging is important to BEA. Blogs are a great way to easily share information, and to join wider conversations on a variety of topics. This document describes BEA's public policy on blogging. Without using legalese, it summarizes what you should and should not blog about, and suggests some best practices in blogging.

Why blog?

You may be asking yourself, "What's all the fuss about?" The two features of blogging that we'd like to highlight are:

• It's easy to blog - so it's easy to share information. We want to tell the world about the great things we're doing at BEA. Take a look at some of our current blogs to get an indication of who is blogging, and what we're currently blogging about.
• It's easy to listen - so it's easy for other folks to pay attention to what we're writing, and easy for us to listen in on what other folks are saying. As a result, it's easy to build and participate in conversations.

That's our goal, conversations. We want you, and others in the community to be involved in conversations about BEA and our products and technologies.

The Do's and Don'ts

BEA has a Code and Conduct Guidelines (internal link) document that is the last word on what you should or should not say when communicating with anyone, whether it be in an email, wiki or blog – please read the section on blogs. Although the Code and Conduct Guidelines provide the final say, here is our "plain English" take:

• Don't tell secrets - just as you would expect, we ask that you don't give away confidential information. By all means, speak about what is public, your thoughts on architecture and APIs, technologies and the future, but do not tell secrets, share confidential information or speak about plans, code, APIs or technologies that have not been made public. If you are in doubt, ask someone first before blogging about it.
• Don't talk about the business - many companies, including BEA, are sensitive about the information that can be made public about the business entity itself. This includes information such as revenue, restructuring, future products, share prices, trade secrets or road maps.
• Don't talk about clients or business partners - they won't like it! Don't identify partners or clients without their permission.
• Don't pretend to be someone you're not - don't write on behalf of anyone else, or feign expertise in an area simply because you think it's popular.
• Think about the consequences - the potential readers of your blog include other developers, architects, IT managers, business partners and clients. Think about what you say, and how it will affect them and BEA's relationship with them. Don't embarrass us, or yourself.

Those are some of the don'ts, here are some of the do's:

• Speak about technology - we are a technology company after all; APIs and protocols, specifications and techniques, architecture and system administration, RFID and SIP - we do it all.
• Speak about products - we have some outstanding products we'd like the world to know about.

That is, write about material that will interest the primary audience of dev2dev: developers, architects and system administrators.

Writing your blog

Effective blogging takes a little practice, and here are some tips to give you a head start:

• Write what you know - this is by far the best advice we can offer. Don't blog about some hot topic just to join the blogging bandwagon. You'll run out of things to say, and you'll stop enjoying it. Rather, if your hobby is some mechanism buried deep in the transaction API, or if your day job is about constructing deployment architectures, blog about that! People will recognize that this is where your passion lies, and you'll feel more comfortable doing it. By writing what you know, you also reduce the chance of making silly mistakes.
• Be yourself - it's okay to be yourself. It'll also add some personality to your blog, which will make it more interesting.
• Take part in the conversations - don't just stand on your shiny soap box and preach to the world. Look around, see what other folks are blogging about, and most importantly, join the conversation. You can do this by leaving comments on other blogs, or writing your own blog and leaving a trackback. As part of this, link to other blogs that are relevant. You may, in turn, find that these folk link back to you!
• Take some care in your writing - your blog may be read by a lot of people, and although we don't expect everyone to be a Shakespeare, try to take some care in your writing. Use a spell-checker, and try and make sure your facts are correct.
• Keep blogging - some of the advice, such as "be yourself" and "write what you know" is there for a reason - it should make you more comfortable blogging. The more comfortable you are, the more likely you are to repeat the process! The more you blog, the more likely it is that readers will continue to follow your blog. Don't be disheartened after your first few attempts - writing isn't always easy. Persist though, and you'll be rewarded.