Blog and Chat Room Safety

Warning: "Your clever little blog could get you fired". This is a headline in the USA Today...today! It is kind of scary. This guy launched a blog to chronicle his life, his friends and his job at a division of Wells Fargo. He began taking jabs at a few people he worked with...his bosses found out and fired him. Delta Air Lines, Google and other major companies are firing and disciplining employees for what they say about their work on their blogs which are personal sites that often contain a mix of frank commentary, freewheeling opinions and journaling. Some companies like IBM are putting out guidelines designed to prevent problems ie. on-line publishing of trade secrets.

Blogs are proliferating as fast as computer viruses. About 20,000 are created daily with an estimate of over 10 million by the end of 2005 just in the U.S. They link up and create what is called, "blogosphere" one of the fastest growing parts of the web. Over 1/4th of those who use the web read blogs regularly. They had quite an effect on the last national election.

I have been very careful to keep mine positive and helpful with its theme of "Self-Preservation". I've talked about what a wonderful company I work for and what a great new boss I have. I really don't know any company "trade" secrets to reveal. I will continue to tread carefully and responsibly... so stay tuned.

On the contrary, I have never entered a "Chat Room". I've heard too many bad things about them and I'm not lonely. I wouldn't put out my personal information such as phone # or address or email address. I wouldn't want to meet anyone in person who I first talked to only in a chat room. Suggestive nicknames aren't for me, unless it is my name, "Bob!" as a verb. If I ever did want to go into a chat room I would thoroughly research it first at: www.microsoft.com/athome/security/online/chatsafety.mspx. There Kathy Collins says:

"If you do meet someone; verify their location and job. Be patient: If someone's going to tell you a lie, in time they forget the lie." Meet in a public place. Be careful of a "false sense of security" in online socializing. Don't have a false idea of being protected or anonymous. Be more selective in what you disclose or reveal about yourself to avoid "identity theft".

A safe-guard on this blogspot site is in place in the the comment choice. In order to comment on my blog or have a discussion about it online, one has to register, like I did on the dashboard of the original site: www.blogger.com Comments are fine but, actually, I'm really not doing this journaling for comments. As I stated in my first blog..."What's in a name?" Self-Preservation for me is the discipline of drafting these blogs almost daily. It is challenging to me. If my family, friends or acquaintences happen to read/like/dislike or react to what I've put out there, fine! "It's all good!" ...as they say nowdays. Bob