Image: Nothing to hide?: Would you trust this blogger?
So when I started up this blog I read up on blog etiqutte and guidelines that others had come up with. At the time I guess I thought of myelf as a citizen journalist, and having come from a background
Since then this blog has evolved and become – for now – my personal, public notebook. So for the sake of openness and as part of my general sweeping aside of things-that-get-in-the-way of blogging I’d just like to go on the record about disclosure and my approach to it:
I am not a journalist, nor do I pretend to be. If you want on the record impartiality look elsewhere.
This is my blog, and the best way I can explain how I treat it is as a open notebook. That means I’m delighted when others read it, and over the moon when someone links to it or takes the time leave a comment, even when (especially when?) it’s just to tell me that they think I’m wrong.
I work for a company called iCrossing. This does not represent that company’s views, if it did I’d spend too much time thinking about what I was saying and self-censoring to make this a useful exercise.
So sometimes I will write about companies that pay my company money – clients. Sometimes I will know that, sometimes I won’t: it’s a big place. I’ve been in agency life for 12 years now and it is hard for me to write about much, especially when it comes to technology and the media, without mentioning organisations that at some point or other I’ve had a business relationship with.
My personal rules are: I don’t shill. I don’t use this blog to curry favour, plug stuff I’m working on etc. It’s mine.
So what I used to do is the disclosure thing, and add a note saying I work for them (see the Virgin America footer a couple of posts back). Most of the time what this way of thinking about things has meant is that I’ve not written a post instead of getting it out there. Shame.
So I’m not doing it any anymore.
If I suddenly decide to run this blog like a media outlet, I’ll review that position but for now – that’s how I’m playing it.
If I think it’s relevant I’ll mention it, but otherwise you’ll just have to trust me: I blog about people and brands because what they are doing or saying is of interest to me. That’s it.
Hope that sounds reasonable. Open for heckling…
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