Not a university, but a large company: about a year ago, Waterstone's booksellers here in the UK sacked a member of staff because of their personal blog: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/11/waterstones_blog/. ________________________________ From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Barry Wellman Sent: Wed 4/19/2006 21:01 To: aoir list Subject: [Air-l] what can/'t you say on a blog Shani Orgad asks what can/can't you say on a personal blog. I can give you two sides to this, both true even if contradictory. 1. If it is at all maintained by the university, the university can have a right to say No. (Warning: I don't know UK law.) Even if you're using a university computer, they have a right. 2. OTOH, in my 40 years of experience, many university administrators don't know the law -- or even their university ethics codes -- and just assert stuff. So you can always ask them to show you where the law and code forbids stuff. It's always better to have a trusted representative working for you on such matters, especially if they are a knowledgeable greivance officer of your faculty union or an experienced lawyer in the area -- libel, labour, etc. Having given my 2 shillings worth of advice, I must cut and run off to a conference until May 1. And it is too painful for me even now to discuss any more the details of my own experience. Good luck, Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 You're invited to visit -- and contribute to -- my new fun website "Updating Cybertimes: It's Time to Bring Our Culture into Cyberspace" http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/