The EFF -- Electronic Frontier Foundation -- is, in their own words, "a donor-supported membership organization working to protect our fundamental rights regardless of technology; to educate the press, policymakers and the general public about civil liberties issues related to technology; and to act as a defender of those liberties". They fight the good fight in those cases where the law and technology collide.

They recently published a guide to "safe blogging" titled How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else). It's got some good, common-sense advice that you might want to follow. Here's the introduction:

Blogs are like personal telephone calls crossed with newspapers. They're the perfect tool for sharing your favorite chocolate mousse recipe with friends--or for upholding the basic tenets of democracy by letting the public know that a corrupt government official has been paying off your boss.

If you blog, there are no guarantees you'll attract a readership of thousands. But at least a few readers will find your blog, and they may be the people you'd least want or expect. These include potential or current employers, coworkers, and professional colleagues; your neighbors; your spouse or partner; your family; and anyone else curious enough to type your name, email address or screen name into Google or Feedster and click a few links.

The point is that anyone can eventually find your blog if your real identity is tied to it in some way. And there may be consequences. Family members may be shocked or upset when they read your uncensored thoughts. A potential boss may think twice about hiring you. But these concerns shouldn't stop you from writing. Instead, they should inspire you to keep your blog private, or accessible only to certain trusted people.

Here we offer a few simple precautions to help you maintain control of your personal privacy so that you can express yourself without facing unjust retaliation. If followed correctly, these protections can save you from embarrassment or just plain weirdness in front of your friends and coworkers.

One of the tips they provide is "Limit Your Audience". You can do this in Blogware by setting up restricted categories and photo albums. You can set these up so that only specified, logged-in readers can actually see the posts made under those categories; they're effectively invisible to all other readers.

I'll post a tutorial on restricted categories next week; in the meantime, you can check out the Publisher Control Panel Manual's chapter on restricted categories and photo albums.

National Post Business, a monthly magazine included with issues of Canada's National Post newspaper, featured a cover story on the perils about blogging about work in its April edition.

While I would be quick to remind you my own blog played a major role in my landing a job here, a few foolishly or rashly-written words posted to a globally-accessible medium where information flows freely and is easily copied can suddenly make you unemployed. I'm not trying to scare you away from blogging; I'm just asking you to exercise some good judgement.

One Solution: Restricted Categories and Photo Albums

If you feel that you share something with your online friends that might jeopardize your job, Blogware offers restricted categories and restricted photo albums. These are categories and photo albums that are accessible only by users who are logged in and who have permission to view them. You can grant access to restricted categories and restricted photo albums on a person-by-person basis, so you can set up your blog so that:

• Your best friend Alice can see any article or photo posted in any category or photo album in your blog.
  
  
• Your brother Bob can see any article or photo in the "Main Page" and "Family" categories, but not the "Deep Dark Secrets" category.
  
  
• Anyone else -- your boss included -- can see only what you've posted to the "Main Page" category.

I'll post a tutorial with examples on how to set up your blog with restricted categories and restricted photo albums soon. In the meantime, you can consult the Restricted Categories and Photo Albums page of the Blogware Publisher Control Panel Manual.

Favicons are custom icons associated with a website. In this installment of the Blogware Mechanic, we'll look at how to make a favicon for your blog and in the process get a better look at Blogware's filesystem.

Read the article