Mitchell Ashely wrote a piece on conflict of interest yesterday. It was specifically concerning analysts because of the firestorm of posts about some analysts recently jumping ship and going to manufacturers.
Mitchell’s post got me to thinking about some things specific to me (because I am my number one fan, and because the analyst sopa opera just doesn’t interest me too much). What I mean is my recent job change and how it effected my blogging.
If anyone is new and doesn’t know to what I am referring, you can read about it here. But in short, I recently moved from the security management world to the consulting / reseller world. This was quite a change, and I learned soon after the change that I would have to steer clear of some subjects on my CW blog because of, you guessed it, possible conflicts of interest. What I mean is, if Accuvant (my employeer) partners with a certain vendor, then it would be a conflict of interest if I wrote something negative about a competitor of that vendor. So CW said, basically, no posting about specific vendors at all.
Initially, I bristeld at these restrictions and considered dropping away from Computerworld. It bothered me because I felt like I was being told that I could not speak my mind (similar to what Mike Rothman went through recently at Network World - I am not apple-to-apple comparing what Mike went through to what I was looking at, since Mike was speaking his mind on his own blog, and Network World let him go for it, which is bogus). Basically, did I want some organization telling me what I could and could not say?
Then, I got to thinking about the issue a little more closely, and I realized a few things. One, this is their sandbox (I got that analogy from Rothman), so I had to play by their rules. Second, they are a business that has to protect their objectivity (though some people will argue whether any of these technology media outlets are objective)., Third, and this mattered the most to me, I could still post my personal views on my personal blog. I know this didn’t protect Mike, but so far I have had no issues with my editors at CW, and I think that will stick.
So the conflict of interest issue was settled in my mind because I still have a free voice at my personal blog. If CW was to ever let me go for something I posted there or on my personal blog, then c’est la vie. I can go on.
Vet
