Blogging @ the NIH
Jonathan Jacobs
Monday, 15 September 2008 11:45 UTC
Recently I attended a diner party with a number of NIH ‘higher-ups’ – and most of them, after hearing that I’ve been writing a science blog for the better part of two years, were shocked / amazed / horrified at the idea. While I half-expected them to have this response (more about expectations here); what shocked me was that many of them claimed that (as a postdoc) I’m breaking the NIH rules by blogging about science and that I could get fired for doing it. Their reasoning was that, since I’m at the NIH, I’m speaking from ‘a position of authority as a government employee’.
I, of course, respectfully disagreed primarily becuase 1) postdocs are not technically employees; and 2) so what? Its not like I try to hide my identity on my blog, lying about data, bitching about internal politics, etc. This blog is about outreach, networking with peers, protocol development, and science as I see it. (Although some science bloggers do remain anonymous; which I find odd considering the evidence based nature of our field, but that’s another issue…)
So… after being unable to find anything about this ‘issue’; I figured I would make my first post here about this issue. So…
Blogging at the NIH? OK, or not OK?
-
Replies
-
While I cant comment about the official stance on the subject, I can say that OITE has been involved in my effort to get the group off the ground….
I cant see how blogging about the day-to-day life of a postdoc could hurt anyone. It’s not like were involved in FDA regulatory function. I would say discussions about extramural activity (ie funding) are off the table and we should avoid topics of policy.
I CAN see how they would not want us to doo it while at work or usign government resources the lap top you PI gave you).
Knowing the federal government, were probably breaking the rules if we co anywhere beyond networking.
-
Just in case you missed it, there was an Information Security Bytes [sic] today which pretty much clears it up.
I cannot disclose or reproduce it here, but the basic message was that
1) no private blog posting is allowed from within the NIH network (at least during working hours)
2) mission-related blogging is okay as long as it is not violating NIH policy on limited authorized useThe policies can be found here:
http://ocio.nih.gov/security/sec_policy.html -
Alex,
Thank you for the URL – I guess that clears it up then. Honestly, I glad to see that it is not prohibited.
-
^ “I am glad…”
funny how, for some reason I feel the need to edit my posts here – whereas on my blog I rarely do. It’s more fire and forget. Hmmm….
-
