Intriguing interview in ZDNet Australia with Sun Microsystem's CIO Bill Vass. Says that Sun's chief blogger Jonathan Schwartz has been advised he can't play practical jokes on his blog. For example, suggesting on April Fool's day that Sun is planning to buy Novell. Aaah, the sobering realities of abiding by SEC rules governing Fortune 500 companies. Note: Jonathan must be on vacation because he hasn't posted since June 16th.

From the article:

"(Vass) said Sun president Jonathan Schwartz -- who keeps a public blog -- was frustrated when April Fool's day came around, because he couldn't use his blog to play a practical joke.

"A few times, he's said things like 'maybe we should acquire Novell', and it changed the stock price," Vass said of Schwartz's blog. "You have to be careful ... if ever he's writing anything controversial he has to get the lawyers to look at it."

Sun faced fewer issues with blogs written by non-Section 10 employees said Vass, but the company's legal team still read all the postings. Vass said he suspected the blogs were "making some of the lawyers pull their hair out"."

P.S. I confess. I don't know what a Section 10 employee is (although I can guess). Can anyone enlighten me with a link? Thanks.

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