Grassroots lobbying at its best: http://MoveOn.org/. Here's their latest campaign. Scan it, read my comments, then tell me what you think.

Dear friend of MoveOn,

The Bush White House is aggressively promoting war on Iraq, against the advice of its diplomats, and without strong support from Congress, the American public, or our allies.

Today we are launching a petition to oppose a war that would likely undermine both national and world security. Let’s show our representatives that they have strong public support to stop this war.

If you sign today, your comments will be hand-delivered to your Senators as part of a national day of action next week. We're organizing constituent meetings with Senate offices everywhere.

Sign the petition at:

http://www.moveon.org/nowar/

It's important that we speak out against a war in which many of our young people, and likely many more innocent Iraqis, would die.

Even top Republican leaders are publicly questioning a war:

Brent Scowcroft, the former National Security Advisor, says a U.S. invasion of Iraq "could turn the whole region into a cauldron and, thus, destroy the war on terrorism." He also says "there is scant evidence to tie Saddam to terrorist organizations, and even less to the Sept. 11 attacks."

Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) says the CIA has "absolutely no evidence" that Iraq possesses or will soon possess nuclear weapons.

Henry Kissinger says, "The notion of justified pre- emption runs counter to modern international law, which sanctions the use of force in self-defense only against actual -- not potential -- threats." Kissinger also says, "American military intervention in Iraq would be supported only grudgingly, if at all, by most European allies."

Dick Armey, the House Majority Leader (R-TX-26), says, "I don't believe that America will justifiably make an unprovoked attack on another nation. It would not be consistent with what we have been as a nation or what we should be as a nation."

We've got to speak out too. Do your part at:

http://www.moveon.org/nowar/

Thank you.

Sincerely, --Wes, Joan, Carrie, Peter, Eli, and Randall
  MoveOn.org
  August 21st, 2002

P.S. See our website for how you can participate in our day of action, and for helpful articles on widespread opposition to the war.

First, technique: Simple, direct, and preaching to the faithful.

Second, tactics: Proven. Show up with a list of names to get your message heard.

Third, substance:

1. Why now? Is there a clear and present danger to the US or our allies? The threats have only been described vaguely and potentially so far.
    
2. How bad can it get? My imagination runs wild.
• Saddam throws dead-man switches on existing weapons of mass destruction.
• He lets the US attack Iraq while he joins Syria in a full out attack on Israel, creating a war on two fronts.
• The other states turn off oil in sympathy, creating an oil crisis.
• Iran suprises us and joins Iraq in throwing out the infidels.
• Torrents of oil money flood terrorist networks, launching a fifth column and taking the war to US soil.
    
3. Tell me more. I want more information about our operational choices. Have economic and diplomatic tactics been exhausted? Are we going for a Shah of Iran strategy? How do you define success? What are your desired end conditions?
    
4. ROI. What price in bodies and dollars are fortunate results worth to the American republic? 500 soldiers? 5000? 100,000? A million? How many are you willing to commit before deciding to retreat? This will cost many billions of dollars. What programs, military or otherwise, will you cut or taxes will you raise to fund this expedition?

I think deflating Iraq's military government may be good for the region and for the peoples in Iraq's territory. This is likely the moral, expedient, and doable at pricec I'm willing to pay. But I'm an uninformed citizen and Bush/Cheney have done little to change that and get my support.

Has anyone sent them the Cluetrain Manifesto yet?

Accountants think "long-term" is more than a year. Corporate strategists sometimes work with a 3-5 year planning horizon. Now a candidate for congress, Tara Grubb of High Point, North Carolina, frames a campaign issue, a human capital issue, in the next 15 years.

Building on medical science, Tara wants congress to to encourage business to offer a six month parental leave.

The first six months of life are the most critical for a developing child. It is during this time that all neural pathways are developed through the sense of touch. A baby's mind, body and  trust is developed by being held and loved. ... 

It is possible to rob a child of mental, physical and emotional capacity by being absent too early, too long. Neural development primarily occurs in the first six months of life. After that, we're too late.  

Tara Sue cites short term advantages for employers that compete for workers, towns that compete for employers, and a state that brands itself as family friendly.

She also makes a longer term case. A smarter, better educated, more capable workforce builds an economy.

A community vested in industry & commerce can never  hold a candle to a community that is first invested in itself. Human capital is the most valuable capital.  It is a renewed resource. And its livelihood can be improved. Dedication to this renewal, to this improvement is the wisest choice for any business, any community and any government. The only improvement necessary is one which offers true dedication and care for the families of our community.  Invest in human capital. Invest in each other. Invest in youself. 

Isn't it great seeing a candidate raise long-term human capital issues? Someone articluate and passionate and eager? North Carolina could do worse than Tara Sue Grubb.  

Dear Carol H. Tucker:

Your post to the K-Logs mailing list prompts to me to respond. You said...

Although I can see advantages to creating and keeping a professional blog on a corporate site, I would caution any person against putting personal information on their blog -- there are too many potential HR issues!

Scenario 1:  in the midst of a journal entry dealing with insurance coverage issues, an employee makes the revelation that s/he has tested positive for HIV.  Within a month, that same employee is complaining that s/he is being harassed in the lunch room and other common areas and that HR is not responding strongly enough.  S/he leaves, and files a case with the EEOC stating that the company failed to respond appropriately -- and provides the blog as proof that the management knew about the situation and failed to act.

First, the question of medium. You have the same issue if the employee says these things in any forum and they're true. Blog, email, bulletin board, paper diary, voice mail; all the same. That leaves the communication:  

• Does the employee have a reasonable expectation that every post is read and considered as actionable by management? An employee has a responsibility to attempt effective communication with management; writing these notes in a locked away diary, in a hidden web site, or buried among 10,000 routine posts may not be effective. If the employee points to pertinent blog items in a meeting or by email and the posts are accessible, the communication loop may be complete.
   
• Does management pay attention, read every item, and generally consider them to be to be trust- and action-worthy? A question of fact.

Are discrimination and harassment present? If so, supervisors and HR must follow through. Blogging, like email, makes things go faster and leaves a record; not in-and-of-themselves bad.

Worrying about records is an after-the-fact, CYA, "compliance" concern. Trade-off your business's fear of litigation against the operational and strategic payback from more and better communication and learning. Shutting down communication, teaching self-censorship and punishing people for expressing themselves, creates a climate where problems fester and grow. You've seen this before where executives have an open door but kill the messenger; no one brings bad news until it is too late.

How about reprisal?

2nd scenario:  in the midst of some re-structuring and changes in one department, several associates start posting information about lack of communication, problems that are being overlooked and other incidents that have occurred.  Although there is no response from upper management at the time, within six months [in the course of their annual review], each of those employees are criticized for "lack of team playing" and are told that "negative attitudes" are not appropriate and will hurt their future advancement.  These critiques become part of the employees' permanent personnel file.

Abusive behavior becomes more visible, with or without a company policy. Again, the problem is not with the blogs, or what people write in them, but with bad behavior. While managers can "paper" someone, blogs offer a solid record of their own.

In each case, putting personal information on a corporate site has put either the employee or the organization at risk.

Again, the risk is in bad behavior, not in the communication or record of it. Will this make HR more interested in preventive measures?

Carol asks the IT question: Backup, Reliability, and Access.

There is one other scenario that comes to mind, but this is more pertinent to the issue of keeping information up on an intranet without a copy elsewhere, rather than personal versus professional blogging:  A manager is writing up a manual of procedures, posting it on the blog to make it available for comments and questions.  S/he comes in one morning, tries to open the blog to check on a policy, and receives a message that the organization has decided to freeze the content because there is evidence of an outside intrusion.  Because all of the information existed in that blog, s/he must retract their steps and duplicate the research to get the answer to the question.

These are well understood and managed risks. Most outages are not life threatening, especially at this early stage in blogging.

Blending personal and work topics in your blog has its risks. HR does have a role in klogging. Among other things:

• Encourage understanding of work/life issues.
• Promote the learning organization, knowledge management, social capital. 
• Fight for talent, nurture talent, retain talent.

In my Bloggers for Hire introduction to Gwen Harlow, I reviewed fences some bloggers put up between parts of their lives. You have four choices (so far):

1. Shut up. Censor yourself.
2. Narrowcast. Write in this box for those people, that box for those.
3. Wear masks. Hide who you are. 
4. Live with it. Let the many parts of yoru life flow freely across each other.

Private blogs and one-time blogs will come with Groove-like security, creating more options.

This is a cultural choice and a pragmatic one. The new work ethic and new worker-employer compacts, flavor our choices.

 [aka klogs]