I digress. The definition fits: “a public declaration of intentions”.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61683005@N00/565924862

In this first iteration of my attempt to define online professionalism I will simply expand on what I wrote earlier.

There were two guidelines I operated under:

1. Don’t use real names
2. Don’t post anything I wouldn’t want sent as an all-users email

I can see clearly how they stifled my last blog: they are “donts”, negative rules.

Let’s try this again:

1. Don’t use real names. Share my blog with people that I work with. Not that I expect to use this in any capacity related to my job, but because I don’t want to feel like I’m hiding anything from anyone.
2. Don’t post anything I wouldn’t want sent as an all-users email. I need to be excited about the fact that all-users can see what I write rather than cowed. When I post something onto this blog, I’m saying that it’s an idea worth sharing. If I post it here, I’m standing behind it (until someone comes along to show me, duh, why I’m wrong).

…is this enough? It doesn’t feel like it. I don’t like how open-ended and messy this sounds. But I can’t seem to find anything better anywhere else, yet.

I’ll have to come back to it. For now, thanks to all the blogs I’ve read, and in particular thanks to Karl Fisch and Konrad Glogowski, whose words seem to most match what I feel is appropriate.