What belongs on a corporate-sponsored blog?
There is a interesting discussion of what should be allowed on a Java.Net weblog in the comments of Richard Monson-Haefel's post 9 of Clubs Seeks a new Deck of Cards. Richard needs a job and is using his weblog to do a little self-promotion/marketing, but his weblog is hosted on Sun's Java.Net site which suppoosedly restricts marketing. Java.Net's managing editor Daniel Steinberg raised this issue, mainly as a discussion point, and thankfully the consensus seems to be in favor of allowing Richard's post and others like it.
Last year, I criticized what I saw as forced corporate blogging on Java.Net, but the open spirit on the Java.Net weblogs, Sun's progressive new Policy on Public Discourse, and the Sun employee blogs at blogs.sun.com, show that Sun trusts it's employees to communicate publicly and directly with each other, with Java developers, and with customers. As a long-time Java developer and small-time Sun shareholder, I see this as a very good thing.