Conference 7.286::digital

391.0. "Corporate Personnel Policy on Restricted Conferences" by FURILO::BLINN (Looking for a job in NH) Fri Sep 25 1987 19:33

        I've moved the attached here.  I originally posted it in the
        TLE::EASYNET_CONFERENCES conference, inspired by a topic that
        suggested creating a "restricted" conference on epilepsy, and a
        reply to that topic complaining that it would be "unfair" to
        restrict access to such a conference. 
        
        I have to agree with the moderators of EASYNET_CONFERENCES that
        this is not a conference announcement, and by the rules of that
        conference, it belongs elsewhere.  It's the consensus of several
        of us that this conference (DIGITAL) is a reasonable place. 
        
        As I indicated to the moderators of EASYNET_CONFERENCES in a mail
        message, I think it would be a shame if some employee created a
        "members-only" conference on some "employee interest" topic and
        got into trouble for denying membership in the conference to some
        interested employee because he or she was unaware of this policy. 
        
        Let me point out that I have no involvement with the creation or
        implementation of this policy, and that the comments on the policy
        that follow the extracted text below are my personal opinions, and
        do not necessarily reflect the intent or thinking of the persons
        who drafted the policy. 
        
        Tom
        
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Note 1478.0   Corporate Personnel Policy on Restricted Conferences    No replies
FURILO::BLINN "Looking for a job in NH"              47 lines  25-SEP-1987 14:11
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        Here is an extract of the corporate personnel policy on VAX Notes
        conferences with restricted membership, taken from the on-line
        Personnel Policies and Procedures videotex infobase. I've received
        hardcopy with exactly the same text. 
        
                        [** extract from policy 6.54 **]
        
  6.54 Proper Use Of Digital Computers, Systems, etc       10-AUG-87 (Cont.)

  COMPUTERS, SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS WITH RESTRICTED CONFERENCES 
  (VAX NOTES)

  Conferences (VAX Notes) with restricted access must be in support of Company
  business. Conferences (VAX Notes) not in support of Company business must be
  open to all employees.
        
                    [** end of extracted policy statement **]

        The policy is very clear -- the only justification for limiting
        membership in a conference is because the conference is in support
        of company business, presumably because access to the information
        contained therein would normally be restricted (e.g., discussions
        of a not-yet-announced product). 
        
        VAX Notes conferences that fall into the "employee interest" class
        (such as the proposed epilepsy conference) must be open to any
        employee who wishes to participate.  This much is clear from the
        policy. 
        
        The policy does not make it clear whether this means that access
        to such conferences may not be limited to "signed up" members of
        the conference, but clearly such a "members only" conference must
        offer membership to ANY employee who seeks it.  
        
        The policy also doesn't explicitly state that "employee interest"
        conferences must be publicized (e.g., by announcement in this
        conference), but if they are not publicized, that *could* be
        interpreted as an attempt to restrict access. 
        
        I've put this here in direct response to the remarks in the note
        suggesting creating of a conference to share information on
        epilepsy, but it is relevant to many other conferences on the
        Easynet.  Anyone sponsoring an employee interest conference should
        be aware of and conform to this policy. 
        
        Tom
        

  Do you agree with this policy? Do you know why it was established?
This is the first I have heard of this. I don't plan to open any notes-
files myself, but I once suggested to a friend that he open a members
only conference on a non-business subject. World-write conferences can
be a problem. They use up a lot of CPU time and disk space on the host
node and they can quickly get cluttered up with inappropriate notes and
replies. This, in turn, means the moderator(s) must be continually vigilant.

This policy only says that any non-work related conference must be open to
all employees.  That's all it says.

It does not say that previous sign-up may not be required.
	DEC employee activities clubs require sign-up; therefor so may
	conferences.

It does not say that the existence of the conference must be announced.
	DEC employee use of a facility for non-business use need only be
	approved by the facility manager; conferences need only be announced
	to the system manager.

This isn't worth babbling over; I have set this topic /nowrite.

/john

    re .1:
    
    "Do you know why it was established?"
    
    This policy was established after a number of significant incidents.
    It was established a about a year ago after many months of careful
    discussion and review across a wide community. This policy has been
    developed and reviewed at the highest levels in the company responsible
    for personnel, security, legal, and computer use, among others.
    For some of the background (recorded in real time), refer to DIGITAL
    topic 111. That topic also contains some of the rejected earlier
    drafts.

    "This is the first I have heard of this."
    
    This policy has been distributed widely throughout the company at
    the time of enactment (also, unfortunately in unapproved draft form
    first). When it was enacted as a formal corporate personnel policy
    manual it was distributed officially to all holders of the Personnel
    and Policy manual (a bright orange binder in the hands of most managers
    and many others). It also appears in the public VTX infobase that
    contains all the policy manuals. In addition, special efforts were
    made to publish this in many of the company's employee newsletters.
    Sorry if you missed these.
    
    Because this was so throughly discussed last year, we would prefer
    not to rehash the merits of this particular policy. We ask your
    consideration in this regard so that the users of the host system,
    HUMAN can continue to get work done, and so that the thousands of
    participants in this conference don't get overloaded. Thank you.