Apple Warns Conference Attendees on Blogging

Apple Computer is hosting its big developer confab (WWDC) in San Francisco this week. The Unofficial Apple Weblog reports that Apple has made it no blog zone. In the hall there are notices posted that say "Please ensure that your communications with others outside WWDC 2006, including your blogs, do not contain any Apple Confidential Information." This raises an interesting question. Is information that is presented at a public forum bloggable? I am not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV, but this seems somewhat draconian to me.

Meanwhile, Apple is struggling to maintain its veil of secrecy. The fan sites and blogs seem to be getting better at breaking the news before it is announced. Compare what Powerpage had up last week on Leopard operating system's feature set to what was announced yesterday. Not bad, eh?

Apple is going to have to embrace living in a world where its biggest fans - the ones that can sway thousands of developers - are breaking news on blogs before the ink is even dry on press releases. Suing bloggers and posting "talk to the hand" style notices are not the way to go.

Tags: apple, wwdc

Comments

[LSF]

WWDC is ticket only event so it's really a private event. Apple can therefore assert whatever conditions of entry they wish.

[Amanda Chapel]

It's posts like this that so definitively demonstrate your disconnect with the corporate model. This is exactly why 99 percent of CEO's want bloggers off the property.

- Amanda

[Joseph]

Disclaimer: Microsoft is an Edelman client. (Love your blog Steve, just keeping you true =))

[Mike Driehorst]

I'll echo LSF's comments: If attendence is by invitation, then Apple has the rights to set the ground rules. If you don't like it, don't accept the invite.

It does show how accepted blogging is -- particularly in the the tech area -- and almost expected.

If an event is public, or similar -- like shareholders' meetings -- you can't stop people from blogging. Or, taking notes and communicating the meeting's highlights in other ways.

Blogging is just one form of WOM.
Mike

[Dr Nic]

Why does Apple swim against the current of the greatest "pro-Apple" marketing movement in its history since the AppleII came out?

BTW - are journalists allow to attend the function and write about what they see?

[Steve Rubel]

Joseph, thanks for keeping me honest. But that's excessive I think. If I put that disclaimer in for every company Microsoft and our clients compete with, you'd go blind.

[Glenn Fleishman]

As a Mac journalist, some clarity. WWDC is a private event for developers which sign NDAs to be developers and NDAs to attend. They're given advance looks at technology in person and in lectures that they will later receive on DVDs and online. So it's not a public event in any real sense.

There are a few public press events tied to WWDC because they found it was a better forum than Macworld Boston in attracting press, and it's a forum they control.

This is one of Apple's rare regular events in which they slip the kimono in the interests of providing enough information for their partners to get their job done.

On the Microsoft disclosure, I do think that when you are writing directly about one of the key competitors to a firm you are involved in providing campaigns and advice for, you should disclose beyond whatever general disclosure you do now. But if you're not involved in Microsoft's Zune strategy, for instance, then folks are being too sensitive.

Finally, I am not sure what Microsoft's policy is at their similar developers' conferences. I believe there are mostly private parts and some public parts, too, with similar restrictions.

Journalists are not allowed to attend the private parts of WWDC and cover them unless (and this is not unusual) they are developers and have agreed to the NDA terms like everyone else.

[JesseCiccone]

Glenn has hit the nail right on the head. If the policy - explained before attendees agree to attend - is that the content is under NDA, then you can't blog about it. Just because blogging makes it easy to disclose information doesn't exempt it from legal and ethical limitations.

Caveats: 1. this says nothing about whether or not this is a good marketing policy for Apple! and 2. if it wasn't explicit when the invitation were sent, then the signs alone don't cover it (that's like inviting journalists to a press conference and then telling them not to report on what they here after they arrive).

[Josh]

In response to whether journalists can attend and write about what they see, the answer is no. Only the keynote. If a journalist is also a developer they can attend but must agree to the same rules about disclosure as all other developers, and many do.

[Susan Getgood]

Apple certainly can restrict what info is released to the public from an invitation-only event like this. It's their party.

The problem (as it often is with Apple) is the heavy-handedness of the message. Ironically, it seems so Big Brother.

Does all the information need to be kept hush hush? Probably not. I think they'd benefit from relaxing just a wee bit, letting some information out but holding fast on confidentiality and no blogging where it really needs to, to maintain competitive advantage. But that's not Apple's usual modus operandi -- it typically wants to control every word. They'll come around eventually -- after all, they just finished the move to Intel chips.

[Russell Page]

Does this seem like a little bit of a PR stunt at all?

[Joseph Ferrara.sellsius]

The anti-blogging prohibition applies only to Apple "confidential information".

Therefore, this is not a blanket prohibition---so blog if you wish.

And yes, I am an attorney.

[Jamie Quint]

Is the picture of the sign that talks about how blogging is prohibited apple
confidential information? Uh Oh! I agree, this seems extremely draconian,
what are they going to do next, prohibit conference atendees from talking to
their colleauges about the conference, cutting off all contact with the external environment? I love
apple usually, but this is not right.

[nerradv]

This is the problem today with bloggers. You all think you are journalists and everything is fair game.

Grow up. Show some integrity. And read Glenn Fleishmans post over and over and over again until you get it through your thick wannabe skull.

[Amanda Chapel]

Can some one please tell me why we can't kill some of these commie bloggers? Isn't some of this stuff just Mother Nature saying we need to thin the herd?

A rubel for your thoughts.

- Amanda

[Steve Rubel]

Strumpy, if you loathe the medium so much why do you use it? Second, I think you mean "a ruble for your thoughts."

[RiK]

"You all think you are journalists and everything is fair game." um, no. Why make such a statement? I'm a hobbyist.Period. Why do I stop by here? I get alot of info on how to run both. Call me a moron, but I dig blogging. Funny thing is, I would never consider sharing my blog with the likes of this crowd. y'all a bunch of real jerx.

AnywayZ - Steve, thanks for making blogging a *little* easier on guys like me.

[Joseph Ferrara.sellsius]

nerrady, amanda

You do realize that many journalists are bloggers.
Also, anyone can break news--just ask Mr. Zapruder.
As there are awful journalists there are awful bloggers and none are redeemed by their titles.

[Joseph Ferrara.sellsius]

nerrady, amanda

You do realize that many journalists are bloggers.
Also, anyone can break news--just ask Mr. Zapruder.
As there are awful journalists there are awful bloggers and none are redeemed by their titles.

[Amanda Chapel]

Steve,

I use the medium for entertainment.

With regard to other legitimate uses, of course there are some. However, generally speaking, I DON'T buy the arguments that you make.

- Amanda

PS "rubel for your thoughts" was a pun.

[Jason]

Seconding Glenn's thoughts -- Apple's dev conference has always been an NDA-only event. To get access beyond the keynote address, which is a press event, you must pay a thousand bucks and sign an NDA. Back in the old days, it was easier to honor NDA's, because very few attendees had any opportunity to widely disseminate the information. These days, with blogging common even among developers, Apple's simply trying to remind attendees that sessions are under NDA.

I'm a journalist who has attended WWDC every year for the last ten. I honor the NDA because those are the ground rules Apple sets out and I'd rather go under the cloak and get good technical knowledge for later use rather than NOT get it. The argument that Apple shouldn't do this is basically an argument that Apple should never disclose advance, insider information about their operating system to their third-party developers, because if they did, it would all be public.

To sum up, it's their party, these are the rules, this isn't a public show, and I can't believe someone is even complaining about this one. Is there NO expectation of private conversations in the world today? That's a dangerous path to walk down.

[Amanda Chapel]

Cluetrain author dispels absolute transparency myth

See http://www.strumpette.com/archives/162-Cluetrain-author-dispels-absolute-transparency-myth.html

"I am not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV, but this seems somewhat draconian to me."

You may not be a lawyer, but you should do a little research before posting a blog about this subject. Better to close one's mouth and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

[joe]

Ciao, Se volete comprare un buon prosciutto Spagnolo Iberico Pata Negra (Patanegra) di Jabugo, visitate il negozio di Spanishtaste. Tenda gourmet coi migliori prosciutti di Bellota del mondo.Jambon Espagnol.
Jamones Ibericos.