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TechFlash - Microsoft's chief lawyer explains why he started blogging

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The Puget Sound Business Journal's "Tech Flash" recently posted this article.

"Lawyers are usually the ones arguing against corporate blogs, but Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith was pushing for "Microsoft on the Issues," the law and policy blog launched by the company a few weeks ago. Smith, who introduced the blog in this post, is expected to be one of the people posting there regularly.

In an interview, Smith explained his motivation, described the first difficult situation encountered by the blog, and discussed the prospects for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ever trying his hand at this blogging stuff. Read on for excerpts from the conversation."

I've been a part of the Microsoft blogging community since February 2005. I'm certainly not the earliest Microsoft blogger, but I was very cautious about my decision to blog. I wanted to be sure that blogging Microsoft would not shorten my tenure with the company. Now four years later I can say that if anything it has increased my value to team Microsoft.

As Brad Smith sez, "Well, there was a healthy discussion and even debate among people inside Microsoft about whether to do this, and certainly about how. Ultimately, we came to the strong conclusion that it was important to participate in public discussion in a more informal and transparent way."

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