BlogHer - Apple's No Blog Zone - Comments

Not "invite only"

jwelch — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 19:13:30 -0500

Technically, you pay to get in. You have to be a member of the Apple Developer Program, and then you either get a ticket for free, or pay for one, depending on your membership level.

But they're always under NDA once you get out of the keynote.

Pretty clear

heivilinj — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 09:52:26 -0500

I would think that the NDAs would stipulate what can and cannot be released and there wouldn't be much wiggle room involved. I would think they would also stipulate the consequences of violating it, ("see you in court") as well as never being invited back ... ;-P

Jim Heivilin

I have no problem with this...

Elisa Camahort — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 09:39:48 -0500

It's not MacWorld, it's WWDC...and all the developers have indeed signed NDAs.

I was just at a round table at Google, and they sent the very same, strong message: you can say you were here; you can say who talked to you; but if we mention something roadmap-related or anything else remotely confidential you cannot talk about it. And Google, too, specifically mentioned blogging.

It's totally reasonable, IMHO. And the reminder is probably because they really care, and really want to remind people.

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer and Worker Bees
elisa@blogher.org/elisa@workerbees.biz

Apple's No Blog Zone

Elana Centor — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 05:32:21 -0500

Thousands of engineers are at the Moscone Center in San Francisco attending Apple Computer's Worldwide Developer Conference. They were greeted with this sign:

This is not the first time Apple has attempted Silence of the Blogs. Last May a California Appeals Court

"smacked down Apple's legal assault on bloggers and their sources, finding that the company's efforts to subpoena e-mail received by the publishers of Apple Insider and PowerPage.org runs contrary to federal law, California's reporter's shield law, and the state Constitution."

In traditional journalism it's called being on "deep background"--a very accepted policy where journalists agree that the information they are about to learn is not publishable.

In his blog, Steve Rubel takes a swipe at this policy saying,

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.

To which the commenters not only took him to task for not disclosing that his employer, Edelman, has Microsoft as a client but reminded him this is an invitation only conference.

It is curious that someone of Rubel's experience didn't know that the conference is not a public event. A point that was shared in the comment section.

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.

But it is Blogher's Susan Getgood who sums up the situation with this rather pithy comment--

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

Image Credit: Flickr member and blogger John Gruber
Elana also blogs at FunnyBusiness-- a blog about business culture.