NMI Wiki | Main / Walker Blog Guidelines

Last Revision: 3/20/09

You are representing the Walker

The Walker blogs are a voice for the institution as seen through the eyes of its staff.
When presenting your personal opinions about Walker programming, the arts community, etc., please be aware that blogs are a highly-visible form of communication. Your thoughts are only a click away from being seen around the world.
Please do not disparage artists, organizations, or individuals. Being critical of an artist's practice is acceptable, when it is done is a professional manner.

Use blogs to post material related to your department. Use Off Center to post about the art world in general.
Use Walker blogs to track areas of research interest, web sites about a particular topic, or happenings in a particular field. Use the blogs as a tool to point to related material on the Walker's website as well as external sites.
Use the blogs to engage audiences in a different way by providing a behind the scenes view of what makes our programming possible.
Use Walker blogs to discuss Walker programming, post reviews, promote upcoming events, and receive comments.

Do not post material that is unlawful, abusive, defamatory, invasive of another's privacy, or obscene to a reasonable person.
Get permission from colleagues before writing about them.
Avoid announcements related to unconfirmed programming.

When quoting any other blog or publication, be sure to link to the original (if possible) and use quotation marks or blockquotes (for longer texts).
When using a photograph found elsewhere on the web, you must do one of the following:
- Get permission from the original copyright holder (which may not always be same as the site displaying the image). Document receipt of permission.
- Use an image that is not encumbered by copyright, such as an image that is available under a creative commons license.
When using an image from within the Walker's image pool, contact the appropriate department and make sure the image is licensed for online use. Images found within the Walker Calendar have already been cleared for online use.
Make sure images are properly credited, citing the source and photographer's name.
See the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Bloggers' Legal Guide for more.

When a comment is made on one of your posts, you will receive an e-mail alert.
Offensive or questionable comments are automatically filtered by the software into a Moderation Queue. Someone in each department that posts on the blog should be responsible for checking these comments.
Despite system filters, sometimes spam or offensive comments can get through to your post. If a comment is obviously spam, delete it. Use your discretion to take down non-spam comments with objectionable content.
Be patient when responding to comments (i.e. remember that you are representing the Walker in your blog conversations, so please be respectful in your responses, even to the most unreasonable blog poster).
An RSS Feed is available for all comments: