The end of a calendar year is upon us. True to human nature, when we anticipate a cyclical restart, something innate causes us to reflect. Backwards reflection is often the most comforting…reflection to a time perceived “better”. Allow me to reference two evergreen documents everyone should read.

RFC1855 Netiquette Guidelines

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt

A most interesting read if you’ve never seen it. Circa 1995, an eon ago in Internet time, this informational memo still holds water. Discussed are etiquette guidelines for Internet communications. Unlike typical RFCs, the protocols discussed aren’t those of SMTP, HTTP or other, but of human interaction. How best to communicate in groups and individually online.

Read it, print it and hand it out to friends and colleagues.

Horses and Barns: Evolution of Corporate Guidelines for Internet Usage

ftp://ftp.intel.com/pub/papers/horses.ps

Presented at LISA in 1993, this is a story presented by Intel employees and their struggles with discovering, setting and enforcing Internet usage. It’s an interesting historical account with some important key lessons as highlighted in the paper:

#1 Research Policy Issues.
#2 Consult with users and stakeholders on policy decisions.
#3 Make the policy available and readable.
#4 Get key people to buy into a policy. Better yet, get some kind of official stamp of approval.
#5 Forms with signature loops are a way of making sure that people are serious about wanting something. It is also a way to inform key parties of change and get their buy-in.
#6 Provide metrics on usage and quality of service.
#7 User education is critical
#8 Create explicit and enforceable policies
#9 Policy transitions can be hard, especially when you have to take something away.
#10 Policies exist to serve. They should be changed with circumstances warrant.