Higher ups at Endeca have gotten annoyed at me for writing about anything related to what I do at work. I was asked to remove all mention of Endeca from the Inverted Index Shootout pages, and to remove the Why Faceted Navigation Is Hard page entirely, even though faceted navigation is described in several places.
I have been careful not to write about anything that isn't already public knowledge, but apparently it is the fact that I digested this information into an easy-to-understand form that is causing people concern. My boss would have me believe that it is a universal in "corporate culture" that secrecy is to be preferred over openness, and that vague marketing hype is to be preferred over honest communication. However, I am not yet so cynical.
I am obviously very upset about this. I understand their concerns, but I would have hoped that someone who had technical expertise would have been able to state with authority that what I wrote is nothing to be worried about. Indeed, I have been told that the people in engineering all agree that this is a "tempest in a teapot".
Nevertheless, hotter heads apparently prevail.
Therefore, this is the last page I will write that will mention the name Endeca. If they only want publicity that came directly from the marketing department, then so be it.
Posted on October 6, 2003 06:08 PM
More personal articles
<sigh>
Posted by: Chris Thiessen at October 6, 2003 02:17 PMi had a similar experience last year with my weblog and some higher ups at work. someday, i want to work for a company small enough to be sane.
Posted by: garrett at October 6, 2003 05:21 PMI'm surprised they didn't ask you to take down your entire website, for you know, they own everything you create while you work for them and since you are not in the marketing department, you are not qualified to actually speak for them at all, at any time, to anyone.
Period.
Okay, so I exagerate a bit, but it wouldn't surprise me if your typical CEO wouldn't love the technology L. Bob Rife (from Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson) had available to him (“Damn it! My intellectual property walks out the door at 5 every single night! That ain't right!”).
Posted by: Sean Conner at October 6, 2003 07:20 PMI have included my real e-mail address with this comment (which, to the best of my knowledge, is both obscured by the presence of my weblog address and accessible via the Movable Type comment back-end). If you would be so kind, may I have the e-mail address of the person who has made this request (or h(er|is) secretary, assistant, or whomever screens communications addressed to her or him)?
My intention is to write a very polite, well-researched and reasonable argument about why your writing about faceted navigation and the technical foundations thereof have both brought Endeca to my attention and convinced me of the admirable competency of their employees. Your erudition and willingness to educate others reflects well not only on yourself but on your employer; this censorship, however, casts a pall over the latter.
I'll drop the idea, of course, if you think it'll do more harm than good.
Posted by: Gnomon at October 6, 2003 09:19 PMYeah, it sucks to not be able to write about what may be the most important single aspect of one's life: one's work.
But you cannot. Most of us who work in the technical world have signed Non-Disclosure Agreements, where we promised that we would not talk (or write) about our work.
Many companies, including the one that I work for, also require disclaimers that we do not speak for the company. This is not just being petty. I remember as far back as 20 years ago, someone would make a total jerk of himself on UseNet and people would say, "I won't deal with a company who would hire an idiot like that."
So it sucks, but that's the way that it is, and the way that it must be.
Posted by: Doug at October 7, 2003 11:54 PM