Patricia Dunn is gone from HP. PodTech was at the press conference and Catherine is working right now on getting up the audio from the press conference as well as a story about what she learned at the press conference although the story is already well out as you can see from Google News about HP. OK, that’s a start. Now it’s time to clean out the rest of the board. And fire the ethics officer who just wrote to his colleagues that he wished he didn’t ask about the legality of the situation — ethics officers need to learn that they BETTER stay on the right line of the law AND of our privacy. And, Mark Hurd too. He’s seriously tainted in this whole thing. He needs to go too.

HP needs a fresh start and a message needs to be sent to other corporate executives that they better not even THINK of abusing people’s privacy.

Oh, this is my first post from the fast lane of FWY 280 while Maryam is driving. Just another day in Silicon Valley.

UPDATE: David Berlind has a podcast and report from the press conference up. PodTech’s is up now.

UPDATE 2: In CEO Hurd’s defense at least he was contrite and took responsibility. Something that Patricia never did. But the smell from this still remains. I doubt Patricia is the last one to go.

UPDATE 3: The ethics officer was fired, along with another employee.

A CEO and reader of mine (not at HP, but who it was isn’t important cause her point is what matters here) wrote me this morning and said I was over the top to call Patricia Dunn a “cancer” on HP. She said that was a particularly hurtful comment given that Patricia has had cancer in the past. I’ve been thinking about it all day and I’ve decided that my reader is right. That was a hurtful comment. I didn’t know at the time that Patricia was a cancer survivor, but I should have stayed within the lines of good taste and I did not.

It’s not that I feel any differently about Patricia and the board’s actions over the past two weeks, though. Even after reading articles, like this one, in Fortune, which bend over backward to explain her actions. I’m very much in support of Russell Shaw at ZDNet, who asks why she’s still on the board.

But, I did play an awful card there, and for that I’m sorry.

Oh, and I heard Patricia on CNBC this morning (the business news media is still eating this story up, just like Christopher Coulter predicted it would) and she still isn’t understanding that the ends don’t justify the means.

In my being overly hurtful and personal with my words I demonstrated I didn’t understand that either.

I just arrived at Oakland Airport and my phone was filling up with email saying that HP had announced a decision. On first look this is a good first step, but I wonder if this board will be able to do anything for months? After all, the leaker is still on the board. So is Patricia. I can’t imagine that those two will see eye-to-eye on much. Anyway, at least we can get on with other things.

For instance, I’m judging the Made-in-Express contest entries this morning. Some really interesting things there. I’ll decline commenting until the winners are announced.

UPDATE: my readers are reacting VERY negatively to this news. I’m going to absorb a bit more about what was just announced and think through my reaction beyond what I post above. Zoli, for instance, calls this “lame half steps.”

UPDATE 2: I missed that the guy who leaked stuff, George Keyworth, has resigned from the board as well. More reaction on TechMeme.

Don Park raises a good question of whether or not I (and other journalists and bloggers) are being fair to Patricia Dunn?

I’ll be happy to give Hewlett Packard or Patricia Dunn an entire blog post (take as many words as you want) to give her side, or HP’s side of this whole thing. I’d even be happy to take my video camera over and put the video up on YouTube or Google Video or Blip.TV and let anyone at HP say whatever they want unchallenged by me and I’ll put that up unedited.

I won’t even link to David Kirkpatrick at Fortune Magazine, who called for her head.

Is my reaction over the top? Yeah! But like Russell Shaw says, it’s an American tradition!

Is this story boring yet? I really don’t care if I lose every single reader I have because I keep rambling on about this story. Patricia Dunn has got to go. The HP board has to realize this story is not going away.

Well, it shouldn’t. Where are we going to draw the line on privacy? At pretexting? Or when they stick a little recording device in my bedroom to see who I am talking with? Oh, not willing to put the line there? Well, how about just implant an RFID tag in my head along with a GPS and a little transmission device.

Hell, let’s just get rid of this privacy idea altogether, right? OK, I’m game. Patricia Dunn first please. If she does it, I’ll go along with this whole “get rid of privacy” game that seems to be how many employers want to play it (ever look into how deeply employers can look into your private life? It might scare you.)

HP should prepare itself for a raft of headlines like this one, HP Boosts Its Integrity, in InfoWorld.

Is that unfair? Sure! But we aren’t the ones who broke the law.

Anyway, to answer Don’s question: I don’t really care at this point. I’ve been reading very carefully trying to find a reason to take Patricia Dunn’s side. I’ve been talking with dozens of people behind the scenes. I can’t find one reason to take a different stance than I now am taking. That said, I’d be happy to learn tomorrow that we’re all mistaken and that we’re barking up the wrong tree and I’d be the first one to report I was wrong.

The facts in this case, though, don’t get better, they just get worse and that’s after the New York Times reported Patricia’s own words. Translation: I doubt she’ll take me up on my offer.

Update: Blog Herald goes further and asks “Will Social Software Mutate Blogosphere into Mob Rule?”

The HP story isn’t going away (note, that’s what happens when you spy on reporters, they get their fur up in a bunch). Some things happened yesterday, though. 1) She tried to shift blame elsewhere for using illegal methods. The New York Times gives her side of the story. 2) She called all the reporters who had been spied on and apologized. 3) HP’s CEO, Mark Hurd, sent a letter to employees which basically said its rules and ethics’ codes had been broken.

A few things. I doubt the board will vote her off. Why not? Well, because of she goes they know they’ll be kicked out too. This whole board doesn’t pass the smell test. I’m not even in Silicon Valley right now and I can smell the stench coming over the Santa Cruz mountains.

Second, why didn’t she call and apologize as soon as she realized the methods that had been used? Rule of PR, those who own the negative get to control it the most. By not going public with what she did FIRST she let Tom control all the PR. I don’t know who to believe, but I’ll believe the guy who brought this to the public light first far more than I’ll believe the person who didn’t bring it out.

It’s pretty clear that there were legal questions. After all, why would HP’s lawyers call an outside law firm and ask for advice on the legality of this? (That lawyer, one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful, is now saying he wasn’t presented with all of the evidence).

Rob Hyndman has a good recap of yesterday’s events.

So, here’s the bottom line. This thing doesn’t pass the smell test. Patricia, do the respectable thing, stand up and take responsibility. That’s what those of us who are in leadership positions have to do sometimes, even if it isn’t completely our fault.

But, even if she goes, this whole board smells. I guess they are gonna make the shareholders make the hard decisions. Unfortunately shareholders only care whether the company is making them money or not, not whether the board is ethical, nice, or doesn’t smell.

It’s a sad day for the industry. I’m gonna go out today with friends and family and head to the beach where I hope the breeze blows the smell back over the hill.

UPDATE: here’s why I say it smells. Even my seventh grader knows there’s something smelly about looking at people’s phone records. Patricia Dunn, when she was presented the evidence about the leaker, had to have seen that phone records were involved. Note that she didn’t stop and say “how did you get these?” She should have stopped the investigation at that point. Everyone who watches TV courtrooms knows that you aren’t allowed to use evidence that’s gained in illegal ways. And any chairperson who says that looking at phone records or other personal information isn’t illegal isn’t the kind of chair we should allow in a position of power. Also, anyone who doesn’t understand the HUGE difference between a lie detector test and a set of phone records SHOULD NOT BE IN A POSITION OF POWER IN A COMPANY THAT HAS POWER OVER OTHER PEOPLE’S PRIVACY. She might not be a criminal (I’ll leave that for the Attorney General to figure out) but she sure isn’t smart enough to be on a board of directors. Sorry, she’s gotta go. And same with this whole board.

Let’s check in with Google News. Nope, ethical problem still there.

John Furrier, my new boss, used to work at Hewlett Packard. Last night he was telling me how much he loved Hewlett Packard (he hates the new name, which was shortened to “HP”. Yeah, all the employees used to call it “HP” in the old days too, but that was a friendly shortening). He told me how he walked into the founder’s offices once (it wasn’t guarded or closed off separate from the employees) and walked up and said hi. It was an experience that he’ll never forget. He spent a bit telling me about “the Hewlett Packard way” and how it was such an important part of his upbringing as an entrepreneur.

He gave me a little bit of heck for dragging HP into this since it looks like it was just the chairwoman (although the rest of the board is sort of tainted because they didn’t walk out instantly when they found out what was going on). He stood up for the regular employees of HP. “Imagine you’re working in sales at HP, does this affect them?”

I’ve been thinking about that one all night. On one level, obviously no. But, on another? Yes. If your leaders are willing to break the law and spy on not just themselves but on outside parties, how comfortable will people be in dealing with Hewlett Packard?

Anyway, he told me that the Hewlett Packard way is important (the old way, the one before they changed their name, before they started doing this crud) and he wondered if there’s something we can do to bring the Hewlett Packard way back?

Yes. Get rid of Patricia Dunn. Then let’s work together to talk about the cool stuff those engineers are building so the salespeople can feel proud again.

If you let a cancer hang out in your body (the body here being a company) it just gets worse. It’s surgery time. Who has the knife?

Oh, I worked a summer at Hewlett Packard when I was in high school on an assembly line. I agree that the people there were awesome. Just wanted to make it clear that this isn’t about them. Just about one board member who thought that the ends justified the means. If she’s allowed to stay, though, she’ll spread her cancer throughout HP and stain the entire organization. So, it’s time for the good people of Hewlett Packard to stand up and do the right thing. Get rid of the stain on the Hewlett Packard way.

Damn, this story has what journalists call “legs.” It just keeps getting worse, now it’s apparent that Patricia Dunn had her goons break the privacy of reporters. I’m sure glad I’m not on HP’s PR team.

Look at the chart of HP on Google Finance. HP, if you want out of the valley of bad PR you MUST cut loose Patricia Dunn (and probably the whole board, truth be told).

Oh, someone pointed out that I had a picture of a newspaper on my blog today. Caught Scoble reading paper? Nope. They leave copies in the lobby (notice that they are unopened).

That said, you can read tomorrow’s headlines, tonight.

San Jose Mercury News is reporting that “charges are likely” in this mess.

I don’t read papers. I read what the rest of the world will see tomorrow tonight on my Tablet PC. Thank you very much to all the journalists who are keeping the heat turned up on Hewlett Packard. It should remain until HP announces that Patricia Dunn is gone.

I’m reading a bunch of blogs about HP’s board and, man, does it get worse and worse.

Check this out: testimony in front of the U.S. House of Representatives by HP’s Scott Taylor, Chief Privacy Officer. What did he tell them? “First and foremost is that privacy is actually a core value at HP. As a company, HP is 100 percent committed to excellence in consumer and employee privacy…”

Now compare that to what Patricia Dunn, chairwoman at HP apparently did. Lying. Breaking the law. And invading people’s privacy.

If Patricia Dunn is ever hired to a company I’m working for I’m instantly quitting. She should be fired. Instantly. Without cause. Without a severance check. Without ANYTHING. (She should listen to Paul Kedrosky, who calls on her to resign, and save HP and its shareholders from this trouble).

HP, do you have no shame?

Hewlett and Packard are twisting in their graves tonight. What a shame. Whatever happened to “the HP way?” It died today.

UPDATE: congrats again to Tom Perkins, the guy who walked out in disgust. The letter he sent to HP’s board is now online.

UPDATE 2: Dave Taylor, who worked at HP with both Hewlett and Packard, gives us the historical context behind why this can be traced back to Carly Fiorina’s time running HP. The Washington Post also reports that HP is saying that the “leaker” also leaked info leading up to Carly’s firing.