Social Networking and its role in the workplace
by David Booth
in it-support,
August 11, 2009
There is still a lot of discussions in the corporate workplace about the appropriateness of Social Networking sites with heated discussions in both camps. There are those that say it’s completely non-work related and that FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like should be flat out banned while others see it as a new opportunity to open up new ways of communication. As with any new technology there are those that are early adopters and embrace it while others will hang back and let the technology mature some more before diving in. Social Networking Sites have really spawned from Web 2.0 where the web is becomming more and more interactive and I think many corporates have concerns around about how do we control the types of information that corporate users are transmitting through these sites if we allow it… or is it easier to just flat out block access to the sites so we have control but the end-user is kicking and screaming saying that blocking it will make them less productive…
We have all read news articles or been forwarded emails about employees bitching about their employer behind their back or chucking a sickie…and then the employer finding out they were actually partying hard by viewing photos on Facebook.
Personally I see it as a challenge for corporates to strike a balance for acceptable use of these sites in the workplace and perhaps have some form of technical control in place to ensure company confidential information is not leaked by users to the web.
PicNet sees social networking sites as a new form of communication for our customers and potential new customers to keep track of what we are doing as company.
We have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia & PicNet Blogs:
What’s your opinion on the topic? Post back and let me know.