A Lot of companies dont quite get the technology infrastructure of todays Internet world. Mainly the social, business and knowledge networking tools. Companies everywhere are blocking employee access to the internet, spurred on by questionable research and irresponsible pronouncements of self-serving individuals and organizations. For instance the whole BBC and Facebook FUD.
IBM Luckily seem to get the Internet more than other companies, a lot of our tools are based around the networking and knowledge management side of things. Luis is now doing this aspect full time, and some of the tools out there are just fantastic.. Had it not been for social bookmarking, networking and knowledge management tools, I would haven’t have run into half the people that help me in my day to day job (namely Luis, Andy Piper and others).
Sure these tools can be fun, and interesting, and keep the community together, but more importantly they allow stuff in my head, to go where it’s important, namely to other people.. and likewise I can learn from them.
The internet is about communication, sharing and working together. Having internet access at work is really no different from employees being allowed to bring in newspapers or books to read in their lunch breaks. Cut your employees off from the outside world, and you may as well go back to them working on pen and paper.
Both employee and employer need to take responsibility, employers need to provide, and employees need to act responsibly. Using arguments like ‘we’re protecting our employees’ or ‘we cannot trust individuals not to use these resources inappropriately’ if just nonsense..
There are wonderful posts on this over at AcidLabs, The Lost Outpost as well as elsua.net
The Stop Blocking Campaign is designed to serve as a hub information resource for those who believe the benefits of providing access far outweigh the risks. It’s worth heading over there and checking it out.
Technorati Tags: Dopplr, Facebook, social software, Stop Blocking, technology
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