Social Network Use in the Office Could Spur Better Enterprise Technology
Social networking has generally been discouraged in the workplace, with many corporate IT departments blocking access to sites like Facebook and MySpace due to privacy concerns. But these efforts are becoming increasingly futile as our lives continue to converge with social networks, analysts at a Gartner symposium said yesterday. Plus, social networking may even help workers “feel valued, a part of a community, and earn the respect of peers.” ...While social networking in the office may foster community, there’s also a chance it could lead to better enterprise technology down the road. Investor Dave McClure yesterday declared that he wanted big players like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to take his data and use it to build helpful applications. An example of this concept would be the evolution of the Twitter network. The micromessaging site opens up most of its data to developers, who in turn build applications on top of the platform that offer features not found on Twitter.com.
It remains to be seen whether advice from a respected technology analyst firm has any impact; this isn't the first time Gartner has come out in support of employee access to social sites. Still, it's great to see a balanced view of employee access, addressing the benefits as well as issues like privacy.
