The July/August 2008 issue of AIIM E-Doc Magazine (http://molecular.com/pdfs/aiimedoc20080708-dl.pdf) has a good article on the relevance of social networking tools in organizations. According to a survey of 441 IT and business professionals, 13% said their organization has implemented social networking tools while another 13% had acquired the technology but haven't started using it. Twenty-five percent said that their companies are planning to use social networking tools soon.
With this interest in social networking, Bob Violino (the author) points out several risks associated with the tools. First is the just the decline in productivity as employees spend their time gossiping rather than exchanging work information. The second risk is the inadvertent disclosure of sensitive or propiertary information through employee blogging or wiki articles. There is also the risk that private information such as credit card numbers could leak through the holes in the social network. A fourth issue which is not so much a risk as a management issue is the need for evaluation measures to ensure that value of social networking can be measured against corporate goals. Figuring who should have access to the network is the fifth risk while preventing lock-in with a particular vendor could be the sixth risk.
As social networking gains in prominence, these are vital issues that need to be managed before implementing an organizational social network. These are certainly issues that management will bring up and the knowledge manager should be ready to address them.
Some lines about Bob Violino (bviolino@optonline.net). He is a freelance writer who often writes about collaborative technologies and their application and he has covered business and technology for more than 20 years. Specific areas he has covered include information security, networking, enterprise applications, RFID, storage, virtualization, mobile wireless technology, open source and communications. He is based in Massapequa Park, N.Y. . Currently he is the editorial director at Victory Business Communications (Sole Proprietorship).
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2 comments:
The issue here is the authority of the publication and the author. I find what he says fairly superficial, much like any freelance writer who covers a range of topics. My point is: when you read this, how much more do you really know about the risks? All the points he makes are pretty well-known. If you Google him, his major passion seems to be transplant victims. He is one, and that's what his book New Life: "Lessons in Faith and Courage from Transplant Recipients" is about. I am not passing judgment on him, just making the point that you have to be cautious with web-based experts.
Ok, got your point. Thank you for your feedback. At the moment it is hard for me to distinguish who is reliable and who is not especially to those professionals.
Talk to you soon.
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