Analysts call for secure Facebook access for workers
Reg prepping Moon on a stick campaign
Posted in Management, 13th March 2008 11:23 GMT
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Number crunchers at Gartner have decided that businesses should allow their workers to access Facebook and all manner of web guff "securely", via the company network.
Distinguished analyst John Pescatore led the call: "Strategies to contain and protect the use of new technologies will always be more effective in the long run than security approaches that rely solely on blocking."
His colleague Joseph Feiman, who is apparently a fellow of Gartner, agreed: "Web 2.0 enables masses of individuals to become application and content developers and deploy Web 2.0 applications that implement their own versions of established business rules and practices. Although this entails risks, it can also unlock huge business value."
The accompanying report The Creative and Insecure World of Web 2.0 concludes that if businesses get hip to Facebook while investing in security, the bottom line will see the benefit.
Gartner polled 1,500 CIOs to summon the revelation. Half of them said they plan to invest in "Web 2.0 technologies", whatever they are, for the first time this year.
At the Reg we've been all about groupthink and crowd-sourcing for years, so let's hear from the BOFHs: are your users getting "secure" access to Facebook this year? ®
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COMMENTS
Why not?
I actually allowed it, adjusting the proxy rules to permit the access when the content filter was a little out of date.
It's a trust based method, abuse it and don't start wailing when you get the chop
Simple as.
Block all Websites
Stop all access to all websites because we know what's best for you and you will work all the time you are here and no stopping for anything like food or drink or god forbid " a comfort break". Whip the employee, make sure they have no fun, no friends, no enjoyment in their work. Dear God please forgive these Managers who have never seen the light and do not understand that "to have a bit of fun" makes humans 300% more efficient at their jobs. Hang on a sec.. all managers should be forced to watch Paris Hilton getting in and out of car at least once a day.. to remind them they are human too.. lets facebook it.. you never meet an efficient manager now do you. And we wouldn want to make them look bad now would we.
Facebook value
erm, none? if the company needs such a thing for collaboration, etc., i can establish the service inside the firewall, using free OSS on a low-end server (or obsolete PC, for that matter). this guarantees AAA and control, and removes the risk of connecting to an immature virus incubator like Facebook.
if people still need to access Facebook, they can do it on their mobile phones, and if it's not important enough to pay for the required phone and data package, then they do not need it badly enough.
Gartner's solution is currently looking for a problem...
and as for giving people what they want, not likely. the people are here to deliver value to their employer, so in return, they can get...um, what's the word i'm thinking of...oh yeah, PAID. this is a capitalist system, and you're entitled to starve in a ditch, and/or die from disease, but that's about it. my job is to make sure the place keeps running, so you'll ONLY EVER MAYBE get Facebook access (and the security, productivity and accountability headaches that come with it) after i'm gone.
What about Gmail?
I only started using facebook at work to send messages to my friends because gmail got blocked.
They can't be fussed about bandwidth because youpube, tatbay, & launchcast all work.
It's funny how ...
People who don't use Facebook always assume that people who do are social rejects incapable of human interaction. Facebook is a website designed around the idea of staying in contact with your friends - just like email and instant messagers. But I suppose you fine gentlemen never use those things! Hell - you probably don't use mobile phones either - preferring to speak face-to-face. Of course! I've realised the error of my ways!
As to the second argument, that it's a time waster that shouldn't be used in work time, that I absolutely agree with. I use it at lunch time and if I'm waiting for a full cruise to finish. If you don't like it, you can complain to my employer who believes in trusting its employees. You carry on enjoying working at your gulag :)
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