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Online Activism Takes A Giant Step Forward

January 20th, 2012

By now, unless you’ve been living under a rock the past couple of weeks, you know about the highly controversial SOPA/PIPA Acts being pushed in Congress. Many are upset over these proposals and their potential negative impact on the internet. However, in an unprecedented showing of “online activism” Wednesday, it looks like their cries of foul have not fallen on deaf ears. Aside from Wikipedia’s much publicized “Blackout,” other technology giants like Google, Mozilla, and Craigslist joined the fray in their own personal way. Here were some of the results of Wednesday’s actions, according to a CIO.com article:

-4.5 million people signed Google’s anti-SOPA/PIPA petition, according to the Los Angeles Times

-25 Senators now oppose PIPA (the Senate version of SOPA), according to OpenCongress

-Twitter saw more than 2.4 million SOPA-related tweets between midnight and 4 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday

-Two SOPA co-sponsors and several others dropped support for the House bill

-More than 162 million people saw Wikipedia’s protest page

-More than 8 million people used Wikipedia’s search tool to look up their elected representatives’ contact information

While many are calling the protests a success only time will truly tell the story. The plan, as of now, is to move forward with this anti-piracy legislation. The Senate will vote again on PIPA next Tuesday, January 24th.

****Update****

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced he is postponing Tuesday’s PIPA vote.

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Posted in IT Security, News, Social Media

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Young IT Professionals Making Their Own Rules

December 14th, 2011

As a young professional myself, I find the results of Cisco’s study on Generation Y’s view on IT policies interesting. I’m sure they may cause CIO’s and IT Managers to do a double-take as well. Seven out of ten employees admitted to breaking IT policies with varying regularity. They say their company’s social media policies are outdated. Why are they breaking those polices? Here are a few of the answers:

-          22% cite the need to access unauthorized programs and apps just to get their job done

-          18% admitted the policies are not enforced

-          18% don’t have the time to think about policies when they are working

-          16% said it’s not convenient

-          15% forget

-          14% do it when their bosses aren’t watching them

Now clearly young professionals should be responsible and abide by the rules. However, I think the problem here lies more at the other end of the spectrum, with management. Outdated policies, lack of enforcement, and probably inadequate education on the rules seem to be the major contributors. I don’t think we need babysitters by any means but you have to have some kind of watch dog in place for enforcement purposes. Young people will push the boundaries for better or worse. In their eyes they there trying to be more efficient and there is no malicious intent. If you do not set standards they have no problem setting their own standard and riding that until someone says “no.”

Outdated policies are never a good thing but that is easy to understand because of IT’s rapidly changing landscape. Policies need to be reviewed on a regular basis. If you do not want these young professionals breaking the rules, perhaps give them some input in terms of what to include in the policy. Collaborate and make compromises to cut down on these issues. This also helps the 22% that said they need access to unauthorized programs and apps just to get their job done. I’m sure there are some sites they think they need access to but in truth they are not really necessary. On the other hand, how are they supposed to complete their work in a satisfactory manner if they do not have the proper tools at their disposal? Go ahead and give them the tools they need within reason and you will start to see these numbers drop.

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Posted in IT Executive Management, IT Security, IT Workforce, News, Strategy

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Enterprise Social Media Not Measured in Dollars & Cents

November 22nd, 2011

While social media exploded into the consumer space several years ago, it is relatively new to the business world. Enterprises have been reluctant to come around on the notion but their resistance is waning. One of the problems is a difficulty in measuring the impact social media has on the enterprise in its various capacities. It is tough to come up with dollars and cents when your metrics are Facebook “Likes” and Twitter followers. However, thinking about it in those terms can be a rather narrow-minded approach. Instead, think in terms of communications, engagement, and innovation. This article from Information Week asks how you can measure the ROI for these activities. That is an excellent point because if anything, social media gives everyone a voice and promotes collaboration. Now you start to get ideas, problems get solved faster, and innovation moves to the forefront. There are over 800 million people using Facebook in the world today. Those users are in fact your customers, employees, shareholders, and partners. They are already there using the service so it makes little sense to resist the move towards a social enterprise any longer. If the number of people using these social channels continues to grow exponentially like they’re doing right now companies may not have an option.

Dr. Jonathan Reichental, CIO for the City of Palo Alto, California, recently led a Web Forum presentation on “Social Media in the Corporate Environment.” He touched on a lot of these points and highlighted the opportunities that are out there for businesses aiming to shift towards becoming a more social enterprise. To read a full report on this presentation by Dr. Reichental, CLICK HERE.

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Posted in IT Innovation, News, Social Media, Strategy

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