Previous page: Ontario's position on Facebook
Reputational risk is a primary concern for many employers in his clientele considering a ban, he says. And on this score, an employer's long arm can extend out of the workplace into an employee's home use. "An organization can't prohibit home use, but if its use results in exposure to liability or impacts its reputation, it can legitimately administer discipline or dismiss an employee for off-duty conduct," he says, adding it's important not to confuse freedom of speech or privacy with workplace consequences.
In his view, the arguments for a ban on social media make more sense than the contrary arguments. "It doesn't have to be a blanket ban, and exceptions can be made. It's a lot easier to propose a general prohibition and create exceptions where necessary than to allow people to misuse the system," he says, adding there are already some Canadian instances of dismissals for misuse of social media but none have been brought to court yet for decision.
Other jurisdictions
As social networking increases, more and more organizations are banning it. About 64 per cent of U.S. companies deny their employees access to sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, according to a survey by Clearswift, a London, UK-based provider of content security. In addition, 14 per cent have had to discipline staff for data loss and seven per cent for posting inappropriate content on social sites, but only 36 per cent have a policy covering such usage.
"The productivity issue is getting hyped, but organizations should be more worried about malware, bandwidth and reputational risk," says Stephen Millard, VP of marketing at Clearswift. Many Web 2.0 sites are developed with technologies such as Ajax, which are designed to be dynamic and intuitive but not necessarily secure, and may create vulnerability to malware.
"Ajax provides multiple avenues for malware to get into a business," he explains. "HTTP is like having one door into and out of an organization, but Ajax is like a house with many windows and doors."
While the knee-jerk reaction of many organizations today is to ban social media, a longer-term solution that allows appropriate access will be needed - otherwise, organizations risk alienating younger workers and being unable to attract the best and brightest talent, he says. "Younger people expect to use these Web 2.0 technologies so social media needs to be allowed but in a controlled way."
The U.S. FBI, Australia's Department of Defense and the UK's Department of Inland Revenue use Clearswift software to permit appropriate access to social media, he says. "A policy defines what staff at various levels of the organization can do - they only have access during specific hours, aren't permitted to post video files, and so on - and the software enforces it."
Many government officials find Web 2.0 technology threatening, says Nathan Rudyk, CEO of Almonte, Ontario-based market2world communications. Last year, Rudyk was involved in launching the Government 2.0 Think Tank (G2TT) in Ottawa. Started-up by civil servants on their personal time, the Web site's intent was to create a community of people united in their desire to make the government more efficient and interactive through the use of the latest Web technologies.
"Its mandate was to help propose policy on how Web 2.0 tools could be integrated into government strategy," says Rudyk.
Although G2TT's start-up was greeted with an enthusiastic review in The Ottawa Citizen, the site was shut down shortly afterwards. "It speaks to some strange behaviour at higher levels," he says.
He warns the Canadian government risks becoming irrelevant to citizens if it cuts itself off from widely-used social networking sites. "Ontario's Facebook ban was a tragic decision, and should be reversed. It cuts off the bureaucracy from experiencing the information diet of the very near future." Young people don't use e-mail anymore, and increasingly rely on handheld devices and social networks to remain constantly connected to the hive.
"If government sites aren't designed to operate that way, you've just cancelled that 14 to 24 year-old demographic." he says. "And if the government can't understand the dynamics of social media and non-hierarchical collaboration, it will be on the losing end of the battle for talent."
As more and more citizens use social media to form interest groups, the Canadian government may lose touch with many disaffected segments of society. "The government is shutting itself off from understanding the flow of information about what could be displeasure with government policy and services," he says.
"There could be a whole Facebook group airing concerns about safety on the streets or other issues. If government staff aren't allowed to go there - but that's where all the conversation is taking place about whether government is succeeding or failing - then they're not tuned into the channels where people are talking."
Moreover, there are many ways to use Web 2.0 to boost productivity today, he says. "Government is suffering a plague of e-mail, with cc and bcc typically overused." The back-and-forth of many discussions attempted over e-mail could be more productively handled with blogs and wikis.
Continued: Finding a balance
Related content:
Government faces Facebook reality
Federal CIO urges social networking code of conduct
The rise and fall of the Government 2.0 Think Tank
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