Steve Ranger's Notebook: Wary of wikis? Cynical about Second Life?

Tech is playing an ever larger role in our work and home lives. So be careful how you choose to limit access to wikis, blogs, social networking, virtual worlds and more, warns Steve Ranger.

Last night on the Tube I overheard a conversation that summed up the struggle many companies are having with new technology. Two young office workers were making plans:

Bloke One: "So I'll put it up on Facebook, right?"

Bloke Two: "No, I won't be able to see it, our IT department blocks Facebook."

And there's your problem right there - whoever it was in the organisation that took the decision to ban Facebook (and probably YouTube and Second Life for good measure), it's the CIO taking the blame from the staff.

These days there's a lot of discussion about how consumer tech trends and web 2.0 affect businesses. But it seems to me companies that immediately ban what they don't understand are missing a trick.

Firstly, they are assuming all innovation comes from the top - and the little people at the bottom of an organisation can't be trusted, won't come up with any ideas and shouldn't be allowed to play around with silly stuff like social networking on company time.

How to test this? Round up 100 business chiefs - be they managing directors, finance chiefs, HR bosses or even CIOs. Find out how many have posted a clip to YouTube, or have a Second Life avatar or a MySpace account. You'd be lucky to get enough for a game of ping pong.

But talk to the junior staff in any organisation and they'll be the ones doing all this stuff. Obviously I'm not suggesting you give the office junior a fat load of bandwidth and let them play all day but consider how these digital natives are going to change they way you structure your business.

Say what?

Find out all about Chip and PIN, Itil, wi-fi and more in our Cheat Sheets.

I know several busy managers who have as much contact with their staff through their Facebook page as they have in person. And I know companies that are benefiting from the use of social networking to share knowledge internally, creating virtual teams that could never exist in the real world. Some are even looking at venues such as Second Life as an outsourcing opportunity.

And of course you have the morale issue. Access to anything on the web at work may not be a right but many staff see it as such. Which is perhaps why many organisations that ban such applications are forced to open up access again.

None of this is applicable to every business. But chances are one of these technologies - wiki, social network or virtual world - can offer your company something.

And if after thinking about the potential you make the decision that social networking sites or other web 2.0 technologies should be off your network, so be it.

If you do choose to restrict access to these applications, at least explain why. In many cases limiting access may be the right decision for your organisation - but why let the CIO take the blame if it's actually the CEO who wants the policy?

In any case, staff will find ways around any blocks you put in place. If they can't use one social network they'll switch to another - or some other technology.

The guys on the train couldn't access Facebook - so they agreed to get in contact by webmail instead. If you can't beat them, why not join them?