I don't think I would ever be comfortable knowing that a computer program is looking at every single form of communication I send out on my business computer. Don't get me wrong, I love this concept especially for its efficiency in streamlining everyday business. But the way I look at it is, I have some friends in my personal life that I really do not want to bring into my career life.
Ephraim Schwartz says in "Social Networking Targets the Enterprise" that you can
search for companies by region and revenue; you can ask for the names of all C-level executives at those companies; and you can match those names to people in your own company who know them.To me, that is great and all but what if your job depended on you being compliant when your boss asks you to contact "your friend" at that other firm? What if you say no, I rather not disrupt that relationship and the boss says if you don't then you're fired?
There needs to be some way to opt your personal life out of the program. Maybe the program can only check your work email or your work Instant Messenger. But as long as the program allows "users to tap into group functionality to form associations outside their own companies" without some form of privacy measures, this type of social network will not become the future of the business world.
2 comments:
I totally agree with your concept that personal and career online life should be separated. However, programs like Facebook are allowing us to be searched for by our employers and subjected to questioning because of it. Granted there is a way to control who and what they see.. still its a scary thought that what your personal life your even what your friends do can effect how your career partners will perceive you. I wonder if there is any new software that can mainstream or "hide" specific things that are going on in your personal online life..
I can only harp on what ashley says about facebook leaving our personal life out there for all to see.. There have been a few incidents in AU's athletic department where teams got in trouble by the administration for what they put on their profiles.. I don't think reprimanding someone's behavior based on what they do on facebook will deter them from doing the same thing in the future, in most cases i feel people are going to keep doing what they are doing
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