Social
Networking
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 The Chief Technology Officer of a
pharmaceutical company in Schaumburg asked me to look at increasing
their internet bandwidth because "working" on the internet was slow.
I don't recommend throwing money at something just to
throw money at it and wondered if they needed more bandwidth to
use, or to use less bandwidth.
Less than 50 computers
on-site, no telecommuting, no web based applications, there
shouldn't have been much traffic. So where was all the traffic
coming from?
The Server's internet
log showed a lot of surfing for personal enjoyment (aka:
porn) and personal enjoyment uses lots of bandwidth. The log was
large, old and incomplete. A new log was started and in 5 days
I'd look at it again.
Five days went by and the log
clearly identified a large number of people that were
personally enjoying the internet. The CTO asked me for answers and I
told him, without giving any detail, I'd have his bandwidth problem
fixed in a week.
We leaked that there was an
internet log and it was being audited and it told everything that
everyone did. The CTO would also hear this and ask if
he could see the log and I'd have to say yes.
All week they came in, some two or three times,
trying to find out just exactly how much I knew. I told
everyone a new log would start Monday and be reviewed by management
Friday. If they couldn't figure that out I couldn't help
them. The CTO came to see me and asked when he could see the
log, we set a Friday date.
Next Friday came,
the CTO thanked me for fixing the problem, and asked if he should
review the log. I just said "no", and we left it at
that.
Lost productivity was more expensive
than the cost of bandwidth. Surfing porn is a pretty clear
no-no, but does it really matter where you
surf? email, surfing, IMing, it's all wasted time.
Just in case you've ever worked at a sports bar; 20
employees surfing, IMing, and emailing 3 minutes an
hour adds up to one full-time employee. Six minutes would equal
two. Nine would be three. If you said four, Carmen, I'll have a
fifty-cent Budweiser and so will all my new
friends.
But what about you? You're not like
that. You check your email, google directions to a restaurant
or two, buy shoes and update MySpace/Facebook, but that's only
in the morning. You can't help it people IM, text, and
email you throughout the day. Don't forget to check MySpace/Facebook
again, someone might post a pic of their dog or
something.
** Hot Tip! - When someone texts or IMs you at work
saying they're bored they're scraping the bottom of the barrel. You.
They have no respect for your time, or you, or your job.
**
Lets just call the teen and tween dating sites MyFace
from here out to save ink.
It doesn't seem like you'd get much done sitting on MyFace
all day while you're IMing your peeps. You may even think that
companies would be against all that Social Networking. Surprisingly
they're not. Nope, the vast majority are OK with it and 10% even
encourage it.
Only 23% of companies
block MyFace Social Networking sites, but only
because they're classified as Dating Sites. Its not like those
companies are against all Social Networking, just Dating Sites,
maybe they're in favor of more professional Social Networking like
LinkedIn.
I don't know if the 23% that block MyFace also block
match.com and manboylove.org because they're Dating Sites, or if the
10% that encourage Social Networking also encourage surfing Dating
Sites, but there's a link to email me somewhere around here in case
you'd like to enlighten me.
Two out of three IT people are into Social Networking but of
course they're young and hip and make a ton of money and race
motorcycles. Here's another surprise though, they like LinkedIn
and use it for Professional Networking. Good news, bad news, bad
news. They're not wasting time, they're looking for better
jobs, and they're on the clock.
I mentioned MyFace to a 20-something IT
friend and he said; "MyFace? Doesn't Chris Hansen and
MSNBC come to your house if you go on MyFace?" More of a
LinkedIn type (single-hot-straight-male email me
for pics) I guess. Maybe the 23% don't want Chris
Hansen and MSNBC in their lobby.
MyFace, LinkedIn, match.com,
manboylove.org, IM, email, surf, thats your call, and your
employer's, and that's Cocktail
Talk.
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Craig
Phillips
CN Consulting, Inc.
PS Yes I checked, and No it doesn't. And if you did, why? But
it would have been funny if it
did.
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