I was recently involved with a road show telling people on the streets of Manchester about the Getsafeonline website (http://www.getsafeonline.org) which advises people about how to secure their web interactions. About half of those who tried to brush me off with ‘I never use the internet’ were attracted to the leaflet when I pointed out that their friends and family may be posting information about them in blogs or social network sites.
 
It’s an alluring technology but few of the associated risks are really technology problems. It’s no different from that old managerial adage of ‘less gob, more job’. Perhaps management is failing to get people working to their appropriate potential? But similarly, heavy handed bans are unlikely to mitigate the risks. It’s a difficult solution to call. Do you risk resentment and clandestine access and comments by putting in a blanket ban or do you encourage personal responsibility by leaving access available? Some companies seem to have the balance by allowing access out of hours or at lunchtimes. You may curtail the workplace access but you can’t control the cybercafé or home PC without instilling staff with a risk literate attitude. If it’s not your job to update a social networking site(!), you are stealing from your employer if you do it during working hours. With quick checks and small updates, you will find yourself like Oscar Wilde - resisting everything but temptation. You may have intended it to be a 5-minute break an hour ago . . .
 
And then there’s the problem of automated content management. We’ve already seen the lack of control afforded to an advertiser placing adverts on a social networking site and the freedom of users to define content outside the close control of the website associating them with undesirable material (from at least the point of view of brand image).

Daniel Dresner

Travelling into work this morning I was neck and neck with a rather nice blue Ferrari convertible with camel leather. Neither of us were winning the race to get to work - we were in slow moving weekday traffic on the A34 heading towards central Manchester. “What a waste” I thought, the Ferrari driver couldn’t go any faster than anybody else, used more fuel and arguably had a more unwieldy vehicle for the journey. I’m sure both of us were late for work!   

When I did get there somebody passed me a recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit sponsored by (IBM) which proclaimed that “IT and the environment was a new item on the CIO agenda.” This concurs with recent NCC research which revealed that whilst many IT folk were getting greener, most were at the very early stages and hadn’t actually done anything significantly “green.” Yet those that had, identified cost savings and environmental benefits. 

Rome can’t be built overnight, and changing behaviour and culture are significant barriers to overcome, but I urge IT leaders to get started on green now. Current technology is good enough to deploy effective video conferencing, and home working, both of which would cut congestion, CO2 emissions and improve everybody’s quality of life. 

Green IT is an opportunity for IT to rise to the challenge, and show business leadership - and we need you!  

Mike Dean