Social Media- CSO Breakfast Club

On Thursday, I took the train up from Baltimore to speak at the Philadelphia chapter of the CSO Breakfast Club.  I was given the opportunity to get in front of 40 + chief security officers and guide them through my Social Networking vs. Social Media presentation I have been giving lately.
I’ve embedded the deck below.

While the majority of my talk was spent discussing the various social media tool families (blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, online video, and so on) I was surprised when the conversation turned toward how do you take these tools inside the enterprise (Enterprise 2.0) and what are some of the challenges. 

So what are some of the challenges of taking Web-based tools inside the enterprise?

1.    The ROI debate. What is the return on these tools particularly when orgs have a significant investment in email?

2.    Security. Are the tools secure?  What about the content that travels the wire?  Do we need to control it or at least know what it is?

3.    Leadership perspectives.  The CEO seeks increased productivity via blogs and wikis. But management is scared someone will publish valuable IP accidentally.  And IT thinks PHP is a security risk.

One of the things that I wanted to get across is that people are inherently social and want to share—even at work. We satisfy this need by making runs to Starbucks, attending happy hour, and hosting potluck dinners.  During these outings, we’re not always talking about business.  We talk about relationships, our families, vacations, and embellish stories about our fishing trips. At least I do.

Inside the firewall, the Web plays a role in enabling this behavior, too. And this is one of the areas (besides security) where people get scared.  What if someone posts a photo from their baby shower or an unflattering photo from a “non work” related event?  This is a question that came up yesterday.

This sounds like a policy matter more so than a tools and technology problem.  What happens when I say something regrettable in an email?  It’s on me.  I’d like to know what questions were asked when email vendors tried to get in the door 15-20 years ago.  I bet they are similar, if not the same, as the ones being asked now about enterprise 2.0 tools.

History rhymes and people don’t change that much.

I have some more thoughts about this and I’m interested to hear your opinions in the comments.  I’ll either chime in or write up another post about it.

Many thanks to Bill and Patrick from CSO Breakfast Club.  Looking forward to more on this topic in Baltimore and DC in the next few weeks.