At the Information Security Leaders conference yesterday, aside from the gang war outside, an interesting debate arose around consumerisation in the workplace.
Both Bring-Your-Own and Social Media concepts were wrapped together and addressed by an expert panel.
Taking a few steps back, company owners, directors or management have pretty much insisted that employees get free reign over social media sites and can work from whatever device they want, on the premise that use of such technology can improve productivity.
A Google search doesn't provide much ammunition, other than showing there's a balanced view to be had. Half of experts seem to think that yes, productivity can be improved and the other half say no.
Those reports that are pro social media estimate an improvement in productivity of about 9%.
Those that are anti social media disagree and just say it's a waste of time – people should be taking structured breaks from work anyway and give their eyes a break from computer screens.
So in a world where there isn't actually any solid research based on your specific type of company, I do feel we are being forced to adopt and forced to secure a technology that in reality probably won't have any business benefit in the majority of cases.
Think about the bottom line. In times of economic downturn, then is giving everyone social media access the way to go, or a waste of money, security resource and an adverse affect on productivity?