North American Network Operators Group
Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical

Re: How important is IM? was RE: How important is the PSTN

  • From: Scott Francis
  • Date: Wed Jun 26 23:38:15 2002 
On Tue, Jun 25, 2002 at 12:16:48PM -0700, [email protected] said:
[snip]
> This brings up a good point about IM.  IMHO, IM is a security risk and I am
> establishing a company standard where users behind the firewall are
> prohibited from using IM, IRC, and peer-to-peer file sharing programs.  My
> opinion is that these types of programs contribute more to lack of
> productivity than to real problem solving.
> 
> So my question for the group is, do chat programs (IM, IRC, yahoo) serve a
> substantial network support purpose or are they more of a distraction,
> allowing staff to communicate with friends, relatives, drifters, interlopers
> on company time?

Do such things contribute to time not spent on purely company-focused
efforts? Undoubtedly. Is such lost time offset by happy employees? I think
so.

Additionally, I know I for one have picked up at _least_ as much useful
knowledge from idling among really smart folk on IRC as I have from any other
public forum, mailing lists included. IRC can be an _excellent_ forum for
education.

Like any tool, the utility or hazard mainly depends on those using it. I'm
not sure the time you will gain by flatly denying use of these common tools
to be worth the ill will garnered. Just my opinion, of course.
-- 
-= Scott Francis || darkuncle (at) darkuncle (dot) net =-
  GPG key CB33CCA7 has been revoked; I am now 5537F527
        illum oportet crescere me autem minui

Attachment: pgp00024.pgp
Description: PGP signature