Another day, another white paper wondering about all the wasted productivity of workers frittering away productive hours and compromising company information on social networks. This one is called "Networking or Not Working - Social Networks: Brave New World or Revolution from Hell?" and is published by MessageLabs (via Web Buyer's Guide), a network security firm trying to peddle managed security services to block and filter unauthorized net-noodling. In addition to making the usual arguments pro and con, the paper arrives at this interesting assertion:

Maybe posterity will actually show that, with its emphasis on two-way conversation rather than traditional top-down online communication, social networking really was a bridge too far for business – and that the minuses outweighed the plus-points.

Two-way conversation is perhaps a bridge too far for the military, the Catholic Church, or the Republican Party: organizations where hierarchy serves a purpose so clear and so well-established that it is impossible to imagine them organized any other way. I'm not sure of businesses that fit that description. I'm sure many think they do, and will try to cling to command-and-control management styles even as they are outmanuevered and out-innovated by competitors who embrace the opportunities of transparency and many-to-many communication.

Moreover, the short-term challenges of managing in an open environment are problems for management, not technology. The paper makes this point as it pivots from market analysis to technology sell:

But framing an access and usage policy – and making employees aware of their responsibilities (even outside working hours!) – is only a first step. The trouble is, unless your Web security capability is equal to the task of enforcing it, you might just as well not have a policy at all.

Sorry, no. No one's security capability can enforce standards beyond the workplace or even beyond the enterprise infrastructure. Even the best security solution only solves the hygene problem of preventing malware from infiltrating enterprise desktops. Workers who are determined to participate in social networks during work hours will do so on portable devices. Those with poor work habits will find other ways to waste time. And people with an axe to grind don't have to be at work to spread harmful information or make foolish disclosures of company business online.

Technology solutions are limited at best and misleading at worst, if they lead management to the conclusion that a firewall can substitute for open communication, reasonable standards, results-based management, and good old fashioned trust. If professional workplaces can't trust their employees to get their jobs done properly, even in the face of various distractions and new opportunities to blend work and life, they might want to re-think their hiring policies, not their IT policies.