Community, personal communications, and civility

Wide Area Networking This newsletter is sponsored by New Edge Networks MPLS: The tool for a robust virtual workplace Get real-world advice on how to best support and manage your organizations virtual workforce. Listen to this complimentary Webcast, Building IP Networks for the Distributed Workforce, to hear how selecting the right WAN service to support distant employees can make all the difference. Click here to register now. Network World's Wide Area Networking Newsletter, 10/02/07 Community, personal communications, and civility By Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler In the last newsletter, we explored the impact on productivity due to the use of corporate network resources for personal communications. In particular, we set forth a supposition that it is not at all unreasonable to expect that at least an hour per day of “work time” is spent on personal communications. And we further hypothesized that perhaps a part of the solution to this issue is to combine excellent technology with appropriate policy. Without policy, there will always be a way around blocking technology. Today we’ll go so far as to set forth an idea that allowing “reasonable” use of corporate resources for personal communications is a good idea. After all, many employees are expected to use personal communications resources for business “after hours,” so there is an argument that a reasonable “quid pro quo” could be expected. Additionally, as an example, having the opportunity for a parent to receive a text message from a child concerning a problem at school could result in a more productive worker because of reduced stress and worries about family matters. Of course, we could have long discussions about whether this blurring between the personal communications workspace and the corporate workspace is a good or a bad idea. But regardless, it’s a fact of life. We now expect that most people will check work e-mail at least daily even on weekends and while on “vacation.” Executive Guide:Virtualization Meets Reality Virtualization is being used to make the most out of everything from applications and servers to desktops and storage. But as companies expand their reliance on the technology, challenges mount. Read this guide authored by a host of Network World editors and review this timely topic. Click Here for More Information Which brings us to the idea of community. We have personally met only a minute percentage of those of you who read this newsletter. Nevertheless, there is an electronic tie that binds us together. And in most cases it’s an almost personal relationship. The downside of the electronic anonymity is that sometimes people feel more free to “flame” on an idea electronically than they would in person. We’ve all seen examples of people writing - via e-mail, blogs, and forums – personal attacks that they would never say to a person directly (we hope!). And as writers of a newsletter, we’ve occasionally experienced this, but you become pretty immune to the personal attacks after a while. It comes with the territory. The positive side of the “electronic water cooler” is that there is indeed a community. Over the years, a relationship of trust is built. We’ve experienced this first-hand both via this newsletter and at Webtorials. So allowing for some time for personal – albeit sometimes anonymous – communication seems to be a reasonable trade-off for building good working relationships. And as our workplace continues to evolve to being a virtual workplace, so must these relationships. Bottom line from our perspective? First establish reasonable policies. But then make sure that these policies allow “moderation in all things.”   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

TODAY'S MOST-READ STORIES: 1. 2007 Salary survey: IT pay falls short 2. Security issues stall max transmission rates 3. Verizon FiOS installation sparks nothing? 4. 'Radical rethinking' of Internet routing 5. 13 free tools ease IT management 6. Storm: the largest botnet in the world? 7. iPhone gets VoIP tryout 8. 3Com customers should 'stand pat' 9. NIST's 56 cool advanced research projects 10. New update breaks hacked iPhones MOST E-MAILED STORY: 'Radical rethinking' of Internet routing

Contact the author: Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to Webtorials, the premier site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and market research. Taylor can be reached at taylor@webtorials.com Jim Metzler is the Vice President of Ashton, Metzler & Associates, a consulting organization that focuses on leveraging technology for business success. Jim assists vendors to refine product strategies, service providers to deploy technologies and services, and enterprises evolve their network infrastructure. He can be reached via e-mail. This newsletter is sponsored by New Edge Networks MPLS: The tool for a robust virtual workplace Get real-world advice on how to best support and manage your organizations virtual workforce. Listen to this complimentary Webcast, Building IP Networks for the Distributed Workforce, to hear how selecting the right WAN service to support distant employees can make all the difference. Click here to register now. ARCHIVE Archive of the Wide Area Networking Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007