Social networking: Not IT's problem

Computerworld - For social networking tools to be successful, the buck has to stop somewhere other than IT, according to technology pioneers and experts.

"Social networking is more than just operations; it's community development. Therefore, IT should not be in charge of it," says Rachel Happe, research manager for the digital business economy at IDC.

Happe says companies, which are starting to latch on to social networking tools such as blogs, wikis and user-driven content sites, must allocate human, as well as IT, resources to manage this new frontier.

"There is tremendous value to be gained from social networking tools. But you need to make sure that there are actual people that are responsible for making sure that the community is interacting in a way that fits the goals of the community," she says. Doing otherwise puts the organization at risk for lawsuits and other malicious behavior. "Organizations have to manage the technology or it will come back to hurt them."

Jim Klein, director of information services and technology at California's Saugus Union School District, puts this advice into practice every day. Klein and his team recently rolled out social networking tools, including blogs, to the district's faculty, students and staff. However, Klein has put many controls in place so that IT and the school are protected from users running amok.

Approved content only

"The way we handle it is that if a business unit wants to start blogging, then a leader has to manage those blogs," he says. For instance, if a teacher wants his students to communicate via the school's Web site, then that teacher has to approve all the content being posted. "That way IT does not get put in the line of fire."

What happens in many companies is that the technology is put in place by IT or a business unit without much planning. "Someone says, 'Hey, let's do a wiki,' then something goes wrong and they say we should have thought about that," Klein says.

Klein himself spent several months planning out all aspects of the content management system and Web site that are the backbone of the school's social networking effort.

He says the first step is to plan out your workflow. You have to figure out a way that content can flow from the user to the Web with several checks and balances. "In our system [which is Web-based, open-source and homegrown], the community leader gets alerted when there is content for him to approve," Klein says.

Happe says this is a good policy. "The leader doesn't have to be a full-time job. It's just someone to take responsibility for the community," she says.