Security, Part 2

At my company, we are supposed to put appropriate footers at the bottoms of our documents and emails. For example, "Internal Use Only," "Do Not Duplicate," etc., (I made all of those up). I don't think all of the employees are as thoughtful at doing this as our legal & security groups would like, although I'm sure many people are very conscientious. So I think we may have just assumed that, by keeping our documents only on our intranet, that we are keeping employees safe from themselves, and the company's secrets slightly safer than they might be otherwise.

Now, however, it is very easy for employees to blog on the Internet, or collaborate using a wiki on the Internet. Our email & calendar accounts are accessible from the Internet. But many employees find accessing our applications and documents through our intranet just not compatible with their work (or location, or Internet-enabled device, or ...). So should we move more out onto the Internet?

Security, Part 1

(note that I'm not in an IT security group or anything, I just started thinking about this)

Several months ago when our group started looking at ning, I wrote up some general guidelines for using these Internet-based apps (vs. our intranet), just to have something.

Currently, after reading the policies & guidelines for our company's external blogs and wikis, I'm thinking that we've just flipped the model. We used to think we had to protect users from themselves, by giving them the safest default. Now that everyone wants to be connected via whatever device or appliance or location or situation they choose, we need to move our data onto the Internet. In addition, as we understand the value of open information (think Wikinomics), we (as a company) want to publish as much of our information, and thoughts, to as wide an audience as possible.

Anyway, I think the model is now something more like, "You, as an employee, have knowledge and ideas that may or may not be appropriate to share with the rest of the world, including our competitors. It is up to you to determine whether or not you should publish this information securely, or on the Internet. If you are unsure, contact blahblahblah for assistance."

CSI:NY and Second Life

The CSI:New York episode this week was about Second Life, and a lot of the tv show seemed like it took place in the "real" regular Second Life. I believe they took some liberties around how to get clothes, etc., for appearance, and I have no idea if the gladiator fighting is something that can actually take place in Second Life. 

Why did the suspect drop her shoes when she fell in the hole? What was the hole? okay, so I do have a few questions around what was actually "gameplay" and what was faked.

Also, they are running a game in SL where you get to be a virtual CSI in virtual New York:

There are video tutorials that may be useful for other SL users, although all of the crime-scene tape and dead bodies may be off-putting (or not).

You can watch the CSI: New York "Down the Rabbit Hole" episode here.

Work at Video Games

Okay, so here's a different take on video games.

Sony enters the Rat Race
By way of its PlayStation Blog, Sony has announced Rat Race, a new episodic game series coming to the PlayStation 3 this winter. The game is in development by Super-Ego Games, a relatively upstart studio whose former credits include The Barbie Diaries: High School Mystery for the PC.



So, instead of taking a break from your job and real-life responsibilities to play a game of puzzles and shoot-em-ups, you take a break from your job and real-life responsibilities to play a game of a job and real-life responsibilities. ?

I can't imagine anyone (with a job) thinking that this is fun.

Ning and Facebook

How Is A Social Network on Ning Different from a Facebook Group?
"People want different identities depending on the context. So, for any social network on Ning, your profile is completely customizable and specific to that social network."

I think the big difference in how I use them is that, on Ning, I have as many profile pages as I am a member of different groups. On Facebook, I have exactly one profile page. In my case, on Ning I have the following profile pages:

OSG PM group: info on my group work activity, list of other OSG PM sub-teams I'm on, photos I've uploaded to this group, a feed from my external blog, a comment wall just with comments from other team members, and a few other work related stuff.

GECCO group: not much here as I mostly lurk in this group, but again a comment wall just from other group members

my flyball club's Wii group: all kinds of info on Wii games I'm playing or need help on, game stats, a blog I keep on my games (specific to this group), and videos & other info I've shared with the group.

On Facebook, I'm a member of the following groups, a variety of work & play, but they all point back to my identical profile:

Women@Sun

Facebook for Business

Web 2.0 (Entrepreneurs)

Flyball

Calling All Dogster Dogs!

Cross functional collaboration team

The Tour de France Dominates my month of July

Facebook Developers

Social Tools

Note that on Facebook, my Comment Wall gets posts from work friends, flyball friends, and just random people leaving comments, all mixed.

This is the big difference for me, that Ning is all about the context of my profile in that group, but in Facebook, there is no context, it's all just me. Two almost opposite approaches, I'd say.