1.Shel:

Right on the nose. There are very few podcasts I can download at the office (FIR included). Plus, the TRULY dangerous sites like Flickr are blocked as well.

Add that to the fact that I still can't get broadband at home and getting my podcast fix is difficult. I have to take a laptop to a coffee shop to get them.

Back to your point. I think that there is too much of this that goes on. Rather than recognize the potential and usefulness of these tools, employers immediately figure that their people can't be trusted. It's a sad state of affairs, but all too true for so many. Too bad we can't all work for crayon! You guys truly do (here it comes!) get it.

2.Do IT departments also decide which newspapers the 'C' Suite read?

3.Reminds me of what someone once said in a presentation (Basically):

It is like the employer says to the candidate, "We need you to do our business. You fit with our culture. We have put you through multiple of grueling interviews ... now we don't trust you and will monitor every email, every click ..."

Man, that guy really put it a way I just cannot do justice.

4.The ironic implication that IT is not part of the business? It seems to me that they have a better grasp of the businesses needs and balancing resources than a so called "business person"!
Should we also ask the decision makers as to whether we really need some more blue network cables too?
Senior management delegate decisions for a reason. I'm surprised you don't realise this?

Unlimited budgets are wonderful things. Do let us know when you find one. ;-)

5.The problem is not restricted to podcasts. Through a six-month arduous journey we managed to get limited approval (50 machines in a company of nearly 5,000) for FeedDemon to assist in blog monitoring and testing of the technology. However, running a key word search through NewsGator, I find that a number of items that come up daily in my list are blocked for access because they come through FeedBurner. Apparently I'll need to go through another arduous journey to get access to those blogs (Neville Hobson's included) delivered via FeedBurner.

michaelclendenin

6.As one of those blocked knowledge workers, I deal with this issue daily. I am required to know a lot about what's happening in the online sphere, but have to book an overbooked board room with unfettered internet access to actually do the research and work. How can I give valid, timely advice if I can't access the resources easily?

Frustrated.

Brad

7.Steve, IT is a service function, just like Human Resources, Legal, and Finance. It is a cost center, not a profit center. IT SERVES the business needs and functions of the organization and should not drive them. IT should find solutions, not limit the conduct of business.

Most IT departments I deal with become an integral part of the business by providing excellent service. A minority want to control the business's use of technology. These are the IT departments that are the problem.

I was working with a company -- a big one -- in which IT had just started blocking access to websites. It turns out that they were blocking, in addition to pornography and frivolous sites, business-critical material. I talked to employees who could not submit reports because updated numbers they needed were on sites that were now blocked. When they called IT, they were told to submit a form and the site might be unblocked within three weeks.

That's being a part of the business?? Excuse me???? That's being an obstacle to the conduct of business. It's ignoring the needs of the business in pursuit of technology objectives.

I met an enlightened IT manager many years ago who said (I'll never forget this), "My job is not to say 'no.' My job is to find a way to say 'yes' without compromising the company's intellectual assets."

Now THAT's service. There are IT departments like that. It's the others that cheese me off.

As for budget, if you can show your investment of $1 will make the company $2, you'll get the money. Make a business case, not a technology case. EDS expanded bandwidth because the communications department showed the ROI the investment would produce.

By the way, Steve, if you think IT knows the business needs of the organization, read the other comments here. Blocking is frustrating the ability of employees to do their jobs. If that's knowing the business, the business world is in deep, serious trouble. Perhaps it's different in your organization and if it is, my hat's off to you. But I work every day with companies where employees can't do their work because IT is frustrating those efforts.

Again, I know this is not every IT department in every company. But it happens enough to limit the potential of many organizations.

8.Oh, Michael, I know! I've written about this in a variety of venues. This is only the latest post! I'm seriously thinking of starting a Web-based movement called something like "No Blocking."

I'm opposed to blocking access to ANY website, to keystroke logging, to any of the Big Brother crap that kills employee engagement, limits knowledge sharing, and eradicates trust. I've outlined my rationale for this, and dealt with the reasons companies DO block, in a variety of forums, and I'll do it again if I ever do launch this initiative.

9.Y'know, I listened to a great podcast the other day that expressed the same sentiments. I got it through my Gigavox Media feed. It was in a presentation from the Podcast & Portable Media expo last fall. Featured a guy named Holtz. ;)

This problem mainly happens when the C Suite doesn't Insist on openness throughout the organization AND keep checking up on all aspects of the company until the policy is absolutely followed to the letter. IT is just doing what they think the top brass wants. So, in my mind, it's up to the leaders to lead. Unfortunateely, the leaders ARE the problem most of the time.
Love & Peace, Clarence

10.My apologies, Shel, for being so late to the conversation (he says shame-facedly), but my hat's off to you for efforts to date, and you can sign my name to the No Blocking Movement petition (that's dangerously close to a "No BM" acronym slogan, though that would communicate two very different things!)

I mean, I understand that pornography and the like have no place in the workplace, and entertainment sites, unless your company and work happen to be connected to the industry, are likewise inappropriate. But let's give the vast majority of our employees credit for being the professionals we hired. And fire the occasional bad apple.