Risk versus Reward

ITBusinessEdge has an interesting take on the increasing struggle between freedom of expression and command-and-control when using Enterprise 2.0 tools.  Discussed in the article is a blog post by Andrew McAfee:

“McAfee notes that E2 tools take some of the control out of the hands of companies:

Enterprise 2.0 tools have no inherent respect for organizational boundaries, hierarchies, or job titles. They facilitate self-organization and emergent rather than imposed structure. They require line managers, compliance officers, and other stewards to trust that users will not deliberately or inadvertently use them inappropriately. They require these stewards to become comfortable with collaboration environments that “practice the philosophy of making it easy to correct mistakes, rather than making it difficult to make them” as Jimmy Wales has said. They require, in short, the re-examination and often the reversal of many longstanding assumptions and practices.”

This is a battle I’m seeing waged every day - how do enterprise let users enjoy the freedom of collaboration that wikis/blogs/web 2.0 provide, but still ensure that their data is secure and in compliance with policies?  There’s no easy answer here, but much of the thinking here deals with risk versus reward.  For instance, a company with minimal intellectual property, such as a public relations firm or consumer services firm, will face relatively less risk in letting employees share information through blogs or wikis.  However, a big pharmaceutical or financial-services company that has piles of confidential information and intellectual property takes on additional risk in letting users use blogs or wikis.  Yes, they certainly trust their employees to use these tools appropriately, but they also must verify that information isn’t being exposed.

Yes, blogs and wikis are coming to the enterprise, but being able to simply trust that everything will go according to plan isn’t an option for some organizations.   For some companies, a few controls will need to be put in place so that these web 2.0 tools can be used.  Sometimes this is the lesser of two evils.