RE: Web filters - Effects on Productivity

["Murda Mcloud" <murdamcloud () bigpond com>]

There was a good story that got on slashdot yesterday about the Chicago
School of Law and professors having similar concerns to you:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/18/laptops

I think that people who want to waste time, will. And sometimes, those who
stay longer hours waste time just as much as anyone else.
Perhaps there's a metric for how productive people actually are when they
are not distracted.
It's just that the net gives such an easy opportunity to be distracted.

When I was at school, being distracted meant day-dreaming about any number
of things(making up stories about super heroes etc) I had a vast world at my
neuron-tips...people now have a vast world at their fingertips. It's a shame
that they/we only visit .02% of it looking for gossip and downloading 'free'
games or stupid jokes. Or pr0n.

Personally, I couldn't do my job quite as efficiently if I couldn't surf
relatively freely.


> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com]
> > On Behalf Of Noah
> > Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 12:58 PM
> > To: security basics
> > Subject: Web filters - Effects on Productivity
> >
> > I'm currently researching web filtering.  While my job is not to play
> > Internet Police with those whom I work, I do find it interesting that
> > even though my company has a seemingly draconian Internet Access
> > Policy, people still seem to waste plenty of time on the Internet.  I,
> > for one, am not exempt from this statement.
> >
> > My thoughts are that Web Filtering means different things to different
> > people.  HR believes that blocking sites such as CareerBuilder,
> > Monster and LinkedIn keeps employees from sniffing out better jobs on
> > company time.  Desktop support believes it decreases the number of
> > avenues for a widespread virus outbreak.  Managers believe it keeps
> > employees from wasting time in chat and on social networking sites.
> >
> > At the end of the day, I'm not sure how effective the productivity
> > piece really is.  If users can't access Facebook many settle for
> > wasting an hour on the "letters to the editor" section of the local
> > newspaper's website.  As for the blogs I read (many security-related
> > blogs are hosted on Blogger or Wordpress, which are blocked), I simply
> > add them to Google Reader, which I can access.  I read them anyways,
> > at least they're related to my job.
> >
> > I'm not bringing into question the technical security benefits of web
> > filtering; those are obvious.  Do web filters in schools and offices
> > *really* give productivity a boost, or do they simply shift what sites
> > or activities employees waste company time on?  Have there been any
> > solid studies on this topic?
> >
> > --Noah