Blogs, Security, Wikis...

Been having a bit of a runaround with our systems department lately. We have a staff blog and an Intranet. These are on a server that is limited to IP ranges within the library. This means that the RSS feed of our staff blog can not actually be used with any feedreader that is not desktop-based. As a result, noboby really uses the feeds of our staff blog. They have to actually visit the site. Arrrrrgh!

Furthermore, it means that we can't actually perform a lot of the functions of our Intranet, if we are outside the building. Going to a conference? Want to post some information to the staff Intranet? FAGGETTABOUTIT!!!

The whole thing seems to fly in the face of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 in that it does not empower the user (in this case, library staff); it disempowers them. How can we expect library staff to learn about and deploy new information technologies, if we inhibit their use? Anybody else have similar issues? Any success in getting systems to loosen the reins a bit?

Tags: blogs, intranet, staff

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Permalink Reply by James E Weaver on August 27, 2007 at 5:08pm

Boy, does this sound familiar! We expect staff to use the intranet, but vital information that would help a person make a decision, for example, to come to work during bad weather (when the Sheriff's office says please do not travel) is unavailable from home - in other words in such I situation I cannot determine (while at home) without a telephone call whether my location is open even though such closure information is posted there as soon as it is known.

Our part-timers must come into a branch or headquarters, find an available PC, and then log in as themselves so that they can file their respective online timesheets, the new copy of which is always available on the intranet.

Recently we have been struggling with IT to establish IM access for our patrons. Pidgin can only be on the desktop (until we break out a new Web site next Spring) and thus not really tested much less used until IT can get around the system and install it. The problem they were trying to solve is the protection of our patrons' respective privacy (never mind they can email us without such protection).

while I can understand the security implications, like you I cannot understand the seeming deliberate suppression of access to Web/Library 2.0 technologies.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Watkins on August 27, 2007 at 8:18pm

I agree with you and James that this sounds excessively heavy-handed on the part of your IT folks. One possible solution, although not exactly a satisfying one, is to do an end run and move your intranet to a private blog on one of the publicly hosted sites like blogger.com, completely bypassing the IP and desktop lockdown that they've imposed. While you might not want to post any sensitive information there (database passwords and the like), you'd at least be able to get to it from anywhere.

--Steve

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Permalink Reply by Bob Kosovsky on August 27, 2007 at 9:12pm

Hi Steve,

We had a similar problem, and our IT folks (ever worried about security) figured out a workaround.

For blogs, there's no great solution, but there are blog aggregators for behind-the-firewall blogs. I use Sage (a Firefox add-on) and it works reasonably well. There are a few others - none of which are as "advanced" as Bloglines or Google Reader, but them's the breaks.

Originally our internal blogs were also fixed to IP address. Finally, IT switched to - I forget what you call it, but it's based on our email logins. We're allowed remote access to our intranet by use of our email logins (we use Notes - it has something to do with that), hence they switched the blogs there too. Wish I could be more specific. But it is possible and it doesn't compromise security. Tell your IT department to do its homework and not always choose the easy way out - they work for you, not vice-versa.