Transparency - A double-edge sword #e20s

photo (2) berg Oscar Berg on the stage! He'll talk about Transparency as the double-edged sword. Or: Governing Enterprise 2.0 Risk.

Knowledge work, ideas and the like are like black boxes. We can't look into them. We are finding ways to open up these black boxes.

Increasing transparency in organizations and between organizations decreases risks and enables value-creation.

Oscar points to two cases in which they tried to increase workplace awareness using blogs and microblogs.

Oscar remarks that many of the legal issues we are now concerned with are the same as when email was introduced.

Usability issues leads to workarounds. Employees start to email everything, label everything as Confidential, copy (locally) to ensure access, share with USB sticks.

Lesson 1: There's a real challenge in finding the right balance between security and privacy.

Lesson 2: We need a balance between control and empowerment. Governance is good, but it should not tip over in such a way that employees don't feel empowered. Control and empowerment should walk hand in hand: policies vs. training, restrictions vs. tools, control vs. trust. If there are too many restrictions people will refrain from sharing.

Lesson 3: Transparency must go both ways. Transparency is good, but users should be explained clearly what happens to their information. Facebook e.g. is not transparent both ways.

A culture of trust is more secure than a culture of control.

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