Minor work rant before the good stuff

I don’t like bringing up work here. Trying to keep professional and home life (and other avocations) separate. But… I’m really tired of being the one who has to stand athwart progress and shout “Stop!”

As I think I mentioned, I’m the web communications boss for the agency that pays my salary. Main content guru for the website. Which, also means I have an interest in social media/Web 2.0-type stuff. Kinda fits, doesn’t it?

Well, as shouldn’t be too surprising, lots of folks in my agency want to jump right into blogging, wikis, Twitter and so forth. The Department (the level above my agency) wants us – with justification – to go slow. Legal, privacy, security issues. Can’t be the agency that exposed individuals’ private information to the public because we want to play in the social media sandbox.

What’s really frustrating is that the calls for moving into this field are just that: calls to move in. They don’t really have a firm grasp of how they want to use a blog, just that they want one. I agree with this lady that Twitter isn’t a strategy, blogging isn’t a strategy. These things are tools for communicators, not substitutes. I don’t think we’ll ever get to the point where we can say anything we want on behalf of our employers. There has to be some guidance, and yes, some CYA.

Okay, rant over. Its Friday evening; I’m on the way home writing this. Headed down to SW Virginia tonight for my daughter’s All-Virginia Elementary Chorus concert tomorrow. I don’t want to think too hard. I just want to be a proud Daddy.