There was a survey that came out recently titled, Facebook, MySpace tolerated by Business, Survey Says. Aside from the weird phrasing, it turns out that the title could have just as easily been Facebook, MySpace blocked by business. As they reported, “Darin Stahl, research lead at Info-Tech Research Group Inc. in London, Ontario, said only 46% of the IT managers at the 200 companies polled by his firm explicitly block access to social networking sites. Forty-nine percent tolerate employee use of such sites, and 3% actually encourage use.”

That seems to be a lot of blocking. The researcher goes on, “The reason more companies aren’t blocking social networking sites is probably because they have more critical issues to deal with, Stahl said…They’re probably picking their battles. One could argue that if it hasn’t come up and reared its head, they’re not fighting it.” This is hardly a ringing endorsement. He goes on, “In addition to security concerns, employee productivity was cited as a top concern, Stahl said. “It was viewed as a big time waster and really had very little to do with business value of your average accounts-payable clerk.”

Even though I am not an accounts-payable clerk, I guess that Darin Stahl will not be my Facebook friend. He also might not find many friends with your average accounts-payable clerks. BTW, I did find a Darin Stahl from nearby Hamilton Ontario in Facebook with three friends and an undeveloped profile. It might be the same guy, but not sure. He could have been doing more “research.”
The article itself takes a bit more balanced view. It points out that Facebook already hosts networks for employees at companies such as Apple Inc. and is “preparing to launch a new feature that according to recent reports would allow it to act as a more professional networking utility.” This could be a good thing as there are still vestiges of its exclusive college days. The article author, Shamus McGillicuddy, does not appear to be on Facebook, at least not in a public way.

Personally, I say kudos to the 3% of firms who encourage the use of Facebook. MySpace might be a different story unless you are in the music business. Here are ten lessons from Facebook for the enterprise from Derek Abdinor. One of his points is that employees can learn through Facebook about how to make better use of the web and these lessons are often very applicable to their work.