by Mark Stencel,
Governing
Where is the best place on the Web to post a series of instructive videos for state officials about Internet security? On YouTube, of course.
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers did exactly that earlier this year. Just one problem: Iowa technology leader John Gillispie, the association's president, couldn't watch the videos. State employees in the offices where he works are blocked from accessing YouTube on their work computers; it is classified as an "entertainment" Web site.
Gillispie isn't the only one who has run into this kind of online roadblock at work. Restrictive Internet use policies, backed by software designed to monitor and control employees' online activities, are common in many state and local government agencies. Tech administrators often block employee access to entire categories of potentially inappropriate online content, from politics to porn. Many also block instant messaging and personal Webmail services to prevent employees from using these applications to conduct back-channel business.
Websense Inc., the maker of one widely used "employee Internet management" tool, says public officials are right to be wary. The company's Web site says "Internet misuse" exposes managers and their bosses to legal liabilities, security breaches and productivity losses.
Public-sector managers also have potential public relations worries to consider. Word that government employees are wasting chunks of the work day surfing the Web could outrage parsimonious taxpayers.
Top Florida officials got a taste of that last August when the St. Petersburg Times (Governing's corporate parent) used a revealing Web tool called WikiScanner to see which state computer networks were being used to submit changes on Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia that's written and edited by its readers. Among the changes the newspaper found were a correction made by someone in the governor's office to an article about the 1980s pop band the Go-Gos and a health department employee's change to a profile of a Tampa-area porn star.
Read all of Mark Stencel's column at Governing.com
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