March 4, 2008
The New Workplace Rules: No Video-Watching
According to The Wall Street Journal, companies across the U.S. are starting to prevent their employees from accessing Internet-video services at work.
"The move follows previous steps by IT departments to shut employees' access to instant-messaging services, streaming music and Web sites with adult content.
Now, online video has become an increasing irritation with workers' productivity being jeopardized. According to a study released last month by Nielsen Online, the heaviest consumption of Internet video is during weekday lunch hours between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., when most people are at work.
Online video also is taxing already-strained corporate-technology networks. It poses a particular problem for smaller companies, which have limited bandwidth capacity to accommodate bulky video files. Online video files on average are about seven times as large as audio files, and 100 times as large as email.
...Blocking online video isn't easy. As people use the Web for a growing number of capacity-draining functions, from Internet telephone services to peer-to-peer file-sharing, it has become tougher for technology managers to sift through activity on their networks. In addition, the growing use of video as an office tool has made it more difficult to know whether employees are using video sites for work, or for diversion.
The confusion has created opportunities for small networking companies such as Sonic Wall which offers products and services capable of peering into computer traffic and dissecting it."
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/tv/archives/2008/03/019287.htm
| Tweet |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
