I’m not a witch! I’m not a witch!
So says Facebook, and many other new technologies, tools and cultural norms that try to survive the vagaries of dark age corporate policies. Facebook isn’t unique (in the sense that corporate antibodies are out to ‘get it’) as JP points out:
I remember a time, it must have been the early 1980s, when it was common to ban phones with direct dial facilities. Why? Because people might talk to their friends and family during work time. It took a while for firms to figure out that this was a stupid thing to do, but most carried on with a limited ban, usually on international direct dialling. That lasted a little longer. Then, by the early 1990s, when internet e-mail emerged, it too was banned. In fact there are stories about the banning of corporate e-mail as well, continuing into this century. Soon it was the turn of Instant Messaging to bear the wrath of Corporate Policy. Then came blogs and wikis and social software in general. Now it’s about social networking.
Since the year Dot, there have been organisational Grand Panjandrums seeking to stop people from “talking”. Because that’s what all this is. Conversation. Phones. E-mail. IM. Blogs. Wikis. Social networking. Conversations. That’s all.
Which is why, the ‘She’s a witch’ scene in Monty Python’s Holy Grail is actually an allegory for the timeless battle between new technologies like Facebook (the Witch), corporate middle and senior management (the villagers and peasants), and the CEO/CIO (Sir Bedevere):
(besides even if it isn’t (an allegory), it’s very funny.)
July 31st, 2007 at 5:34 am
[…] Over at the Park Paradigm, Sean draws the humorous and remarkably accurate parallel between the organisational attitude being discussed here and the She’s a Witch scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, suggesting that it’s: an allegory for the timeless battle between new technologies like Facebook (the Witch), corporate middle and senior management (the villagers and peasants), and the CEO/CIO (Sir Bedevere). […]
June 14th, 2008 at 3:55 am
[…] It’s pretty obvious to everyone in the industry that blogs (and online social software tools generally) are a relevant part of the financial services landscape. It seems a long long long time ago when in 2004 we started experimenting with internal blogs at DrKW. Let’s just say that this initiative - led by JP and Malcolm and the other thought leaders we had in our IT department - and championed by yours truly on the ‘front office’ side was met with… well let’s just say some mild scepticism. But to be fair, we were however allowed to continue our experiments, indeed I’m pretty sure that Rod was the first equity analyst from a mainstream sell-side firm to publish a public blog. Most of our competitors were stuck somewhere between anger and denial. […]