Does your workplace allow the use of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter?  Here are some quotes from an interesting article about this issue:

"Employers should tear down firewalls that prevent staff from social
networking while at work, according to a leading internet security
expert.

Paul Ducklin, head of technology in the Asia Pacific for
computer security firm Sophos, said companies were "damned if [they] do
and damned if [they] don't" restrict access to popular sites like
Facebook and Twitter."

Plus

Mr Behrens said it was productivity and not the risk that sensitive information could be leaked that drove most business opposition to social networking use.

"Initially, when these social networking sites came out, there was usage by employees and then a number of companies started to crack down on it because it was starting to compromise workplace productivity," he said.

"And now, it's come full circle and it's really seen as a performance management issue more than anything else and if you're on the ball, hopefully it won't be a problem."

But Mr Ducklin said productivity should not be used as an excuse to restrict employee access to the sites.

"Let's face it – if someone is a time-waster, they'll find some way of wasting time," Mr Ducklin said.

"It doesn't really matter if it's Facebook or Sudoku."

Faculty Focus, an online resource dedicated to effective teaching
practices for the college classroom, today announced results of its
second annual survey on Twitter usage and trends in higher education.
The survey of nearly 1,400 college faculty members found that more than
a third (35.2 percent) of the 1,372 respondents use Twitter in some
capacity. That’s an increase from 30.7 percent in 2009.

“Interestingly, one of the new trends to emerge this year was this
feeling of technology overload”

Meanwhile, just under half (47.9 percent) of those who completed the
survey say they’ve never used Twitter, down from 56.4 percent in 2009.
The remaining 16.9 percent say they tried Twitter, but stopped using it
— a four percent increase from 2009.

The findings, released today in the report Twitter in Higher
Education 2010: Usage Habits and Trends of Today’s College Faculty show
adoption among higher education professionals continues to grow.
However, the results also reveal that a large number of faculty still
question the value of using the micro-blogging service in an academic
setting.

Key findings of the report include:

• 29.7 percent of respondents say they are “very familiar” or “extremely
  familiar” with Twitter, a 7.8 percent increase from 2009.
• Faculty are most likely to use Twitter as a real-time news source or
  to share information with peers; with approximately half saying they
  do so “frequently.”
• Of those who’ve never used Twitter, 68.8 percent question its
  educational relevance.
• 76.1 percent of Twitter quitters stopped using the technology because
  they didn’t find it valuable.
• 56.8 percent of current Twitter users say they expect to increase
  their use during the coming academic year.

via eon.businesswire.com