Baltimore's ousted Mayor Sheila Dixon got a taste of Twitter as reporters covering the proceedings in the Baltimore District Court tweeted live updates during the trial. The effect was a multiplier of tweets, retweets and public opinion. The Baltimore Sun reported, "Marcella A. Holland, the administrative judge for Baltimore City, issued an order banning "the use of any device to transmit information on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In or any other current or future form of social networking from any of the courthouses within the Circuit Court for Baltimore City."As I've said before, I believe social networking and UC are the next killer app and I mean that in two ways. In spite of businesses' use of social media, it's still another tool to communicate a message to the masses. The difference is the tools of social media are bi-directional and the audience can and will reply back, retaliate or go off on tangents. UC is yet another tool that in place can deter the negative messages or counter management problems. Considering Toyota for a moment, they are under damage control and facing huge government fines in addition to massive costs to correct their mistakes. UC combined with the social media could have a positive effect on a negative outcome. Ignoring both tools I think is foolish and will lead to more negative effects than by not having the tools. I am not trying to justify either social media or UC, because their value is clear. In the past, I've also warned that social media is a force to be reckoned with and not ignored.
Another interesting development on the social media side is USTREAM. Again, I've said several times about enterprise security that it's not about what gets into the organization but it's more about what gets out. USTREAM is every security guy's nightmare. This site allows live streaming of video and audio from iPhones, cellphones with the application, laptops and anything that can stream video and connect to the web. My server buddy has been streaming from his laptop at his home in Bethesda, Maryland and we've been discussing the coolness of USTREAM. Then, I did a search on their site and found anything from live puppy births to girls gone wild and boys behaving badly. Understanding that it's not the technology, but still knowing what the potential is along with the risks leaves a bittersweet taste. My buddy hit it right on the cellphones that enterprise can deploy the Blackberry for Enterprise and disable the camera. Still, users can carry more than one cellphone equipped with a camera or other devices and still behave in ways that policy and procedures can only penalize after the act.
USTREAM is still pretty cool, my server buddy can't wait to start his snow blower in spite of the blizzard conditions and has his laptop pointed out to cover the event. USTREAM has an interactive CHAT (requires free signup) and you will see some ads splashed beneath the video stream, just like TV. Now whether or not you catch a server guy behaving badly with a snow blower remains to be seen. What you may want to consider is how you're going to meet the many challenges of managing many devices with different OS's and recently, Fiberlink, a developer of cloud-based Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solutions announced a new offering that gives organizations unprecedented control over Blackberries. Up next? The iPhone.
