Blogs

The incident at Rutgers University and the resulting loss of a life made think about the responsibility that we all have to be conscious about what we post on social networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn.   I know that you are thinking, how is this related to SharePoint, but it does have a direct correlation to the integrity and the effect of the information we post to our SharePoint sites.   The difference with posting to sites such and Facebook of LinkedIn, and posting to a corporate site is the fact that in the business world the information you post is not only a representation of your opinion but can also be taken as information that is used in the decision process, thus creating a representation of the opinion of your company.  Information you store and disseminate via your organization’s SharePoint site will be seen by many, both internally and potentially externally, as information that can be viewed as accurate and able to be used in decision making processes.   Insuring that the information is accurate and deemed appropriate for use by designated individuals is the responsibility of the Governance program.   The Governance program is the social conscience of the corporation.  A significant part of a good Governance program will define the type of information that is appropriate for posting on the SharePoint site and the consequences for purposefully posting inaccurate or derogatory information.   It is important to involve both Legal and Human Resources when deciding on the policies for evaluating the appropriateness of information and the repercussions for uploading or posting detrimental or inaccurate content.  It is critical that this critical that the information that is stored on the SharePoint sites are approved and accurate so that it can be used by all the intended parties to make better informed decisions.