Anti-Social Networking
Companies are getting more business value by integrating
social networks into their IT strategies—both Baseline and
its sister publication CIO Insight have covered this trend in
recent months. But no networking service is without its kinks.
Just ask Christopher Elliott. The travel writer signed up for
StumbleUpon, a service for sharing Web sites, according to the
Consumerist.com blog. He unchecked a box that offered to
invite everyone in his Gmail address book to join, but due to
a glitch, every one of his e-mail contacts received the invitation.
Elliott said most of his friends laughed it off, but then he
worried that the site might share those e-mail addresses with
third parties or marketing partners.
Elliott isn't an IT executive, and anyway, glitches happen.
Still, the lesson is clear: Before adding a social network to their IT
operations, CIOs had better check the fine print to find out what the service plans to do with
the company's user information.
Also in Out of Scope:
The New Japanese Massuer
Municipal Meltdown
Good news, Bad News
Next page: The New Japanese Massuer
The New Japanese Massuer
Businesses are using robots in all kinds of capacities today,
from assembly-line production to—as Out of Scope documented
a few months back—weed removal. Researchers at Waseda
University in Tokyo have a new idea: putting droids to work as
masseurs. The WAO-1 robot, which researchers hope to sell to
hospitals and spas, comes equipped with ceramic balls on its
"hands" designed to deliver soothing facial massages for patients
with jaw-related maladies. Clinical trials begin this month,
according to a New York Times report.
Next page: Municipal Meltdown
Messaging & Collaboration 
