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Mangesh Hattikudur
Judging a Facebook by its Cover
by Mangesh Hattikudur - May 14, 2007 - 6:58 AM

no_facebook_for_canada.gov.jpgAccording to this article from the CBC, the city of Toronto is banning its 23,000 employees from using FaceBook. Not surprisingly, YouTube and a few other social networking sites are already on the list. Of course, what’s most interesting about the thing is that while it applies to all city employees, it doesn’t apply to politicians, who apparently need the sites to interact with their constituents. I love Canada, but it sounds a little Animal Farm-ish, no? Like all Toronto city employees are equal, but some a little more equal than others. Link via TheRawFeed.

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Kind of interesting follow-up…. I just saw this article on CNN.com, where the US Army is banning soldiers from using YouTube, Myspace and photo sharing sites from any Defense Department computers. A Wired reporter has some interesting commentary within the piece on how the US Army has been posting achievements and videos of soldiers befriending Iraqis on YouTube recently, but that the soldiers themselves won’t be able to watch them due to the restrictions.

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Comments (4)

  1. It should be noted that the city employees are banned from using this site AT WORK. I don’t think it’s Animal Farm-ish, I think it’s the smartest way to make sure that employees are not completly goofing off. Facebook is a little like crac, once you start, it’s hard to stop. If the employees really want to be on Facebook, they can wait until they’re home. That’s what I do.

    posted by Shann on 5-14-2007 at 7:42 am

  2. heh! I knew I’d catch a little flak for that comment. That said, the politicians are trusted to manage their time effectively, without limited access to sites.

    posted by Mangesh on 5-14-2007 at 7:47 am

  3. Mangesh

    You use the words trusted and politicians in the same sentence. For that you should be strung up!

    posted by Robert Lawrence on 5-14-2007 at 8:53 am

  4. Soldiers will still have access to those sites… just not on DOD computers. There are computers available to use for free at all the major camps in theater that are for recreation use only, as well as some camps provide wireless internet access for the soldiers in their private living quarters.
    Keeping DOD computers away from file sharing sites is only smart… you wouldn’t want sensitive material to be compromised on youtube would you?

    posted by Alen on 5-14-2007 at 11:36 am

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