Discussion on:

Twitter and Facebook meet Outlook

Thanks for the heads up! If someone could provide the names of the executible files so I can monitor my network for any installations, that would be great. IMHO, these two add-ins present possible security concerns that I would like to avoid. Not to mention another great way for users to waste time while at work.
Just my 2 cents worth.

FBLook_setup.exe

TwInbox_setup.exe

You could always block the site (www.techhit.com) on your firewall to keep them from ever visiting the site in the first place. Although there may be alternative sites to download these files.

There may not be executibles as such since these are add-ons to Outlook. Not sure how add-ons are implemented. Yeah we are using OpenDNS to block Twitter and Facebook sites. Hopefully, these add-ons would be blocked also

helpful, that is.

check Tools \ Options \ Other (tab) Click the Advanced Options button. Then click COM Add-Ins.. button. Apparently Add-Ins take the form of .exe or .dll(s). Someone needs to install these things and post back if they use .dll(s) or .exe , LOL!!

Would it be possible to stop users installing add-ins to office products?

I block web downloads so there is no 'easy' way to get the file. Somebody could bring it in but then there is no permission to install on the PC's.

I think that says it... fortunately I don't have one. Maybe the employees need to be managed/incentivised to not want to waste time at work.

How can you use a word like 'incentivised' and still accuse others of being soul crushing? And in the passive tense, too.

He misspelled it, but it's a word. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incentivize - though I don't care for it either. Heck the original guy misspelled "executable." And I've probably misspelled a bunch of words, too...

But I think he's got a point. IT Managers should support their users. When a new tech comes along, the knee-jerk reaction should not be "how do I kill it?" Rather, the first reaction should be to ask the business decision-makers if they need it. When many news outlets are discussing how companies should use Twitter and Facebook to connect to their customers and business partners, I don't think one can assume they are non-productive. If they are trying to recruit a younger generation of social-networking-savvy workers, they might find retention difficult in a hostile work environment.

Accessing sites such as these is not a tech decision - it's a business one. The business should make the decision, and the IT department should enforce that decision. I've seen many managers in IT who make business decisions, thinking they "know what's best" for their users. In my opinion, that is not the job of an IT Manager, any more than assigning the corner office is the sole job of facilities.

That's not what I got from him, but I can agree with most of your position. It's also the responsibility of IT to point out how these features can be misused to the company's detriment. Having done that, if the business leaders decide the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, then it's time to implement the utility.

Absolutely. I was already getting long-winded, but I agree with you that IT has the responsibility to educate the business on all things tech - risks, potential benefits, potential abuses, what the competition is doing, etc.

IT should also strive to be strategically aligned with the business, and be able to map new tech to strategic goals of the business. Depending on the organization, Facebook/Twitter might be very interesting to marketing, or community outreach, or recruiting.

Plus, this is a great time to have a dialog with business leaders that isn't about something bad (data loss, outage, need more budget, project delay), take advantage of it!

But...IT is part of the buisiness.

Does the finance department need to strive to be strategically aligned with the business?

What about the marketing department?

It's comments like that (no offence) that make me wonder what the hell are some businesses upto.

Shows that they view IT outside the business, which is incorrect.

While using it I may modify the contents as I see fit, without your consent.

But thats OK as you would not want to ruin my buzz now, would you?

Or were you going to park it in questionable sections of town, keys in, engine running, unlocked? Maybe stick some aftermarket geegaws on it; they may hurt the performance, but they look cool!

Hide a fish somewhere!

I have one too, and the keys are permanently in it. You couldn't give it away. But if you put an se-r sticker on it, some kid would steal it for sure.

when it hits the fan.

Inevitably it does when there is nobody in charge.

Me?

I'll be sitting back, probally unaware of your situation.

Just the way I would like it.

Get a personal blackberry.

I have installed the Twitter add-on, the file location and name are:

%ProgramFiles%\TechHit.com\TwInbox\OutTwit.dll

That sucked too.

Sorry, my fingers were typing it before my brain realized what was going on.

Thanks for the heads-up, although I don't think it was meant to be that. If MS was smart they would have a way to control add-ins from Group Policies.

I'm not. Currently have no plans to be, either.

So the comments seemed to go astray rather quickly in to killing these add-ons. What about functionality? Has anyone tried these yet? Do they work well? Do they conflict with anything (like Google App Sync conflicts with MS Search)? Compare with Xobni? Oh, and if someone does install them, they could answer the first question about executable names...

I notice you've been a member here for a while, but it looks like you've only recently become active in the forums.

FYI, we go off-topic around here a lot. While this is frowned on in some forums, the overall attitude of the membership is to consider TR is a 'water cooler' and discussions can wander where they will.

Second, you worried in your previous post about being long-winded. Around here, you're not considered overly verbose unless we have to page down more than once.

Company firewall now blocks Facebook. How can I remove the FB toolbar?