Story Idea / Interview Questions

Story Idea:

LInkedIn is a professional networking site that has a large membership among IT professionals.  It's like a Facebook or Myspace for professionals. 

I'm starting to see a lot of non-technical people starting to become members.

I want to interview people from various sizes banks, as well as security professionals, privacy officers, maybe even a couple of professors from academia.  I have already interviewed a recruiter who uses LinkedIn to . . . in her words . . .  "poach employees."

I could also include a link to a web page with boilerplate policy language to address this issue.  The boilerplate would include two policies:  1) Allowed withi restrictions and limitations.  2) Prohibited.

Finally, I would include a sidebar addressing the security issues with an interview of a security professional.

I want to try to keep the article light-hearted and humorous, but touch on some rather sticky subjects and provide good solid actionable information.



Alternative Questions

What do you think of this phenomenon as it applies to your organization? 

How many people in your organization use this site?

Is your management team aware of this phenomenon?

Does your human resources department use LinkedIn for recruiting purposes?

What sites are there besides LinkedIn? 

How do you manage the productivity drain? 

Do you use the site yourself? 

         If so, how much time do you spend per day on it? 

         How do you balance your site activity with other means of networking? 

When it comes to putting information about your job, your past job, etc., how much information is "too much information?" 

How would you write a policy to address this issue?

Is there a way to balance privacy with visibility? 

How real are the threats to productivity and competitive hiring? 

In your opinion, is this phenomenon going to take on a life of its own? 

Any other risks besides poaching, productivity, and privacy?

Are there benefits to your organization? 

Is it better to allow this with restrictions, prohibit this, or ignore the issue altogether?

Do you use network monitoring and if so, can it monitor this sort of usage?