Are you an Enterprise2.0 company?

Or do you block all web2.0 services, like social networks, blogs, microblogs, wiki's and many others from your staff?

Are you such a company not hiring any new and young employees? Could it be that these students are the future of your company? We should listen to them!

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Why would a company want to block blogs for his employees? More and more content is put online and distributed via blogs or RSS feeds. Mailing are considered SPAM as they are pushed to you.

Why would a company want to block social networks like Plaxo and LinkedIn, if they can help your employee to find the right prospect, qualified resource or supplier and not only look for new carreer opportunities? How many people allow headhunter into their LinkedIn network? I don't!

Are these companies afraid of the information their employees would make available about them or the company on these social networks? We are already in the next wave of social networks. Only a minority still except all friend invites and displays confidential information about him/herselves in these networks. Encouraging, coaching and guiding people and clearly formalizing the company ethics on this subjects seem much more in order here.

Why do companies believe emails are so effective? Young people are writing less and less emails. Instant messaging is being replaced by microblogging services, like Twitter, Pownce or Jaiku. Smart companies use these mediums to make content available to their potential and relevant  customers, even businesses. Do not inhibit these young potentials from multitasking and improving their productivity. They will add Jaiku as a gadget to iGoogle or send Tweets via Outlook. They will find a way to bypass the companies webfiltering services, if they consider them ridiculious and unfair. Understand how they think or you will not be able to attract them.

Isn't it all about trust? Cannot you take pencils and paper home for personal use? Cannot you lent your company car and fuel card to your neighbour or friend to go on a weekend trip? Cannot you just ask a restaurant to put some more expenses on the note? Many companies have learned to trust their employees within these boundaries. Now it is time to extend these boundaries to web2.0 services.