Thoughts from Krill

While reading The Move To Web 2.0 Increases Security Challenges all I could think about was the book Groundswell ~Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, which I’ve been working at reading for awhile now. The web article, dated May 2007, focuses on the fact that businesses need to look out for security issues as they delve into using web 2.0 as part of their business. Groundswell, on the other hand, focuses on the positive benefits that businesses can reap from using web 2.0 technologies. By having message boards and/or social communities for products, businesses can have an ear on what their consumers are thinking about their products. Web 2.0 technologies give businesses a way to learn more about their customers. A business gains access to information they otherwise would have been merely guessing at.

Interestingly enough, this type of comparison can also be drawn when thinking about safety and web 2.0 tools in schools. Are there security risks in using these tools? Possibly. And, yes, it’s certainly possible to avoid using these tools and still deliver the information we want students to consume. But, can we be sure they’re actually getting the information? Or, are we just happy enough that we’ve told it to them? Another, more important question to be asking ourselves, is not if we should be using these tools, but how we should be using these tools? How can we leverage technology tools to accomplish the goals we want to accomplish?

I know there are many that feel that comparing education to business is inappropriate, but in many cases it seems to be very logical to me. This line from the article could easily apply to both!

…having [their] customers be participants and sharing information, rather than just getting information off the site.