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Editor's Comment: The price of 15 seconds of fame
08:00 28 Feb 2007
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Another week, and another set of YouTube videos are exposed in a Contract Journal exclusive news story. Funny though they may look at first glance, their appearance means asking some hard questions.
Did the furore caused by the first set of video clips (CJ 7 February) mean that people are now seeing this as some sort of badge of honour? Will there be more of them? And the hardest question of all will this escalate to the stage that someone is badly injured, or even dies, as a result of one of these stunts?
There are bound to be people seeking their 15 minutes, or even 15 seconds, of fame. YouTube is easy to use, is full of these sort of videos, and the star rating system means almost instant feedback and feel-good factor for those who post popular video clips.
Yes, CJ's previous article will have drawn attention to these videos, and yes, the fact that the story was picked up by the national papers will have added to the fuss. And that may have encouraged others to post videos of them doing similarly stupid things. But it is surely better that the existence of these videos is highlighted and steps are taken to tackle the issue now, rather than waiting for a fatality to occur.
The companies affected by these videos have dealt with it promptly and properly. But it could easily have been any other firm - even yours.
All companies in all industries are entering a new world when it comes to IT policies. Do you know if your employees are on YouTube? Or if any of them have a blog about their work? If you didn¹t like what you found, what would you do? Do you have a policy? And does everyone know what it is? It¹s all well and good to believe that highlighting the issue gives it undue credibility, but surely it¹s more important to tackle the issue before someone brings your firm into disrepute, or even dies doing so...
Did the furore caused by the first set of video clips (CJ 7 February) mean that people are now seeing this as some sort of badge of honour? Will there be more of them? And the hardest question of all will this escalate to the stage that someone is badly injured, or even dies, as a result of one of these stunts?
There are bound to be people seeking their 15 minutes, or even 15 seconds, of fame. YouTube is easy to use, is full of these sort of videos, and the star rating system means almost instant feedback and feel-good factor for those who post popular video clips.
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Yes, CJ's previous article will have drawn attention to these videos, and yes, the fact that the story was picked up by the national papers will have added to the fuss. And that may have encouraged others to post videos of them doing similarly stupid things. But it is surely better that the existence of these videos is highlighted and steps are taken to tackle the issue now, rather than waiting for a fatality to occur.
The companies affected by these videos have dealt with it promptly and properly. But it could easily have been any other firm - even yours.
All companies in all industries are entering a new world when it comes to IT policies. Do you know if your employees are on YouTube? Or if any of them have a blog about their work? If you didn¹t like what you found, what would you do? Do you have a policy? And does everyone know what it is? It¹s all well and good to believe that highlighting the issue gives it undue credibility, but surely it¹s more important to tackle the issue before someone brings your firm into disrepute, or even dies doing so...
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