There’s been a slew of stories about people posting embarrassing or boneheaded things on their Twitter or Facebook profiles without realizing that their boss, friends or clients could see the posting, and that it ultimately led to disaster – stories including pictures of people spending the night partying, lying about calling in sick, or insulting the home town of the client they are about to visit.  Most of these instances were indeed lapses of better judgment on the part of the person making the posts, but rather than us all having to lock down our profiles to infinity, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all just say a little more about what we really think without having to apologize for it?

Imagine, for example, if instead of a lot of political posturing and politeness, my vendor just told me straight up that my ideas were dumb and suggested better ones instead.  It’d take bravery on the part of the vendor to tell me the truth, and maturity on my part to not be insulted and dismiss the critical feedback.

Am I wrong to want the world to change?  I’m probably just being too much of an idealist. 

The reality is that these cases highlight the flaw in the default privacy level set by social networking sites today – especially Twitter, where it seems like most people don’t realize that anyone can view your posts unless you lock it down, and that if your friends don’t also lock their feeds down, their replies to you would be visible to the world.

I do believe, though, that operational transparency in the enterprise is a great way to give employees the opportunity to serendipitously discovery the information that might make the deal, save the day or otherwise make the company successful. (I love that phrase, so I’ll repeat it: “serendipitous discovery”.)

So while social transparency on a very personal level is probably going too far, there is a benefit to be had by keeping your co-workers in the loop on what you’re busy working on.

Come to think of it, the one person who comes to mind who tends to be very transparent and open about himself is Howard Stern.  I’m not so sure that’s worked out in his favor over the long run.  He’s famous, but it seems like it’s taken a pretty hard toll on his personal life.

Filed under: Privacy, Social Computing, Social Networking