Three knee-jerk Facebook groups IT pros could create

Almost as soon as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s political rivals started banding together in a coalition to bring down his government, groups of concerned Canadians across the country started forming groups of their own.

I am speaking, of course, of the Facebook Groups such as “NO” TO A CANDIAN COALITION GOVERNMENT (372 members). There is also, however, SAY “YES” TO A CANADIAN COALITION GOVERNMENT (219 members), and several variations on either theme. After Governor-General Michaelle Jean’s decision today to allow put Parliament on hold until Jan. 26 , such groups may seem about as effective as Stephane Dion, but that doesn’t stop them from popping up in knee-jerk fashion to almost any issue confronting the public interest.

These groups, organized as they are around a particular decision or pending outcome, are different to me than the ones which are basically social media extensions of existing industry organizations or media publications. They are a cross between petitions and a local rally, without all the leg work.

Although I’m not sure that they always accomplish much, they do serve as a way of communicating which side of the fence you’re on. When I see my friends join groups such as I PREFER THE OLD FACEBOOK (lot of good that did them), I feel like a boring conversation has already been spared.
With that in mind, I wonder why more IT professionals don’t set up Facebook groups that serve the same kind of purpose, if only to feel less alone in the issues they face in the enterprise on a daily basis. Here are some ideas to get started:

KEEP USERS FROM BRINGING DOWN THE COMPANY: A great group for bringing together those IT staffers who are getting push-back from know-it-all users that think they should have more freedom over their applications, their network access and the devices they get to use.

BACKUP OR SHUT UP: A possible forum for technology employees who are sick of hearing moaning and groaning from coworkers who routinely lose important data during a blackout or some other moment of network downtime.

LET THE CIO BE THE CIO: A place for frustrated senior IT executives to trade war stories over department heads who want to steamroll them and take on projects that should be within their domain, or (worse) who ignore their ideas to improve business processes.

I don’t know how long such groups would last. Since they aren’t centered around a looming change in the IT profession, perhaps they would manage only a few months of activity. But that still might end up being longer than Stephan Harper’s government.