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Facebook Targets Office Workers With Facebook At Work Service

An anonymous reader writes "Facebook unveiled its rumored "at Work" service to a handful of partners today. Facebook at Work puts co-workers into a standalone social network and allows them to share posts and images appropriate for the workplace but looks and acts just like regular Facebook. "We have found that using Facebook as a work tool makes our work day more efficient," Lars Rasmussen, Facebook's director of engineering, tells WIRED. "You can get more stuff done with Facebook than any other tool that we know of, and we'd like to make that available to the whole world.""

112 comments

  1. More stuff done by OverlordQ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because we want to data mine all your work correspondence as well.

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
    1. Re:More stuff done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      One wrong line of code and all my work-inappropriate stuff will suddenly be thrown in the face of co-workers while they are trying to do their jobs.

      I trust this about as far as an ant can spit.

    2. Re:More stuff done by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 5, Funny

      One wrong line of code and all my work-inappropriate stuff will suddenly be thrown in the face of co-workers while they are trying to do their jobs.

      I trust this about as far as an ant can spit.

      Actually, some spitting variants of ants can do a pretty good job. The formic acid has some neurotoxins that let them stun their prey.

      But, yeah, totally agree.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    3. Re:More stuff done by LessThanObvious · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They have already proven beyond all doubt there is no good reason to trust them. Why would anyone share the details of their professional life or business contacts with them? For some businesses this will be useful, but for the other 95% this is a terrible idea. It's a security risk that can't even yet be quantified. Data will leak, employees and customers will be poached, Phish will be speared. Nice try Facebook, but seriously fuck off.

    4. Re:More stuff done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do they actually spit? Or is it just projected from a special orifice other than the mouth?

      And what exactly is their range?

    5. Re:More stuff done by Connie_Lingus · · Score: 1

      Why would anyone share the details of their professional life or business contacts with them?

      the same way they get everyone to share their details of their personal lives...

      peer pressue...have you tried to have a social life these days without a stupid FB profile?

      i did (for awhile) btw, and i might as well have had "perverted ax-murderer" tattooed on my forehead after telling potential dates i wasn't on FB.

      --
      never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
    6. Re:More stuff done by gurps_npc · · Score: 1

      Yes, because it's so essential that people be given more opportunities to mistakenly add someone to the wrong facebook account.

      --
      excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    7. Re:More stuff done by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      peer pressue...have you tried to have a social life these days without a stupid FB profile?

      Yes, I have, and have found no problems whatsoever doing so. My social life is rich and full and completely Facebook-free. I've never had a date react to my lack of Facebook in a negative way.

    8. Re:More stuff done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do they actually spit? Or is it just projected from a special orifice other than the mouth?

      And what exactly is their range?

      Don't trust that ant! He's Lion! I thought of the Ant Lion immediately, but that's apparently mis-education from JRPGS. Looking it up, the actually spitting insects tend to be spiders or beetles. Notably the fire beetle, and a couple of gecko's which can shoot up to a meter accurately.

      Linux fans may (or may not) appreciate that some penguins can squirt feces 50cm to avoid predators, or attract a very, very niche type of mate, though I suspect that is predominantly a German penguin variant raised in captivity...

    9. Re:More stuff done by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      One wrong line of code and all my work-inappropriate stuff will suddenly be thrown in the face of co-workers while they are trying to do their jobs.

      That's like blaming the gas tank you forgot to fill for being empty. If you don't want work inappropriate things to go to your work place, pay the fuck attention and don't do work unsafe things at work.

    10. Re:More stuff done by Bigbutt · · Score: 1

      Nah, I can post whatever I want when I'm at home but should there be a wrong bit of code, the NSFW comment would then be broadcast to my coworkers.

      [John]

      --
      Shit better not happen!
    11. Re:More stuff done by Connie_Lingus · · Score: 1

      that's great.

      you must not be in your mid-40's.

      --
      never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
    12. Re:More stuff done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One wrong line of Facebook's code can display to co-workers, using the at-work feature, stuff that I entered at home on my own time (outside of the at-work feature).

      I don't trust Facebook to reliably keep this data properly separated.

    13. Re:More stuff done by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      My God! A good reason to be in one's 60's!

      Yipeee! You've made my day!

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    14. Re:More stuff done by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      Not in my mid 40s. Significantly under it in fact. Have a facebook profile but never use it, I've just never bothered to close it because sometimes I need somewhere to connect candy crush. Never had a problem with my social life.

      That said I can acknowledge that Facebook can make group invitations easier.

    15. Re:More stuff done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That said I can acknowledge that Facebook can make group invitations easier.

      Because why go around trying to call a bunch of people to set up a party or event when you can just send a group invite? It gets tiring only finding out about events after the fact.

    16. Re:More stuff done by antdude · · Score: 2

      I can't spit, but I can drool. :P~

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    17. Re:More stuff done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop dating 18 year olds :)

    18. Re:More stuff done by LessThanObvious · · Score: 1

      I'm sure perverted ax-murders love Facebook. The cretins left on Myspace wouldn't be enough of a challenge. I've been with my girl for years and we are still not friends on FB. A social life is possible without FB, but it is hard being the last to find out a loved one died or your niece got married or had a baby. I plan to solve this problem by creating my own social network and allowing others to do the same. Perhaps the potential dates you speak of would have more respect if you could say "I'm not on Facebook, but you can join my network if you like", rather than having to say you can't come out from under your rock because you're afraid of corporations and the government or losing your non-conformist street cred.

    19. Re: More stuff done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seals are known to rape penguins

    20. Re:More stuff done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      peer pressue...have you tried to have a social life these days without a stupid FB profile?

      i did (for awhile) btw, and i might as well have had "perverted ax-murderer" tattooed on my forehead after telling potential dates i wasn't on FB.

      Yes - I don't use facebook and I am social. People no longer ask about facebook - it is going out of style. But even at its height, it was ok not to use it. A phone number is still the important thing to have, email is second. "Social networks" entirely optional, one can be social face to face. Nearly nobody cares "what you had for dinner today" anyway - certainly not enough to look it up on the web.

      Axe-murderers are easier recognized by their collections of dead axes. . .

    21. Re:More stuff done by Stewie241 · · Score: 1

      I think there's that, and the possibility of mistakes made by lack of visual differentiation. We have a social network at work, but there is no opportunity for confusion - it doesn't look anything like facebook.com. If Facebook and Facebook at Work are visually similar I suspect there will be at least one case where somebody mixes up destinations accidentally.

    22. Re:More stuff done by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      I am, actually.

  2. What about privacy? by lurker412 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sure, but what businesses are so dumb that they will share their internal communications with another company?

    1. Re:What about privacy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How many businesses have outsourced their email to Google or Micro$oft?

      Shittons of businesses are that dumb.

    2. Re:What about privacy? by DigitAl56K · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sure, but what businesses are so dumb that they will share their internal communications with another company?

      For me it wouldn't even be about "with another company", it would be more along the lines of "look how Facebook has repeatedly fucked over the general end user on privacy issues, are we really going to trust our internal communications to these guys?".

    3. Re:What about privacy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Look how many businesses have outsourced the development of their email servers by using other companies and organization's email software. Whether its exchange server or some FOSS product, unless you wrote the code yourself how can you trust it!

    4. Re:What about privacy? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sure, but what businesses are so dumb that they will share their internal communications with another company?

      Pretty much all of the ones that use that new-fangled telephone. Of course, back in the days when the telegraph was the thing, well, pretty much all of them used that too.

      And the USPS does, in fact, have a pretty solid metadata look inside most businesses, since they know the destination of pretty much every package and letter sent or received in the USA.

      Note that teleconferencing sans Facebook still means the entire datastream is going over wires owned by, well, another business, who can look, or not, at their discretion.....

      In other words, the only thing new here is the Facebook logo....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    5. Re:What about privacy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How many businesses have outsourced their email to Google or Micro$oft?

      Shittons of businesses are that dumb.

      You misspelled cheap.

      (Don't forget the main reason hosted services like this even exist.)

    6. Re:What about privacy? by jeffmeden · · Score: 1

      And the USPS does, in fact, have a pretty solid metadata look inside most businesses, since they know the destination of pretty much every package and letter sent or received in the USA.

      How does the USPS see all the Fedex and UPS shipping data? They are the ones doing all the work, the USPS carries a slim share (a sixth) of packages in the US.

    7. Re:What about privacy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, but what businesses are so dumb that they will share their internal communications with every advertising company?

      Fixed for you.

    8. Re:What about privacy? by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Interesting

      For me it wouldn't even be about "with another company", it would be more along the lines of "look how Facebook has repeatedly fucked over the general end user on privacy issues, are we really going to trust our internal communications to these guys?"

      Looking at how Facebook has repeatedly failed to fuck over end users with privacy issues - I'd be tempted to trust them. You pretty much never hear of data being accidentally exposed (due a fault with Facebook rather than user cluelessness) and I've never heard of Facebook being hacked. (Hint: Openly selling data, as the user agreed to when they "signed" the terms of service, is *NOT* the same fucking someone over in a manner that would cause a private user with a different TOS concern.)

    9. Re:What about privacy? by DigitAl56K · · Score: 1

      You pretty much never hear of data being accidentally exposed

      That's because it's intentionally exposed.

      and I've never heard of Facebook being hacked.

      Do you like to stick your fingers in your ears and go "la la la la!". Top result:
      http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/19/...

      and why do you think they have this?
      https://www.facebook.com/white...

      (Hint: Openly selling data, as the user agreed to when they "signed" the terms of service, is *NOT* the same fucking someone over in a manner that would cause a private user with a different TOS concern.)

      "Hint" maybe you should read this:
      https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/... .. and after you read that you can research and consider all the ways that Facebook has changed it's privacy settings over the years that constantly expose a wider assortment of information and allow greater data gathering by default, requiring users to maintain constant vigilance and opt-out, rather than opt-in. ... and then when you're done with that you can research how they have set up their "governance" system such that on the face of it they claim to take input from their user base about their major policy changes, but have set it up in such a way that there is virtually no chance that end users can override anything they want to do, despite the programs existence.

      You have to be really nuts to be defending Facebook of all companies when it comes to user privacy.

    10. Re:What about privacy? by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Do you like to stick your fingers in your ears and go "la la la la!". Top result:

      Is a completely irrelevant page about a security flaw - not about a hack into Facebook's data.
       

      and why do you think they have this?

      Because it's a damm good idea and best practice? I dunno about you (given your abundantly displayed ignorance), but being proactive and following best practices is a good thing from where I sit.
       

      You have to be really nuts to be defending Facebook of all companies when it comes to user privacy.

      Not at all - because unlike you, I'm not clueless and grasp the issues here.

    11. Re:What about privacy? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      How many businesses have outsourced their email to Google or Micro$oft?

      Shittons of businesses are that dumb.

      Because nobody at Bocephus' ISP and Bait and Tackle Shop could possibly do anything wrong?

    12. Re:What about privacy? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

      You misspelled cheap.

      (Don't forget the main reason hosted services like this even exist.)

      They exist because they beat the insanity of hosting email yourself. They exist because it's stupid to have to transfer your email hosting every time you transfer your web hosting (the other common alternative). They exist because they make doing business easier with less disruption.

      Remember, your alternatives are 1. host it yourself, 2. host it with your ISP, 3. host it with your website hosting. It's not immediately obvious why any of those are obvious winners over hosting it with a large well known technology company specifically offering an email service.

    13. Re:What about privacy? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      How does the USPS see all the Fedex and UPS shipping data? They are the ones doing all the work, the USPS carries a slim share (a sixth) of packages in the US.

      The USPS is getting almost all the small packages handed to them now. UPS and Fedex are left mostly just delivering the big stuff. There are certainly exceptions, but maybe 1/10 of my small packages sent UPS or Fedex are actually delivered by them.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    14. Re:What about privacy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the entire datastream is going over wires owned by, well, another business, who can look, or not, at their discretion.....

      Once upon a time, this was called wiretapping, and it was illegal.

      I know, hard to believe.

  3. Biased much? by DigitAl56K · · Score: 1

    We have found that using Facebook as a work tool makes our work day more efficient," Lars Rasmussen, Facebook's director of engineering

    Uhh, yeah. Where's the quote from the director of engineering without the clearly vested interested? I'm suspect thatyou'd be hard-pressed to find a credible DoE who is ready to champion Facebook as a collaboration tool for their business.

    1. Re:Biased much? by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      I think Lars might be completely correct. By seeing who wastes the most time on face book and mining that data they can get read of the dead weight employees and bring up efficiency. Then again he might just be shilling for his company which seem the more likely view.

      My work tried to have their own work social network thing and it was a disaster because no one wanted to use it and I imagine foisting this on any company would be much the same.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    2. Re:Biased much? by DigitAl56K · · Score: 1

      We have a Facebook group. We use it to share pictures of events sometimes, and light humor, and the occasional bit of interesting tech news, and that's all. Nothing sensitive goes there, ever.

      I bet Facebook wants business to use them as a primary channel for work because it will force employees to have Facebook accounts and get into the habit of checking them just to do their job well - even if the company just trials it and later abandons it.

      There are many, many people who have not joined our Facebook group, and probably never will.

  4. Oh dang, I'm sorry by thebes · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "I thought I was on our work Facebook, not the regular one. Sorry, it will never happen again."

    1. Re:Oh dang, I'm sorry by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      I'm wondering if they'll have a "Here comes the Boss" button that suddenly pops up a spreadsheet.

    2. Re:Oh dang, I'm sorry by jeffmeden · · Score: 1

      I'm wondering if they'll have a "Here comes the Boss" button that suddenly pops up a spreadsheet.

      It's facebook, for work... Your org will have to opt in. When they do, the "boss button" will be in the spreadsheet app, and it will bring up facebook. Welcome to the future. Let's get some shit done!

    3. Re:Oh dang, I'm sorry by geekmux · · Score: 1

      I'm wondering if they'll have a "Here comes the Boss" button that suddenly pops up a spreadsheet.

      It's facebook, for work... Your org will have to opt in. When they do, the "boss button" will be in the spreadsheet app, and it will bring up facebook. Welcome to the future. Let's get some shit done!

      Hey now, you don't get shit done with Facebook for Work. You get stuff done.

      And remember in case anyone was looking for a difference between the two, shit can also be used as a fertilizer.

  5. WTF ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MORE stuff done ?
    Oh wait now I see, by stuff you mean spending time on Facebook, thank god you did not say "more WORK done" because , well when you need to do actual work Facebook is an impediment and is on the verge of being blocked at my place of work during normal hours simply because too many people "have to keep up with Facebook". Unfortunately these people also have it on their phones.

  6. Situational Awareness by A10Mechanic · · Score: 1

    I used Facebook as a situational awareness tool in the workplace. Often times, I would find out what's happening at the workplace through Facebook long before I'd hear it through official channels.

    1. Re:Situational Awareness by DigitAl56K · · Score: 2

      Then you might have a badly managed workplace?

    2. Re:Situational Awareness by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Funny

      Then you might have a badly managed workplace?

      Doesn't everybody?

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    3. Re:Situational Awareness by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      Doesn't everybody?

      Fortunately, no.

  7. He is TOTALLY right! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We have found that using Facebook as a work tool makes our work day more efficient," Lars Rasmussen, Facebook's director of engineering, tells WIRED. "You can get more stuff done with Facebook than any other tool that we know of, and we'd like to make that available to the whole world.""

    I am a professional stuff doer. I used to use Microsoft Office but I found I could only crunch numbers, make presentations and write documents.

    But do stuff?

    Nope.

    Then came facebook at work and all the changed!

    My boss walked into my cube and asked, "Anon, how do you get all this stuff done so fast!"

    I said, "facebook at work."

    He was so impressed. He then said, "I tell you. I get THE best workers from Dice.com! Oh, I'm glad to see that you are Slashdot because we all know, to get the latest in IT, software development news, security and everything that a company and worker needs to know, is on Slashdot - a Dicey company!"

  8. All Aboard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because if there's one thing Facebook has done, it's made people productive at work.

    I'm sure businesses will be happy to have all of their internal communications, memos, files, and more indexed and stored by Facebook.

    1. Re:All Aboard by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Because if there's one thing Facebook has done, it's made people productive at work.

      I'm sure businesses will be happy to have all of their internal communications, memos, files, and more indexed and stored by Facebook.

      No, that's the NSA's job.

      Didn't you get the memo?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  9. Missing tag by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do No Want
    captcha: muddle

  10. Facebook... by sycodon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...it's like watching legions of people buy Pet Rocks or Cabbage Patch Dolls.

    Why? Just, why?

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Facebook... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...it's like watching legions of people buy Pet Rocks or Cabbage Patch Dolls.

      Why? Just, why?

      I believe that some deviants put holes in the Cabbage Patch dolls and copulate with them. The Pet Rock, otoh, presents a coupling challenge .....

    2. Re:Facebook... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      As I understand it, CPD are appealing psudeobabies for girls to play with. The style may not appeal to you, but I don't get why that's in the same category as a gag gift.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
  11. Stop messing with Slashdot by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The layout is wrong, on some pages I don't even get a scrollbar and my scrollwheel doesn't work either, what the fuck are you morons doing? Don't experiment with the live servers!

    1. Re:Stop messing with Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > dice fucking around with slashdot even more
      double ungood
      > dicking around live
      double plus ungood

    2. Re:Stop messing with Slashdot by dmbasso · · Score: 4, Informative

      It is not the full beta. Just the tip.

      --
      `echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
    3. Re:Stop messing with Slashdot by swb · · Score: 1

      Is it Slashdot or some new release of Chrome? I now notice I have my google account name on the top of the window and several pages don't render right, including slashdot five minutes ago (although it now looks right).

    4. Re:Stop messing with Slashdot by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      Safari 7.1 here, and yes Slashdot does display correctly now, unlike a few minutes ago.

    5. Re:Stop messing with Slashdot by PaddyM · · Score: 1

      Relax, it's SlashdotBeta at Work. "You can get more stuff that matters done with SlashdotBeta than any other tool that nerds know of" so we're bringing it to work.

  12. Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Once you get your company using, then Facebook can change the privacy policy, and sell your workplace pictures, photos, notes, ect to the highest bidder.

  13. Yo Dawg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I heard you work at Facebook, so we put Facebook on your computer so you can use Facebook while you work at Facebook

    1. Re:Yo Dawg by geekmux · · Score: 2

      I heard you work at Facebook, so we put Facebook on your computer so you can use Facebook while you work at Facebook

      I wonder how Facebook deals with the problem of employees abusing social media during company time?

      Would be rather strange to hear management threatening you with termination for not drinking the corporate kool-aid as they continue to build consumer addiction.

  14. Slashvertizement ... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "We have found that using Facebook as a work tool makes our work day more efficient," Lars Rasmussen, Facebook's director of engineering, tells WIRED

    Well, if a guy who works at Facebook says it, it must be true.

    This article is complete crap.

    The use of social media in most companies is a complete joke -- it doesn't add anything of value in most cases, it's just hopping on the latest stupid trend.

    Every time I've seen a corporation trying to "leverage social media techologies in-house" my bullshit alarm bells go off, and the end results are under-whelming toys which don't actually provide any business value -- other than giving people badges for participating.

    Hell, in at least two cases, I've seen a reduction in business value over what had already been there. Because the social media wasn't useful for anything.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Slashvertizement ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We have found Slack to be pretty useful in our company.

    2. Re:Slashvertizement ... by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      "Facebook at Work has the same look, apps, and tools as the Facebook we’ve seen before." from TFA

      So basically a bunch of random games, quizzes, silly feeds, cat videos, and chat? It doesn't sound very productive or useful.

    3. Re:Slashvertizement ... by bazorg · · Score: 0

      Every time I've seen a corporation trying to "leverage social media techologies in-house" my bullshit alarm bells go off

      Could it be your bullshit alarm is really sensitive? If you take the user-friendly UI and familiarity of Facebook, Twitter, etc and apply it to internal web applications like a document library, would you not get an easier adoption, and through network effect have more benefits for everyone? Would you not be steering users away from using email for everything?

      The way I see it, home computing and enterprise computing influence each other and that's not something that just happened when Facebook became big. There's terrible enterprise application UIs out there which would definitely benefit from copying good things from the properly design websites. In comparison, Yammer, Podio and Jive look like tools that people would actually use rather than accumulating local copies of every email and Office doc they've ever received, missing out on a good search function. "Enterprise social media" can work, let's not dismiss it just because it looks like something hipsters would approve.

    4. Re:Slashvertizement ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you point me to this user-friendly UI for facebook?

    5. Re:Slashvertizement ... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      Could it be your bullshit alarm is really sensitive? If you take the user-friendly UI and familiarity of Facebook, Twitter, etc and apply it to internal web applications like a document library, would you not get an easier adoption, and through network effect have more benefits for everyone?

      You know, oddly enough, I have some experience in content management (at least enough to be dangerous) ... and quite frankly, I'm not sure any of what the Facebook interface does really adds much in the way of business value.

      Facebook is possibly a little useful (though exceedingly annoying IMO) to organize office parties -- I don't see it has much value for any 'real' business tasks.

      In fact, a good portion of the 'social networking' paradigm, to me, doesn't seem like it adds much value to business. Which is a pity, because I've see several companies implement something, and it became an albatross after the novelty wore off. It's like nobody is ever clear on how this helps ... just "because, social".

      Your document library isn't about how many badges and likes you get, it's about finding stuff which is pertinent to your job and the task at hand. The content is what is valuable. At one point, large organizations employed actual librarians to organize their content. I don't see the Facebook model beating that.

      As a library/content platform, social media technology just does the wrong thing.

      "Enterprise social media" can work, let's not dismiss it just because it looks like something hipsters would approve.

      In all honesty, I've not seen any of the technologies or platforms you describe ... so maybe they're different. And in this case, the 'hipsters' are the marketing wankers who are all over the buzz-word du jour.

      But, the limited stuff I have seen looks more like someone slapped "and social" on essentially a blogging system -- and they absolutely suck for tracking and organizing content, and over time people stop using them.

      It's hard to see social media outside of what I've seen of it. And, quite frankly, in the enterprise, I've personally yet to see one which added value -- doesn't mean it's not out there.

      So far I've found them to be more cumbersome than helpful, and mostly focused around vague, unquantifiable things which never actually seem to make it any easier to do anything useful.

      And then we end up doing things in email anyway. :-P

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  15. Less stuff done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    News Feed will populate with posts shared by the coworkers who you already interact with the most, Rasmussen says. The posts that see more shares will spread further, until the entire company might see it.

    I find that my news feed on Facebook only sorts by popularity. So information that is important, like the death of a friend is hidden under 80 pictures of cats doing stupid stuff. So I expect Facebook at Work will show me lots of "news" about Jenny's promotion, and the death of John's dog, both working in divisions 3 states away, but never see that post from the intern in the data center trying to tell me that the database server has caught fire. No thank you Facebook.

    1. Re: Less stuff done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Server farm is on fire. If I get a million likes, I will call the fire dept.

  16. They should offer this to colleges too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...and make it so that those colleges can never be linked to other colleges or high schools. Give it a catchy name to distinguish it from the mainstream Facebook.com.

    How about... TheFacebook?

  17. Our work day is more efficient WITHOUT Facebook by AnalogDiehard · · Score: 2

    I work for a major corporation and they started blocking FB last year. They found that FB was disrupting too many people so it makes our work day more efficient.

    --
    Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
    1. Re:Our work day is more efficient WITHOUT Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I work for a major corporation and they started blocking FB last year. They found that FB was disrupting too many people so it makes our work day more efficient.

      The question is...does it?

      I'm talking actual bottom line performance, not that "potential" crap chock full of speculation. What has exactly been the measured difference before and after the block?

      I'd be more inclined to block social media on account of a potential security disruption rather than one derived from content or activity.

      Also, just FYI...those users who were disrupted before are still just as disrupted today browsing FB from their smartphones. If you're the type inclined to fuck off at work with social media, chances are a firewall isn't going to stop you. Yet another reason I ask for your actual results of a corporate FB ban; to find out if you've won the battle but lost the war.

  18. So, it's Yammer? by pLnCrZy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yammer is like Facebook, but for business!

    Facebook At Work is like Facebook, but for business!

    So Yammer copied Facebook, and Facebook copied Yammer... where's the egg?

    1. Re:So, it's Yammer? by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      So Yammer copied Facebook, and Facebook copied Yammer... where's the egg?

      Preferably being thrown at Zuckerschmuck.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  19. Which part of No don't they Get? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    No more FB on my iPhone or iPad.

    It's like they double down on the p3rV factor each time they do something.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  20. Facebook, Slack, Skype... by dubbayu_d_40 · · Score: 2

    Everyone keeps trying to turn the work day into one constant meeting. Good luck with that.

  21. 'Cause that's just what Facebook does by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

    "...we'd like to make that available to the whole world."

    Yup, they make your 'stuff' available to the world. Even when you don't want them to.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  22. Go on strike if you're struck by this by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

    Really, what happened to Demuhcracy, Freedom? If your workplace get "facebook at work" it will be forced on you and you will be spied on at every move with eternal retention of data by an immensely rich rogue entity.

    They will make a strong shadow profile on your other "you" if don't have a personal account, and if you do well you know what happens. Think about what it takes to fully get out of it. You will have to join the french legion to somewhat get rid of your facebook identity and never see your friends and family again.

  23. Let's add some "Stuff" to the bottom line... by geekmux · · Score: 1

    ...Facebook's director of engineering, tells WIRED. "You can get more stuff done with Facebook than any other tool that we know of, and we'd like to make that available to the whole world.""

    It's probably a good thing they used the word "stuff" here, as "jack shit" would likely come across as a bit harsh. And honest.

    As far as global availability, that's rather arrogant coming from the keeper of the worlds largest database of HUMINT. As if they need more market domination? They're so damn big now governments buy data from them.

  24. More stuff != More productive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well I for one can't see any reason why we shouldn't start using facebook all the time.
    I'd like to see the sleep edition that allows us to dream about checking our crops and wake up to improved yields or whatever crap it is people click on all day trying to get a sense of achievement which ironically could be achieved should they have actually done their jobs instead

  25. Accidentally honesty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ... acts just like regular Facebook ...

    Meaning no privacy, and a user authentication system that can be cracked by a blind script kiddie.

    I doubt Facebook Inc. meant to be honest but they were so busy trying to monopolize social (online) infrastructure they forgot their weaknesses.

  26. FAIL by vikingpower · · Score: 2

    You can get more stuff done with Facebook than any other tool that we know of

    I know of one tool that I - and many, many others - can get shittons of work done with: concentration. Think about / work at a problem. Tinker. Fail, wrong direction, try again. Think, work, tinker. Only necessary precondition: no distractions. Works great. Tiring ? Hell, yeah. Rewarding ? Fuck, yeah.

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
  27. My Worst Nightmare by gunner_von_diamond · · Score: 3

    My only friends are my co-workers!

    1. Re:My Worst Nightmare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My co-workers!

      Fixed that for you...

  28. Facebook is like the Borg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The media will popularize it like it is in the in thing and moron CEO's that follows whatever the media tells them is the in thing at the time will play along. We have seen these moronic decisions made in mass time and time again.

    I have my doubts that it will take this time but who would have thought people would be that stupid to blindly turned over all their contacts to the Facebook-government. Even Zuckerberg got caught mocking his user base in disbelief of how stupid they are.

  29. Re:After Facebook removed chat from their app... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And people are angry that Facebook can't get chat to work any longer! 48% of the reveiws for their current version are 1 star. I've used some badly rated iOS apps, but none of them are as bad as Facebook's app's ratings!

  30. Alternative to Systemd by PaddyM · · Score: 1

    "You can get more stuff done with Facebook than any other tool that we know of"

    Sounds like a candidate. Let's use Facebook at Work for Linux startup management.

    Kind of like how we all use the Lifestreams interface for our OS's http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/freeman/lifestreams.html with much improved workflow.

  31. Moderators? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why was this post hammered down? That was also our experience here. Facebook chat worked great for informal one on one or team. We switched from Salesforce's chatter which was a pain and didn't have an iOS chat app like Facebook had. After Facebook removed chat from the app, we switched back to Salesforce.

  32. If Gary Larson were still cartooning... by sootman · · Score: 1

    ... he's update this for social media.

    The difference is, you actually can make money selling social media snake-oil to companies. For now, at least...

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  33. Jokes on them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Facebook is blocked at most companies when people I know work....

  34. God help us all by JohnFen · · Score: 1

    I am hoping my hardest hope that my employer won't use this. Right now we're forced to use the thoroughly horrendous Jive app for internal social media "needs", and I fear that Facebook's offering might be better. I fear this because the awfulness of Jive is currently an excellent excuse to avoid using it at all. Replacing it with something less awful might make it more difficult to avoid.

    1. Re:God help us all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is the duty of all in IT to make sure it sucks. It must not be allowed to live. If your company adopts it, route it to the spottiest fractional T1 you have, unleash the trolls, create a login script that blackholes DNS for it every third time the user logs in, post the password on Craiglist's dating section at 1AM, hell do anything, but by all means do something.

  35. What I want to know by SLot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    is the part about the plan to sell your information to your prospective new employer when you change jobs?

    "oh, well, it seems like he wasn't really a team player - only posted once every couple of days. better rescind that job offer."

    this is a horrible idea, all the way down. (turtles not included).

    1. Re:What I want to know by Sir_Substance · · Score: 1

      "oh, well, it seems like he wasn't really a team player - only posted once every couple of days. better rescind that job offer."

      I get this a bit with LinkedIn, I treat it as something of a reverse filter.

      I wouldn't want to work at a company with a HR department stupid enough to say something like "we don't hire people who don't use LinkedIn", or in the case of a recent article about Kogan "we don't hire people who use hotmail".

      A HR department that can't understand why those are stupid policies probably also won't give me a day off at short notice if I need it, and might try to implement per line committed code metrics for productivity or similarly dodgy "performance management".

      That having been said, we really need to look into legislation saying you're not allowed to discriminate your hiring choices based on social media participation. Just because you don't find anything when you search Facebook for me doesn't mean I'm a serial killer.

  36. Internal Company Social Networks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Big companies are starting their own internal social networks. Facebook is scared because some of the bigger players are connecting their networks. Give it a few more years and companies will form their own social networking "network" and facebook will be cut out.

  37. More accurate headlines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Facebook sniffs corporate pockets as relevancy tumbles"

    "Rift-acquiring Facebook distracts stockholders by following Microsoft and Google into the office after VR takes over at CES"

  38. Could have trouble internationally. by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

    "You have a friend request from NSA."

  39. jabber by kimvette · · Score: 1

    "You can get more stuff done with Facebook than any other tool that we know of, and we'd like to make that available to the whole world."

    I dunno, a private jabber server works fine for us and is far more secure than Facebook.

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  40. In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IT workers block Facebook at work, at work.

  41. Talking points for your management... by knorthern+knight · · Score: 2

    ...if they ever consider "Facebook For Work". Mark Zuckerburg is backstabbing sleazebag who has no conscience. Consider how he joined the Winklevoss twins' "Harvard Connection" (aka ConnectU) project, stole their ideas, and delayed the ConnectU project whilst he set up his own project (TheFacebook.com) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... His attitude to users is one of absolute contempt, and total disregard for their personal data confidentiality. Does your management really want him having access to your internal emails? If it's not blocked by your worksite due to NSFW language, point your management to http://www.newyorker.com/magaz... Here's a relevant snippet from the article

    === Begin Snippet ===
    The technology site Silicon Alley Insider got hold of some of the messages and, this past spring, posted the transcript of a conversation between Zuckerberg and a friend, outlining how he was planning to deal with Harvard Connect:

            FRIEND: so have you decided what you are going to do about the websites?
            ZUCK: yea I'm going to fuck them
            ZUCK: probably in the year
            ZUCK: *ear

    In another exchange leaked to Silicon Alley Insider, Zuckerberg explained to a friend that his control of Facebook gave him access to any information he wanted on any Harvard student:

            ZUCK: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvard
            ZUCK: just ask
            ZUCK: i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns
            FRIEND: what!? how'd you manage that one?
            ZUCK: people just submitted it
            ZUCK: i don't know why
            ZUCK: they "trust me"
            ZUCK: dumb fucks

    === End Snippet ===

    --

    I'm not repeating myself
    I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
  42. Technical question... standalone or hosted by FB? by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

    Is the Facebook At Work app standalone or hosted by FB? If it's hosted by FB, what happens when your corporate internet connection goes down. Internal email would still work, but a "cloud-hosted app"...?

    --

    I'm not repeating myself
    I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
  43. Already Exists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft offers Yammer. We have it and it's not overly useful

  44. What could possibly go wrong? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Given FB's record on security, what could possibly go wrong?

  45. Status Update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    == selfie of me on the roof of our office towers tossing my new Facebook at Work tablet like a frisbee into the sky ==

    I'M QUITTING TODAY, CASHING IN MY 401K, AND TOURING THE WORLD!!! SEE YOU IN THE FEEEW-CHA!!!

    37 Co-Workers Approve of this.

  46. Re:Technical question... standalone or hosted by F by Stewie241 · · Score: 1

    Presumably it would be hosted by FB. And I suspect for most companies that if the corporate internet connection goes down there are bigger issues than not being able to access corporate facebook.