Get.net.smart.

• Author: Pemberton, J. Michael

TITLE: Get.net.smart: Using the Internet and E-mail at Work PRODUCER: Commonwealth Films LENGTH: 22 minutes (utilization guide included) PRICE: $695 from Commonwealth Films; $637 for ARMA International members buying from ARMA MEDIA: Available in CD-ROM, VHS, PAL, Secam SOURCES: Commonwealth Films, Inc. (617-262-5634, www.commonwealthfilms.com) Pubic and private organizations are taking the offensive against employees' abusing computing infrastructure. For example, a senior administrator at a large public university was forced to resign when a recent audit of computer use revealed recurrent visits to pornographic Web sites. Surveys by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission conclude that personal use of organization-supplied computers has become wide spread. Added to an average of 25 percent unproductive time in the workday -- shown in earlier workplace studies -- such techno-dawdling has become a serious productivity issue.

Get.net.smart, a video production from Commonwealth Films, addresses employee abuse of Internet access and e-mail privileges. Two narrators -- managers from a company's systems security unit -- emphasize that the term "personal computer" is an unhappy misnomer in that work-supplied computers are not personal, private, or privileged. Rather they are organizational assets on loan to employees. Diversion of those assets is just as serious as misuse of company money. While a certain amount of personal use can be tolerated, examination of Web logs quickly reveal what to all would be "excessive use."

This 22-minute docudrama, developed from actual situations, shows a variety of staffers engaged in one or more inappropriate uses of organization-supplied systems. Individuals use the Internet for stock trading, computer games, gambling, shopping, and bidding on goods at eBay. Some listen to Web radio, enjoy online jokes, pass along chain letters, and even plan social events. One worker's hope that encryption will keep his activity secret proves false since all of his keystrokes are being captured and examined.

Organizations have every reason to clamp down on technology misuse. Tying up computer resources by downloading non-work-related graphics and content with streaming video and sending non-work e-mail to their entire address book can cause the network to bog down enough to slow legitimate work. Some workers may not understand that downloading graphics and clipart may be a copyright infringement, and it endangers one's company when...