Don't Let the 'March Madness' Hurt your Work
By David Sheets
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Friday, Mar. 17 2006
March Madness will spawn another kind of madness in the workplace starting this
week.
It won't be the debate over "bracketology" - the strange method of choosing 65
teams worthy of playing for the NCAA's basketball championsh ip - that gets
everyone in a lather. It won't even be the RPI, or Ratings Percentage Index, a
dizzying statistical assessment of team quality that falls just short of
including shoe size and hair color.
No, as maddening as these Madness factors are, something bigger looms -
something that will put tech support staffs everywhere on high alert.
This year, the digital media division of CBS, the NCAA Tournament's TV
broadcaster, will stream live Web video of the tournament's first three rounds.
It's called "NCAA March Madness on
Demand," it's free of charge, and it's troubling.
"It's a remarkable idea," said Paul Myer, president of 8e6 Technologies, a
California-based Internet filtering firm with clients in St. Louis. "It's also
going to produce some headaches if everyone at work tries to log on at once."
TV's transformation
CBS' intoxicating experiment seems the next logical step for a medium that's
bleeding viewers. Network television - ABC, CBS and NBC chief among them - has
lost about half its audience since 1980 largely to cable TV. But since 1999,
all television has suffered from the Internet.
Today, home computer users spend about as much time online as in front of a TV,
and the important 18-to-24 age demographic - the one advertisers love - leads
the exodus; about 60 percent of the group does more Web surfing than channel
surfing.
Now, the tube is fighting the iPod, too. In October, Apple Computer reinvented
TV when it released a video iPod player and upgraded its iTunes Music Store to
include some archived network programs, the most notable at the time being
ABC's "Lost" and "Desperate H ousewives."
Even cable TV networks have started posting programs online, after the shows'
initial broadcasts.
If CBS's March Madness experiment proves viable, it may open a path toward what
everyone really wants: live, online TV programming.
Work and play
None of this would be possible without "broadband," or high-speed Internet
access. At its slowest, broadband connections are nine times faster than
dial-up. The marriage of TV and the Internet was inevitable but only last year
did broadband reach more than 50 percent of American households; in 2000, the
total was closer to 6 percent.
Up to now, high-speed Internet stayed primarily in the workplace because it
required expensive technology only companies could afford.
Business benefited from it because broadband allowed dozens of people online at
once, theoretically improving workplace efficiency and the bottom line.
But broadband distracts workers, too. The best example of that occurs around
Christmas, when a lot of holiday shopping takes place at the office. Myer said
visits to music download sites during working hours also are on the rise, as is
use of Internet radio.
"People take advantage of that big pipeline at their desk and it really affects
their productivity," he said.
There's another problem, one that March Madness surely will underscore:
Broadband isn't as broad as most people think.
Limits on technology, patience
Although broadband feeds our need for speed, that speed decreases when too many
users tax its "bandwidth," or data-transmission capacity.
Only so many bits of data can pass through the line at one time, Myer
explained, and live Web video is very demanding.
Big companies with lots of bandwidth probably won't experience much
inconvenience when workers watch Web video, but midsize and small firms will
notice network slowdowns, even shutdowns, if only a few people tap into CBS'
online basketball coverage, Myer said.
Just one person at a midsize firm streaming video through his or her
workstation can reduce a computer network's performance by 25 percent, he said.
Even those firms blessed with bandwidth pay a price - literally.
"Most companies have enough bandwidth to handle all their work plus a little
extra for emergencies, but they pay a premium for going over their allocation,
so it really becomes a matter of money," Myer said.
It's also raises questions regarding company policy. At least 75 percent of
firms monitor their workers' Web use and curtail access to some sites,
according to a survey last summer by the American Manag ement Association and
The ePolicy Institute. Giving in to March Madness at some of these places could
be a firing offense.
A couple of St. Louis firms - a health care services firm and a
telecommunications provider, both preferring anonymity - say they will block
access to the games online but will provide TVs in common areas so staffers can
watch at lunch or on breaks.
Myer says his company will do the same and "try to keep the areas cleared of
crowds. Obviously, everyone has to keep their priorities straight."
About 8e6 Technologies
8e6 Technologies is a security company dedicated to Internet filtering and reporting. We are the only Web filtering company that uses a unique “pass-by technology” on a highly scalable appliance. Our standalone reporting appliance is easy to use and provides extremely detailed information, faster than any other product on the market. 8e6 helps protect its customers from all internal threats including spyware, malware, and Internet abuse leading to data loss and liability–while preventing bandwidth misuse. By preventing improper use of network resources and employee time, 8e6 also increases productivity and ensures regulatory compliance. Our standalone security solution achieves a dramatic reduction in the cost of hardware, subscriptions, maintenance, and support, and produces a substantially lower total cost of ownership. A Web filtering pioneer since 1995, the company maintains headquarters in Orange, California, with offices in Taipei and Beijing, as well as a network of channel partners worldwide. For more information, please call 888.786.7999 or visit www.8e6.com.
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