To Whom It May Concern,

Recently, because of various firewalls, proxies, scanners and content filters I find my Internet usage habits negatively changing.  Your objective of limiting my Internet usage has been achieved although it does not align with my objectives and I question whether or not it aligns with the long term strategic objectives of the organization.

As an aside to my understood delivery related job functions my position requires that I am plugged in to the Internet so that I can find answers to current, relevant questions as well as having a constant stream of data that helps me formulate my thoughts - about what needs to be understood, as well as fueling insight and creativity which - although your organization may not realize immediate benefits - I expect something useful will be reaped in due course.

At any point in time I have at least three development environments open, Word, Outlook, Media Player, some explorers and at least ten browser sessions open.  I flip through all of these constantly without breaking my stride... a pause while I let a technical problem that I am encountering sink in is a chance to switch to another window and do something else.  Google is my guide to the world and my profession and I constantly monitor about 50 rss feeds - admittedly one or two of those may not be considered work related, such as The Dilbert Blog or Boing Boing and others may be borderline relevant to my job, such as The Register or SlashDot.  The rest of them I consider highly relevant for the functions that your organization expects me to perform on a daily basis.

Of course I don't expect you to understand any of this as you sit there in your office counting beans while you wait for your emails to print out so that you can read them.  You are interested in the bottom-line cost of Internet availability and you are not able to picture how the Internet is constantly changing the world - unfortunately your 'visionary' board members have the same myopic view.

You may think that I am just some geek whose needs are irrelevant, but geeks are at the forefront of technology adoption for the next generation - who at some point you want to have as customers as you sit in retirement waiting for your dividend cheques.  About ten years ago I was considered a geek because I used an Apple Newton - now you probably have an I-Mate of your own and are trying to figure out how to use the technology to push more products and services to your customers. SMS (Text Messaging), which is considered a vital communication mechanism for any business, was not adopted because of some boardroom directive or even a Gartner analysis report - it was driven by millions of youngsters flirting with each other at noisy raves, where voice communication simply did not work.  Those youngsters are now your customers - which is why they demand that services are delivered by text message.  If you don't believe me, step out of your office, find someone young - and challenge them to a race to see who can type out a message fastest on their mobile - you will lose.

Other technology is being adopted by the next wave of youngsters where instant communication and access to vast sources and types of media is considered normal.  For them it is more normal too scan the Boing-Boing feed than to watch prime-time news.  They want things that interest them streamed directly into little white headphones that they are always plugged into.  They create blogs and wikis and use them as a source for their buying decisions.

They are becoming your customers and, your actions clearly indicate that you will only understand them too late.

I know you think that I should not be using the Internet for non 'business related reasons' and that Internet access decreases productivity.  I beg to differ and think that productivity is the responsibility of line managers and not some piece of software that sits between me and the rest of the world.  If I may not access the Internet at work for fear of being dragged in front of a disciplinary hearing, may I bill you for my work related Internet usage at home?  How much can I charge for listening to a relevant thirty minute podcast at home?  Will you refund me for downloading a 200MB software update at home because I would never be able to get it downloaded at work?

I am not requesting that you investigate my Internet usage in order to determine if I am worthy of more Internet access.  I consider such investigation an invasion of privacy and where I go on the Internet is not something for public consumption.  The recent exposure of the AOL search logs is a clear indication of how such data can be (mis)interpreted.

The irony is that this is being addressed to you via a blog, and you are so disconnected that you wont even find it.  If someone does forward you this post, bear in mind that I have left out the links on purpose so that you can use that precious bandwidth to go and figure it out for yourself.  You can start at Google - the only link you need to get started.