cft

Facebook Workplace … good or bad?

How is the facebook workplace?


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Bill Buchanan OBE

3 years ago | 2 min read

I lay my cards on the table, with a vested interest here … I have never been an active user of Facebook, and dislike the platform.

In my university, we have Facebook Workplace. I registered for it once, and now I just receive emails which I never follow-up. Unfortunately, Facebook’s whole business model is that the more they know about you, the more they can make money from you. Otherwise, in a corporate environment, you’ll have to pay for every user in the company, in order for them not to mine your data.

For me, Facebook Workplace, just seems another way for Facebook to worm their way into your life. And so, with increasing levels of distrust with users, Facebook is looking to monitize users in companies, and by charging NOT to store their data.

But the feedback from users in some Facebook Workplaces is perhaps not as positive as one would expect. CERN is one example, and who subscribed to their free trail. Unfortunately, user feedback, in places, highlighted that many people just don’t trust the platform, and that that only 150 out of 1,000 registered users actually ended-up using it on a weekly basis. This has caused CERN to announce that it will end Worplace on 31 January 2020:

Facebook provided CERN with two options: either to downgrade to the Free version - and where all the data would be sent to Facebook - or pay for its usage. For many, the thought of Facebook having all your work related information is perhaps a step too far, and where Facebook would be able to link both your home and work life.

The new pricing policy defines a cost of $8 per person, per month, for Workplace Enterprise and which allows an organisation to have admin rights. For a company with 1,000 employees that ends up at $96,000 per year, and which is a lot considering the range of open source tools available. The real shock is that the pricing is per user, rather than per active user. So your company might be paying for all those users who just don’t want to use it.

To me, the platform is flawed because of its creator. While Slack does not compete in the same space, it is a much better tool for collaboration and productivity. Tools such as Discource and Mattermost also now seem great alternatives, especially in creating active teams and communities.

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Bill Buchanan OBE

Professor of Cryptography. Serial innovator. Believer in fairness, justice & freedom. Based in Edinburgh. Old World Breaker. New World Creator. Building trust.


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