Implementing social software at MIT LL

One of the biggest issues that confronts the implementation of any software at MIT Lincoln Laboratory is the high level of security and firewalls.  Any division within the Laboratory, including the Library, must work closely with security and with the IT department to make changes. Lincoln Laboratory is a restricted and closed facility, and is fairly self-contained. The facility must keep tight control over all work generated due to its proprietary nature. Certain workstations, such as the computer that I use in the archives, do not even allow the installation of plug-ins from the internet. As with many libraries, anything on the Lincoln Lab intranet is not accessible remotely unless the user has the appropriate login information. I am certain the IT department works tirelessly to ensure that all the software and anything else generated at Lincoln Lab is safely locked by the firewall so that no outside user could mistakenly stumble upon government restricted documents.

The library has been able to implement quite a lot of social software, including blogs RSS feeds, and tags assigned by the on-site reference librarians. One software application that the lab could never use is Flickr,  because of the security restrictions on cameras. Employees are not allowed to bring any kind of camera (cell phone or otherwise) into the laboratory. So, visual images and photographs are limited. But the library has been able to serve the laboratory effectively without such software.