I'll be presenting a workshop and discussion session on 'From Mobile Device Policy to BYOD' at Jisc's Digifest on Monday 9th March. Come along and hear why Bring Your Own Device may not be as scary as you think
My slides are now published on slideshare
I've done a couple of presentations this week, comparing the risks and benefits of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) with those that research and education organisations already accept in the ways we use organisation-managed mobile devices. As the title of my talk in Dundee asked, "What’s the Difference?"
I had been planning to write up a summary of my thoughts on Bring Your Own Device, but I'm pleased to discover that the UK Government has pretty much done it for me. Their draft guidance, just published for comment, suggests an approach along the following lines:
The recent invention of the phrase "Bring Your Own Device" seems to have got educational organisations agonising about something we’ve been doing routinely, indeed relying on, for at least 15 years. Whenever you send a member of staff home with some work to do but no laptop to do it on, or provide a webmail service for students, or invite a visiting academic connect their device to your network, you’re inviting BYOD.
I reckon the education sector accepted user-owned devices (now known as Bring Your Own Device) at least fifteen years ago, the moment we provided remote access and encouraged staff and students to work outside the office. My talk at the Janet/Jisc services day in London therefore looked at how we can do it better, suggesting a three step plan. Your comments and experiences on these ideas would be very welcome:
I'll be speaking on BYOD: Doing it Better
Presenting at the Jisc’s Safer Internet Day event got me thinking a bit more about the shared interests between owners and organisations in a BYOD scheme, and the opportunity that might present. For many years I’ve liked the idea of helping users be safe in their personal Internet lives (where motivation should be a matter of self-interest, rather than "having to comply with policy") and improving workplace safety as a side-effect.
I’ve had a few discussions recently where people talked about the ‘new risk’ of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), but then mentioned risks – loss/theft of device, use in public place, etc. – that already exist on organisation-managed mobile devices. Turning that around, it struck me that one way to develop a BYOD policy might be to start from the mobile device policy you already have. I’d be interested in comments on how this approach might work.
The theme of Safer Internet Day 2014 is "Let's create a better internet together", and the JISC RSCs are organising a preparatory day of online presentations in the area of on-line safety and security.
I'll be talking about Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) as an opportunity to do better security together, by combining the skills and incentives of device owners and information owners.
The event is on-line and you're welcome to attend just for particular sessions that are of interest, or for the whole day. Attendance is free, but you do need to register on the website.
I'll be speaking about "BYOD - Capabilities and Incentives" at the Gregynog Colloquium