August 7, 2010 by Andy Russell
Jordan, in a surprise bid to increase the productivity of its public sector workers has prevented them from accessing over fifty websites during office hours. The move comes after research was undertaken which revealed that each individual was wasting up to three hours online, daily.
The study, which was conducted over thirty days, revealed that workers within the public sector accessed over seventy million sites, despite the fact that less than 150,000 were significant or useful to their roles at work. The move has been made to reduce wasted time and increase the output and achievement of workers.
Marwan Juma, Jordan’s Information Minister has stated: “This policy will improve services in Jordan. We knew there was waste, but not to this extent. These policies are not unique; when I worked in the private sector, all the companies I worked for had policies. It’s part of our attempts to improve services and get staff to use the internet as a tool to help them with their work.”
“This is a continuous process and we are revamping our monitoring and filtering tools with a view, perhaps, of time limited access to certain sites, rather than an outright block. The blocked access will only be in place during office hours. When someone is at work, they should be focused on their job.”
Following the ban, a quarter of a million workers still attempted to access blocked sites.
Jordanian Communications Minister, Ali Ayed commented: “This measure must not be misinterpreted. The government is not targeting any particular website. Even the government’s own news agency, Petra, has been blocked. The public sector’s time must be spent in service of the public interest and public servants must focus their attention on the public’s needs, instead of wasting their time surfing the web or playing games. Jordan will be continuing with our broadband roll out and parts of the country, such as Amman, are already having fibre laid.”
Related posts:
- Internet future discussed in US technology meeting
- Finally some important information on Windows 7
- Censorship Programme to be required on Chinese Computers
- Government turns to social networking for inspiration
- Net Neutrality Debate Intensifies as Data Transferred Over ISP Network Increases
- Debate over rogue domains goes public
