too social?

I'll admit it, I'm addicted to Facebook. I check in like I used to check my email. Often. But recently, I've been thinking a lot about Facebook and social networking in a different context, as we move toward being more "social" at work.

The big trend right now is having communities at work and sharing. I am all about sharing, but I'm not so sure of the boundaries.

This comes up because I am the person who is responsible for updating our department portal with new presentations, blog posts, etc. Which is fine, but when is communication overwhelming and too much?

I think there comes a point where you have to stop tossing out tons and tons of information at a rapid pace and let your viewers absorb and digest what you are sharing. I don't think that's happening. I can't imagine being the person producing all of these documents, it has to be horrible. Today it was a podcast.

Thinking it through, if I were to read every single blog post, announcement, and listen to ever podcast, I might be really smart about things going on around me, but I'd probably have spent at least an hour of my day doing this. Is that a valuable use of my time? How do I determine the right amount of time to spend and how do I schedule that? Also, how do I train myself not to save things like this for "this evening" or for "lunchtime"?

I think it's interesting to watch the social networking dynamic enter the workplace, and I'm sure that it has a valuable place there, but where will it land and what is the comfort zone for both producers and consumers of this information. I can't wait to find out.