A social contract is an ”agreement by the governed on a set of rules by which they are governed.” (thanks Wikipedia)

I have seen very few businesses where the social contract for smartphones, beyond BlackBerry, is clearly laid out and internalized by both employer and employee.  It’s almost always missing.  I hear that policies are in place, but if they are not understood and accepted by the employee, then for all intents and purposes, they don’t exist.

This notion of the ”missing social contract” for mobility was a great turn of phrase I heard from an security guy the other day.  We’ve always said mobile is “different” when talking to IT teams trying to plan their smartphone strategies as an extension to what they did with laptops.  People assume that difference is because of fragmented operating systems, or the move to apps.  However, the most radical departure from the traditional IT mindset has nothing to do with mobile technology, but everything to do with human behavior.

End-users don’t view smartphones as “computing.”  They view them as a core enabler of daily life.  They don’t consider smartphones “hardware” and “software.”  They expect an integrated experience where they switch seamlessly from talking to texting, working to playing.  Form means as much, sometimes more, than function.  If they forget their laptop at work, they’ll pick it up the next day.  If they forget their phone at work, they’ll drive back 20 miles to get it.  It’s a lifeline that plays a much more important role in their daily existence than any other piece of corporate or personal technology.

As a result, they don’t operate under the default assumption that the social contract they have for their laptop applies to their phone.  IT has traditionally dictated form and function, use and policy.  If IT takes the same policy structure and guidelines as those used for laptops and desktops, and then applies them to a platform that the user views so differently, there will inevitably be a breakdown.  

So what should the Mobile Social Contract actually be?  Who should set it?  What should it cover?  What are the responsibilities of IT and of the user?  How should they be communicated?  What are the penalties for breaking the contract?  These are difficult questions to answer but I’m getting convinced that this is the missing link between good intention and user satisfaction in smartphone rollouts.