That gem came from Nicholas Charney at the ALI conference on social media and government this morning. The words were immediately tweeted. Re-tweeted. And re-tweeted some more. Clearly it was one (of many) points from the morning speakers that struck home. Nick is on Twitter as @nickcharney by the way.
During the breakout session, in the questions posed after the presentations, and informally over coffee, it was also clear this was a common problem. Either social media was simply blocked in an organization so that no one could access the sites, or social media use was considered off limits as an organizational communications tool.
In the biotech community the mistrust of social media is probably even more acute.
Mary Canady a San Diego based biotech consultant, estimates that of the many life science companies around the world there are very few ( she figures only 30 or so) active blogs and not much more in the way of Twitter accounts. Mary has both a blog  and Twitter presence and has put together a pretty good listing of biotech-type blogs at http://comprendia.com/2009/07/13/to-blog-or-not-to-blog/ 

As an article in the voiceofsandiego.org points out, the biotech industry will gamble huge amounts of money on drug development, but cringe at the thought of social media. Some of the fear is justified because in Canada and the US there are regulatory issues that don't prohibit social media use but certainly makes it tough. The disclaimer on even an an over-the-counter headache tablet will choke Twitter, and make for pretty dull Facebook reading.
After that however the arguments for avoiding social media tend to lose weight.
The one that we hear quite regularly in the biotech sector is that we will give away our secrets. Like Nicholas Charney suggested we haven't taken away pens to make sure they don' write formulas on the washroom walls and we don't block e-mail to make sure researchers and marketers aren't sharing secrets. As many of the speakers and attendees pointed out today however, such leaks or similar problems are really a personnel matter. It is not a problem with the social media tools or the poor IT folks stuck in the middle.

Biotech is everywhere. It is part of the ethanol blend in our gas tanks, the drugs we are prescribed, the plastics we use, our agricultural practices, food production and many other more aspects of our lives.
In the eyes of the public though biotech is often seen as something out of science fiction and as a magic bullet to cure diseases. It also becomes a flashpoint for discussions about stem cell research or GMOs. Whether biotech wades further into the social media waters or not, these discussions will take place on and offline and in all sorts of media streams. Being there means the biotech community can be heard in their own words.
So give the pens back to the biotech community and even if some of them do write on the bathroom walls, they'll grow out of it.

Nicholas Charney definitely made some points that resonated with everyone and was frank with his comments and answers.