Network policy management and effectiveness system

1. A method for creating a network policy in a computer network, the method comprising:

receiving user input from a first participant, the user input selecting one of a plurality of available screen personalities;

presenting the first participant with a particular policy recommendation session configured to accommodate a plurality of participants and to represent each of the plurality of participants using a screen personality, wherein the first participant's screen personality corresponds to the available screen personality selected by the input from the first participant;

selecting, using a hardware processor, a suggested policy;

presenting, using the hardware processor, the suggested policy to the plurality of participants;

obtaining, from one or more of the plurality of participants, network policy recommendations regarding the suggested policy; and

generating the network policy based on the obtained network policy recommendations.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

evaluating the network policy by:

generating a network policy compliance value based on monitoring network user compliance for a plurality of network users; and

comparing the compliance value to a target compliance value, wherein the target compliance value defines a baseline for network policy compliance.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recommendations comprise modified network policies, the method further comprising:

providing at least one modified network policy to the participants; and

receiving a group-modified policy from the network users.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network policy comprises:

a network hardware policy;

an email policy;

an internet policy;

a software license policy;

a document management system policy; or

a network security enforcement policy.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising modifying the generated network policy based on a network user compliance report.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a means for updating the generated network policy.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the means for updating comprise:

periodically reviewing a set of parameters of the network policy;

determining the viability of each of the parameters of the set of parameters of the network policy; and

adjusting one or more of the parameters of the set of parameters of the network policy based on the determination of viability.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating one or more additional network policies;

for each of the network policy and the additional network policies, calculating a compliance value indicating network user compliance by a group of users;

automatically analyzing the compliance values to identify an insufficient network policy based on network user compliance with the insufficient network policy; and

automatically substituting a different network policy in place of the insufficient network policy.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the network policy comprises an associated security level identifying the relative restrictiveness of the associated network policy.

10. A computer-readable memory device storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations for interactively generating a network policy, the operations comprising:

providing a suggested network policy to a plurality of network users;

receiving one or more modified first network policies from at least one of the network users;

providing at least one of the modified first network policies to the network users;

receiving a group of modified second network policies from the network users; and

generating the final network policy based on the modified second network policies from the network users.

11. The computer-readable memory device of claim 10 , further comprising:

evaluating the final network policy by:

generating a network policy compliance value based on monitoring network user compliance for a second plurality of network users; and

comparing the compliance value to a target compliance value, wherein the target compliance value defines a baseline for network policy compliance.

12. The computer-readable memory device of claim 10 further comprising modifying the generated final network policy based on a network user compliance report.

13. The computer-readable memory device of claim 10 further comprising:

generating one or more additional network policies;

for each of the final network policy and the additional network policies, calculating a compliance value indicating network user compliance by a group of users;

automatically analyzing the compliance values to identify an insufficient network policy based on network user compliance with the insufficient network policy; and

automatically substituting a different network policy in place of the insufficient network policy.

14. The computer-readable memory device of claim 10 wherein the final network policy comprises an associated security level identifying the relative restrictiveness of the associated network policy.

15. A system for creating a network policy comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive, from each of a plurality of participants, a user input selecting one of a plurality of available screen personalities;

a policy recommendation session initiator configured to present the plurality of participants with a policy recommendation session, the policy recommendation session configured to represent each of the plurality of participants using a screen personality corresponding to that participant's available screen personality selection; and

a policy suggester configured to present a policy to the plurality of participants;

an opinion collector configured to obtain, from the plurality of participants, network policy recommendations regarding the suggested policy; and

a network policy generator configured to generate the network policy based on the obtained recommendations.

16. The system of claim 15 , further comprising:

evaluating the network policy by:

generating a network policy compliance value based on monitoring network user compliance for a plurality of network users; and

comparing the compliance value to a target compliance value, wherein the target compliance value defines a baseline for network policy compliance.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the policy recommendation session further presents the plurality with a facilitator to moderate the policy recommendation session's content or time.

18. The system of claim 15 further comprising modifying the generated network policy based on a network user compliance report.

19. The system of claim 15 further comprising:

generating one or more additional network policies;

for each of the network policy and the additional network policies, calculating a compliance value indicating network user compliance by a group of users;

automatically analyzing the compliance values to identify an insufficient network policy based on network user compliance with the insufficient network policy; and

automatically substituting a different network policy in place of the insufficient network policy.

20. A system for interactively generating a network policy comprising:

means for providing a suggested first network policy to a plurality of network users;

means for receiving one or more modified second network policies from at least one of the network users;

means for providing at least one of the second modified network policies to the network users;

means for receiving a group of third modified network policies from the network users; and

means for generating the final network policy based on the modified third network policies from the network users.