I met yesterday with Serena's Rene Bonvanie, senior vice president, Worldwide Marketing, Partner Programs and Online Services. My colleague Darryl Taft posted a story today about Serena's recent cloud computing hat trick, but I met with with Rene because of a term I had heard attributed to him: "innovation without permission."

There have always been rogue implementations of technology in companies--Linux servers and Wi-Fi networks were notoriously underground before the technologies became mainstream, for example--but, today, it's a lot easier to do a lot more things without the help--or permission--of IT.

Think about the department in your company that's using Google Docs and Spreadsheets (and now Google Sites) to collaborate, or the group that's using Ning social networking for discussions and to share videos and other content. No one had to ask IT to get those apps up and running.

In fact, is there any technology you can't easily set up using a free service these days? (Discuss.)

Rene said he believes that we're rightly moving toward a model where the IT department's job is to facilitate whatever apps business users get up and running.

No more asking IT/dev for a particular app, waiting to rise up in the queue and then, often, being disappointed by what's been churned out. Just determine what you need to do, find the free online tool and off you go.

That's not to say that the freely available apps sprouting up are perfect. Rather, said Rene, they're often "good enough." But the apps then can be extended and integrated through mashup technology (like, oh, say, Serena's, for example).

The innovation-without-permission model also is being driven, said Rene, by the "millennials" in the workforce. These twenty- and early-thirtysomethings have grown up with the tools to set up their own networks, write their own blogs, create their own widgets, etc. They've never had to ask for permission to do any of these things, and certainly don't want to now that they're in the workplace (especially when they may very well know more about Web 2.0 technology than many of the IT staffers).

"You can allow people to innovate within a certain framework--a domain of innovation--or you can take the other approach--let it appear no matter what it affects or does, and decide which will make it and which will not," Rene told me.

Are you doing any innovating without permission? If so, do you worry about getting your hand slapped, or is it encouraged in your organization? And, what does this mean for the IT department?