pm blog

IBM/Lotus hopes to set the tone for enterprise
social-networking software with Lotus Connections,
a set of server-based services that can run within
the new Notes 8 client or be integrated with other
applications.

Businesses want Web 2.0 tools, they see how much
time consumers have spent browsing Facebook and
MySpace, where they interact with friends.  The
basis of any relationship starts with communication.

Facebook and MySpace does not fit your culture….

Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang, compiled a list
of some up-coming vendors looking to capitalize on
this trend.

65% - business professionals use personal and
professional social networking web sites.

47% - use networks to connect with potential
clients and market their skills.

55% - use them to share best practices with
colleagues.

Still a little vague on Social Networks?  Glen Allsop
has a recent post @ searchengineland.com

15 Fundamental Truths about Social Media Marketing.

Well worth the read…

     Law Office Technology’s Support Desk now has the ability to remotely control mobile phones.

•   Palm Treo 700 w/wx
•   Palm Treo 750 (GSM version)
•   Moto Q
•   Samsung BlackJack

For the last 2 years the legal sector has been bombarded with e-Discovery. Whether in the form of a vendor or service, you cannot escape it.

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court in April 2006 and in effect since December of that year, mandate that businesses must be able to quickly produce such data - including email, digital word documents, images and digital audio and video - when required by litigation in a federal court.

Michael Osterman of Osterman Research surveyed 111 companies in the fall of 2007 and found some interesting, yet serious issues…..

• 47% - have some kind of email retention policy in place
• 53% - lack a policy to govern email retention and deletion
• 67% - allow individuals users to determine how long messages are kept by the company
• 66% - do not have the email archiving technology required to manage email retention

“I don’t think it’s difficult to understand the [FRCP] rules or that business owners don’t know about them, I just think it sometimes takes a “headline shock” to make people move on some things, especially when we’re talking about potential liabilities. In other word, if it hasn’t happen to them yet, it hasn’t happened”

Osterman continues, “There really is no consensus yet on whether a company should keep all its email and other docs, whether a company should keep a finite number of years’ worth of data, or whether it should keep more than 30 days worth of data. As long as a company can prove it has predictable methods of storing or not storing data, it can show the court it has some sort of policy in place.”

Recent court cases have demonstrated that companies are expected to show a clear retention policy, many companies are still unclear on the concept of e-discovery in general.

This should only increase the opportunity firms have in developing marketing strategies to address this. When a non-lawyer believes it’s not difficult to understand the FRCP rules, you can also imagine this task would be assigned to some low level programmer, and that spells RISK.

Is it safe? 

I watched Marathon Man in Junior HIgh School and it scared me straight.  I decided it would be better to brush after every meal and floss until my gums bleed than hear that eerie voice from behind my chair ask ‘Is it safe?’ But thanks to advances in orthodontia a generation has been able to avoid the trauma of braces as well as years of expensive psychoanalysis. Maybe that explains why this piece reports that more and more undergraduates are foregoing law school in favor of careers in … dentistry. Dentistry?  As Lawrence Olivier would say, ‘Is it safe?’

following my last post - Security expertise. Most of the time we focus on the system/network. Technology has also given us Video Surveillance equipment. The idea of having a $500,000 home in Elburn working the downtown lake front, has become fact.

Visit:      spygearco.com

Online Surveillance Equipment - Naperville, IL

Don’t pass up their blog, things you can do with a iPod…

A recently released pocket guide designed to help federal judges manage the discovery of electronically stored information (ESI) is available to CyberControls clients and monthly newsletter recipients. The guide covers many of the issues unique to discovery of ESI including scope, allocation of costs, production issues, waivers of privilege, work product protection, data preservation, and spoliation. Throughout 2007 Cybercontrols tracked federal and state rulings on e-discovery issues: it should be no surprise to readers that state courts across the country are rapidly applying many of the e-discovery amendments incorporated into the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The pervasive use of digital technology means that commercial disputes will, more often than not, involve items that were created, stored, or accessed, electronically. What you choose to do about ESI in your commercial cases is of significant importance. All throughout 2006, the courts have demonstrated a heightened attention to the issues surrounding electronic discovery and this pocket guide for judges is now available to you. As you will see in the guide’s conclusion page, 20, the author strongly encourages its readers (presumably judges), judges must require attorneys to take seriously their obligation to meet and confer under Rule 26(f) and to submit a meaningful discovery plan that addresses ESI issues, and judges must ensure that adequate disclosures are made pursuant to Rule 26(a)(1). This means that lawyers need to come prepared to discuss ESI issues and plans at the pretrial stage of a case. To be prepared, lawyers must devote sufficient time and expertise to assess their own client’s information systems along with all applicable litigation-hold procedures necessary to preserve relevant ESI. Once that’s taken care of, lawyers also need to envision what specific types of ESI should be expected to be produced by the opposing side in order to ask the right questions at the Rule 26(f) meet and confer.

Conducting forensic computer examinations often requires an intensive collaboration between the expert and legal counsel. CyberControls’ expertise has proven to be an invaluable resource to hundreds of legal professionals across the country. Contact Cybercontrols at 847-756-4890 or visit them at www.cybercontrols.net.