On the Mark

I hope you’ve all done the right thing and bought that card, sent those flowers or given the Godiva to your significant other.

If you haven’t, let’s hope there are no repercussions from your thoughtlessness! If there’s “One Message” I could impart, it’s don’t forget your loved ones and family on this day.

A decent segue into this next piece, too.

That is Family, Nepotism and the purchase of Message One.

For those who missed it, MIchael Dell bought Message One for a whopping $155 million Tuesday, and his brother Adam is one of the principal investors of the company. I read a great deal of coverage on this and one particular blog post seemed worth sharing with you folks today. Gigaom, the great site from Om Malik really breaks things down quickly and gets right to the point.

Here’s the financial information from the filing that makes this so juicy (and what makes Gigaom so good):

• Impact Venture Advisors (wholly owned by Adam Dell) is expected to receive approximately $966,000 ($904,000 attributable to its interest in Impact Venture Partners and $62,000 attributable to its interest in Impact Entrepreneurs Fund)
• Michael Dell, Susan Dell and their children’s trust are expected to receive collectively approximately $12 million ($10.7 million attributable to their interest in Impact Venture Partners and $1.3 million attributable to their interest in Impact Entrepreneurs Fund)
• Mr. Dell’s parents are expected to receive approximately $450,000 (all attributable to their interest in Impact Entrepreneurs Fund).

 Stacey Higgenbotham of Gigaom writes “When you’re Michael Dell, the money isn’t everything, but helping a brother get rid of a 10-year-old drag on the portfolio might count as a favor. But MessageOne fits with Dell’s efforts to offer more managed services, so sometimes a little nepotism isn’t all bad”

The purchase may be a good move in giving them entry into a space already occupied  by Seagate, EVault and MetaLINCS.

Stephanie Balaouras at Forrester Research writes, “This acquisition will give Dell the cornerstone that it needs to build out its own suite of SaaS offerings”

For those who would like to read the Dell / MessageOne press release, click here

Happy Valentine’s Day

On the Mark

While the snow and ice and sleet continue to pound the Northeast outside, I’ll take a minute in the warmth of my office to point out some upcoming events in our community.

The Sedona Conference® and The Sedona Institute will be holding its next “Getting Ahead of the eDiscovery Curve” CLE program at the Westin Horton Plaza in San Diego on March 13 and 14. This should again prove to be one of the year’s best CLE programs.

I was fortunate to have served as an instructor on the first “Getting Ahead” CLE in Memphis last year , and this next one in San Diego will be even better. Unfortunately for most, the program is completely and totally sold out! I spoke Monday with Richard Braman, who says the program has reached the venue’s maximum capacity, with  a considerable waiting list to boot.

Also up for The Sedona Conference® is the RFP+ Vendor Panel meeting in Sedona. This meeting is taking place March 3 and 4 and will bring the editorial board and all RFP+ Vendor Panel members together for their yearly meeting with respect to any required changes. This will be the first year I am attending where I am not on the editorial panel. I’ll be attending on behalf of my new employer, MetaLINCS - a Seagate Services Company.

Larry Center of the Georgetown Law Center has recently announced a significant and positive change for for the Georgetown CLE’s annual program November 18 and 19. It’s exciting that the event is moving into a new home!  Great news that is.  The program has become so good, the quality of the material and instructors so high, that attendance has more than maxed out the Moot Court at the University. The new digs are…drum roll…The Crystal City Doubletree Hotel. The facility made sense for a number of reasons: 

1. Largest meeting space of all hotels with space on the required dates
2. Ample space for all sponsors and exhibitors
3. Reasonable room rate for attendees
4. Close to Reagan Airport for out-of-town attendees and speakers
5. Free shuttle buses from the Metro for local attendees and speakers.
6. Ample parking for local attendees and speakers who wish to drive.

Congrats to Larry Center and team for the efforts and great result!

We’ll have more industry announcements tomorrow but also a quick reminder that TODAY, FEBRUARY 13, is absolutely the last day to get your Valentine act together — no more procrastinating. To make it easier for you, I’m giving you a link to the procrastinator guide, too.

Go do something nice for your partner or loved one (or both, kidding) before it’s too late. After all, who else do you think will put up with your sorry workaholic e-behind?  And item last, don’t take the cheapskate way out of your Valentine obligation to send a cheezy e-card. The FBI today warns of a malicious e-virus that is/will be circulating this year and it is an especially harmful Trojan that will grab control of your PC. Read the story here (click)  

On the Mark

We’ve been hearing about “going paperless” for how long now?

Years and years.

It’s the green promise that the digital age has dangled in our faces like a prized carrot. Problem is, it’s not really working out that way in practice.

Many  litigation support professionals, attorneys and service providers will tell you the digital age has not had that big an impact on paper use. Some would even contend that paper use has increased! Riddle me that one, Batman.

So I was caught by an article titled ”Pushing Paper Out The Door” in Sunday’s New York Times.

Paper-reducing technologies have crept into homes and offices, perhaps more for efficiency than for environmentalism; few people will dispute the convenience of online bill-paying and airline e-tickets writes Hannah Fairfield of the New York Times in her “Metrics” column 

Could this be the excuse I need to “recycle” my various yellow phone books?

This article is interesting for a couple of reasons. She offers insight into why the paper-use tide finally may be turning and some factoids that indicate paper consumption has plateaued or dropped in recent years.

She tracks one family in its efforts to cut out paper consumption entirely, and gives some hope to those of us who know we should cut back and those who want to cut back, with examples of how others are cutting back.

When Fairfield wrote about the proliferation of personal scanners, I perked up! I’m in that club. I bought one. It’s nice, it works and does a great job when I need to get my expense reports in. But am I fully utilizing it?  I have stacks of evidence to the contrary. I have a refrigerator covered with the daily onslaught of children’s artwork. Yet, can I bring myself to throw it out?

NO WAY!  It’s my daughter’s. It’s special.

But the fact is, at some point not all of it gets saved in the treasured memento box. My wife is better at this than I am.

What’s my grown daughter going to say 20 years from now when I hand her a disk or a drive (Seagate) or who knows what kind of media and say, “Here are some cherished things from when you were little”?

“Thanks. You couldn’t just make me a scrap book?”    

So it’s all over but the clean-up.

New York Legal Tech 2008 is in the books and by many reports it was a good show, very much the “same as it ever was.”

I’m not sure if ALM has looked into the possibility of holding this program somewhere else, but, for what it’s worth, I heard directly from some attendees –and overhead others – who were hoping for newer and better space in the future.

Now this next item has nothing to do with ALM, but another common whine was the quality, amount and availability of good swag and prizes. That’s right, the natives want “mo’ and betta.”

 IPods? Yeah yeah. Flat screen give aways?…you betcha.

But just not for me.

I’m now in the generation that is looking for soft, small, cute toys for my 2.5-year-old daughter.  Keep your IPods. I’m looking for a variety of small stuffed animals.  Never come home empty-handed is my new motto. 

One particular vendor who used to have a “Win a dinner at ANY Manhattan restaurant of your choice” drawing. All you had to do was throw a business card into the fish bowl.   It was a bonanza of leads for him, and he was extremely excited about how well the promotional contest was received. The small print : HE was actually taking the winner out himself, holding him captive for a couple of hours of great food and the obligatory sales talk.

Anyway, here’s for coming to LegalTech and thanks so much to all the great friends and acquaintances who took time out of their crawl to come by the MetaLINCS booth and visit with yours truly.

Now back to blogging with a story I noticed a while ago and wanted to point out before it got too stale.

CIA Agents and Other Federal Employees Avail Themselves of Professional Liability Insurance 

Professional liability insurance is being offered to federal employees and CIA officers in the middle of the terrorist interrogation tapes brouhaha. And they’re taking advantage of it, too.

 Wright & Company , founded in 1965 by a former FBI agent, offers this coverage for as little as $300 per year. But what I find most interesting is that the federal government pays half the yearly premium for supervisors and other high-risk employees. That includes the CIA’s entire counter-terrorism operation.  Public tax dollars are paying half the premium for hundreds of employees.

 If you think about it, erasing tapes is not much different than deleting data, and it’s exactly the same once that video is digital or digitized. So this insurance can protect those who are involved in spoliation. And that is a scary thought.

In a January 20 New York Times article, writer Scott Shane gives a very informative look at this story and explores the scope and range of the issues. I think it’s worth a quick read.

Have a good weekend everybody. 

On the Mark

Below are some “live” blogging notes I took during Wednesday’s 10:30 a.m. session. Please forgive the disjointed nature and any grammatical errors.

I’m sitting in the E-Discovery Institutes Breakfast Briefing and Patrick Oot asks the questions, ”Counselor, why can’t you Google it?”  and “Madonna, what does it mean to you?” 

(I think it’s 400 degrees in this room.)

Interesting questions standing alone. But in this case both were used to jokingly introduce how data from Verizon’s acquisition of MCI was leveraged for the E-Discovery Institute Inaugural Study and how the metrics were determined. Patrick laid out the parameters of the initial review and the challenges faced. Expense was huge. The total cost of the original manual review was a little over $13.5 million soup-to-nuts, including fees for both outside counsel (but not VC and Deal attorney costs). 

It was specifically this experience and that astronomical expense that spurred the search for “a better way,” as Patrick put it. Better way could also be deemed ”Computer Assisted Document Review.”

Anne Kershaw reminded attendees that the E-Discovery Institute was not a Vendor Certification and made a pitch for sponsors, both for money and ideas.

Herb Roitblat said that humans were about 20% accurate, and asked ”How Do We Assess Accuracy?”  — meaning what’s responsive and what’s not and how computers are used to “amplify” intelligence.  I wish someone could amplify the air conditioning in this room right about now.  The panelists and attendees are all looking a little baked and miserable from this heat. 

Judge Waxse smartly pointed out that there is no “precision” component to the law, only “reasonableness”.

Anne Kershaw and Craig Ball both stated that Computer Assisted Review is an iterative and collaborative process.

Laura Kibbe finally spoke up on “reasonableness” — a welcome voice in this discussion.

The presentation was good, and appeared to be the same as both the Georgetown and IQPC Jersey City presentations.

Today’s presenters described their efforts skillfully, and considering how sweltering it is in here everyone deserves kudos for staying till the end. 

Stay tuned for more details and the Institutes White Paper in early 2008.

Oh yeah, thanks to the Hilton for the complimentary sauna, too.

TAKING ADVERTISING AND SPONSORSHIP TO A NEW LEVEL

I commented yesterday about our banners,  but I didn’t go into the entire sponsorship and marketing onslaught LegalTech attendees faced. Advertising was everywhere you looked. Even underfoot. No kidding. As I was walking toward the escalator buttoning my coat, I noticed floor banners. Man, people treading on your message. Not sure if that’s where I’d want my message and how I’d like it regarded or treated. Wave Technologies’ sponsorship of  “bathrooms” at LegalTech for the last three years I find particularly amusing. Talk about targeting your advertising to a captive audience! In the men’s room, it was standing room only.