Vogel Internet, Information Technology and e-Discovery Blog : Texas Internet, Information Technology, eCommerce & E-Discovery Lawyer & Attorney Peter S. Vogel : Gardere Wynne Sewell Law Firm : Dallas TX

Google just announced that will it “will find full-text legal opinions from federal and state courts.” It had to happen at some point, so it’s not a tremendous surprise that Google would expand its services to include legal research. However will courts rely on Google as a cited authority? Maybe not, since few Judges rely on Wikipedia as authority. However  Wikipedia currently has more than 3.1 million articles (and growing) maybe that will change. Also since more than 65% of all US searches are made on Google, maybe Courts will soon rely on Google as an authority.  Time will tell!

Google - More Mapping

Google’s recent announcement of free turn-by-turn navigation including maps in the US certainly sent shockwaves throughout the navigation world. However since Google does not have maps throughout Europe there are also reports that Google is teaming with Automotive Navigation Data (AND) “a Netherlands-based digital map provider, to get detailed mapping data of Europe.” However there are disputes in a number of countries including Japan and the UK that are up in arms that Google is collecting pictures of neighborhoods and streets.

Future of Google in the Courts

With its value increasing to more than $32 billion is it any wonder that Google continues to offer new services? Where this is ultimately headed is really the great question. It was not very clear that when Google purchase Postini a few years ago that Google was posturing itself to enter the eDiscovery fray. However since virtually every Judge knows of Google surely how far wrong could a litigant go by relying on Google and Postini to manage eMail for eDiscovery?

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The National Public Radio (NPR) interview of Thomas Bleha last Saturday should be a wake-up call the US government. Bleha’s recent book entitled Overtaken on the Information Superhighway was the subject of the NPR interview and actually not a major surprise. The Internet may have invented in the US, but today the US lags behind in providing high speed broadband access. Among other things, Bleha commented that Clinton Administration made the Internet a high priority but went on to blame the Bush Administration that was just not interested and relied on private business to build a high speed Internet network in the US, but that never happened.

US Government Appears Paralyzed

The US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) just reported to the Congress that there are about 2,200 grant applications to fund broadband infrastructure which total about $28 billion although only $4 billion is currently available (of the total $7.2 billion allocated). So the NTIA is wading through these grant applications and as result delaying the process even further. The Federal Communications Commission issued a report about the same time that “a lack of a broadband subsidy program… contributed to gaps in broadband adoption in the U.S.” In the meantime nothing is moving ahead!

What’s Going Elsewhere?

The UK still plans to bring broadband internet service to every home by 2012, but it does not seem likely in the US in foreseeable future at all. Bleha pointed out that the average Internet speed in the US is 5 megabits per second, but in Japan the average Internet speed is 60 megabits per second…a whopping 12 times faster. As a result Japan can provide great Internet services of all sorts. Clearly something has to change to improve broadband Internet in the US, but when?

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No major changes in the war over search engines in past two months, first place Google grew to 65.4% (+.5%), second place Yahoo! declined to 18% (-.8%), and third place Bing (Microsoft’s newly named engine formerly “Live Search) grew to 9.9% (+.5%). Interestingly the two greatest search increases are for YouTube (+7%) and Bing (+8). So messages can we get from the US search engine competition? Well for starters Google’s and Bing’s growth make sense, but what about the decline for Yahoo!? These numbers may make a Microsoft Bing alliance with Yahoo! more likely.

Wolfram|Alpha -Bing’s New Ingredient?

Microsoft recently announced that Bing would add an enhancement that relies on the computational information from the relatively new search engine named Wolfram|Alpha. There is a video interview of Stephen Wolfram on a Microsoft blog in which he says "What we’re seeing with Microsoft and Bing now is a first step toward taking computational knowledge and deploying it in an application, in this case a search engine."

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

I assume everyone knows that the SEO industry has grown dramatically over the past 14 years (since the 4th Big Bang of free Internet Explorer with Windows 95), and one can even get a SEO Certification. Of course SEO is a success because Google and most search engines save all user inquiries for 18 months so that search engines can monetize this information and also as by-product maybe help improve the value of searches for users and websites. Stay tuned as SEO and search engines continue to evolve.

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Alarming Headline: Eight indicted for $9 million hack

No one is really surprised by this recent headline that 8 individuals (at least three of whom were in Estonia, Russia, and Moldova) were indicted in a $9 million hack within 12 hours after breaking into a computer network operated by credit-card processing vendor RBS WorldPlay. Allegedly counterfeit debit “cards were used to withdraw more than $9 million from more than 2,100 ATMs in about 280 cities worldwide, including cities in the U.S., Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan and Canada.”

Daily Computer and Internet Threats

In the meantime headline after headline show how vulnerable our computer networks and the Internet are, but to add more complications the federal government also has budget restraints. Clearly we have to improve the protection our financial and defense systems. Without question the public deserves better than what’s going on now. Something has to change otherwise everyone is at risk. However just appointing a person as Cyber Czar is not enough, as it will take commitments from governments around the world. Computer and Internet crime is not new, but it's time to get control over it because it seems we are more vulnerable than ever!

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With a barrage of antitrust headlines it hard to know which one has the greatest impact on the Internet and IT community. But clearly New York’s antitrust filing against Intel in Delaware is near the top of the list. Why Delaware? Apparently NY is using the on-going Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) antitrust suit against Intel as a form of piling on, not to mention that AMD is building a new $4.2 billion plant in NY. NY’s antitrust claims are a lot like the EU antitrust findings that Intel’s business practice of paying computer manufacturers rebates and incentives for using Intel chips rather than those of AMD (or anyone else).

Oracle’s Plan to Acquire Sun Hit an EU Roadblock

Apparently the EU is not pleased that Oracle, the database market leader, intends to acquire Sun which owns the open source database product MySQL without selling off MySQL. The EU is concerned about Oracle’s competitors Microsoft and IBM even though Oracle is the dominant database company. But some think that Oracle’s acquisition of Sun and My SQL will be transformational to the IT industry by providing a different market against Microsoft.

Challenge to EU Browser Settlement

Google, Mozilla, and Opera are still concerned about the Microsoft settlement even though the EU approved Microsoft’s plan to allow customers a choice of browsers, not automatically only provide Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Net Applications recent market share reports indicates that “Internet Explorer has a 67 percent share of the global browser market,... Firefox has 24 percent, Apple’s Safari, 4.4 percent, Google’s Chrome, 3.5 percent, and Opera, 2 percent.” On the surface it seems that Microsoft’s competitors should be able to increase their EU market share based on the settlement, but stay tuned to see how the EU reacts to these new complaints.

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Last week I posted as a guest blog at on Karl Bayer’s Blog about Dispute Resolution concerning Allison Skinner. Victoria VanBuren who works with Karl has posted a guest blog on this site about the Enron database.

Allison O. Skinner is an attorney and full-time mediator at Sirote & Permutt and written two outstanding articles about resolving eDiscovery disputes as a Mediator to develop a “Mediated Discovery Plan.” What a great way to help parties take advantage of the mediation process to reduce the out of control costs of eDiscovery and at the same time reach an amicable plan to deal with eDiscovery. Allison has setup a great model that will surely be widely adopted.

Allison’s Strategy

In a great article entitled “The Role of the Mediation for ESI (Electronically Stored Information) Disputes” Allison describes a straight-forward roadmap of how mediation can resolve eDiscovery disputes. She lists a number of benefits:

• self-direct workable solutions,
• define scope parameters,
• determine relevancy,
• create timelines for production or “e-depositions,”
• propose confidential compromises,
• create efficiencies with a mutual discovery plan,
• set guidelines for asserting violations of the plan,
• create boundaries for preservation,
• avoid spoliation pitfalls,
• manage protection of privileged information,
• maintain credibility with the court,
• avoid court-imposed sanctions, and
• allocate costs.

“How to Prepare an E-Mediation Statement for Resolving E-Discovery Disputes” will help all lawyers who want to resolve eDiscovery disputes using the mediation process, and allowing Judges to not have to split the baby on ESI which they may not even understand.

eMediation Will Work if the Mediators Understand ESI Disputes

Allison’s great idea is destine to change ESI disputes, but only if the Mediators understand eDiscovery. To be successful with eMediation the Mediator must be able to communicate clearly and simply with the IT folks who manage the ESI, and at the same time Mediator can help educate the lawyers about what makes sense in their case. Before Judges appoint Mediators (and lawyers who volunteer names of Mediators) a determination should be made if the proposed Mediator has sufficient IT technical skills and eDiscovery experience to make eMediation a successful effort. Stay tuned for Allison’s plan to revolutionize eDiscovery!!!

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