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

eDiscovery has transformed litigation and required that all lawyers understand Information Technology since more than 95% of all information is now electronic. I am happy to report that staring January 9, 2012 I will begin teaching a brand new course on eDiscovery & eEvidence at the SMU Dedman School of Law in Dallas. The SMU law students will submit term papers on eDiscovery & eCommerce, and I have a number of guests who will lecture including a Texas State District Judge, former General Counsel, Chief Information Officer, and eDiscovery Professionals.

This will be my 26th year teaching as an Adjunct Professor at SMU. For the past 11 years I have taught courses on the Law of eCommerce, and while teaching that course I found that it was easier to create my own materials than rely on a casebook. I created my own materials since there are no current law casebooks on eDiscovery & eEvidence. 

I had help creating the Syllabus and planning the course from Allison O. Skinner. Allison and I co-founded the American College of eNeutrals, and she has also been an Adjunct Professor of eDiscovery at the University of Alabama School of Law and the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, Faulkner University.

I welcome your comments about my Syllabus on my eDiscovery & eEvidence website.
 

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My February 2011 Social Media video is now available so you can get my 30 minute legal perspective without having to take my Law of eCommerce class at the Dedman School of Law (which I have taught since 2000). Since 2001 I have been creating IT legal videos to training IT professionals with WatchIT (now merged with SmartPros). Looking back to 2010 I was amazed to discover that I gave more than 35 speeches and webcasts, about Social Media and eDiscovery, including 10 in October alone! 

SMU 5 Billionaire Grads

Speaking of SMU Dedman School of Law, I was pleasantly surprised that Forbes recently reported that there are more billionaire graduates than any other law school! Quite a remarkable feat not to mention what Dean John Attanasio proudly announced:

When I first became dean in 1998, four of the five justices on the Texas Supreme Court and two of the justices on the Japanese supreme court were graduates of the law school. Currently, the chief justices of Thailand and the Philippines, and the former chief justice of Indonesia are among our graduates.

As a matter of fact the first semester I taught at SMU in 1986 the student who made the highest grade in the class was the Chief Justice in Thailand. Bravo to the SMU Dedman School of Law!

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In a recent interview Mark Zukerberg “told a live audience …that if he were to create Facebook again today, user information would by default be public, not private as it was for years until the company changed dramatically in December.” Without question Facebook and social networking have changed Internet users’ perceptions of what should be private and not.

Google CEO Schmidt Comments about Privacy
 

The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently reported:
 

When asked during an interview for CNBC's recent "Inside the Mind of Google" special about whether users should be sharing information with Google as if it were a "trusted friend," Schmidt responded, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
 

Schmidt went to say that under the US Patriot Act the US government may obtain information from Google which they routinely retain. Many Google users are unaware that Google retains each and every search for 18 months. So I guess his advice should make people stop and think.

Privacy – What Do Law Students Think?

When I first started teaching the Law of e Commerce at SMU Dedman School of Law in 2000 privacy was a very important and hot topic. A few years ago the CyberProf listserv did an informal survey of those of us who teach the Law of eCommerce and/or the Internet regarding how our students felt about privacy in 2000 and in 2008. Not much of a surprise that law students in 2008 seemed to care a lot less about privacy. My guess is that social networking, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, texting, et al have been the big drivers of this change in attitude regarding privacy.

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After teaching the Law of eCommerce since 2000 I have established my own perspective of 5 Big Bangs which propelled the Internet, three of which were described in a recent blog:

1st Big Bang- Invention of the punch card for the 1890 census by Dr. Herman Holerith (which led to the IBM);

2nd Big Bang- World War II invention of the first modern day computer for monitoring the tides to help with the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy;

3rd Big Bang- Launch of the IBM Personal Computer in August 1981;

4th Big Bang- Distribution of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer in July 1995 with Windows 95; and,

5th Big Bang- Web 2.0 with the advent of social networking as predicted by Tim O’Reilly in 2002.

Where is the Internet Going?

It’s very difficult to tell, but when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, no one could have predicted that I would use my cell phone to make a phone call atop the Great Wall of China in 2005. So where the Internet is going is not easy to predict, but as we observe changes it’s clear that the direction is not entirely what we may expect. In 1998 when Google launched no one could have predicted its success and that would account for more than 63% of all Internet searches, have vast wealth, and that Google would provide an Operating System among many accomplishments.

Web 2.0: FaceBook at its 200 Million User, Doubles Membership in 8 Months!

Big celebrations in August 2008 FaceBook when it registered its 100 million user, now about 8 months later about to register its 200 million user. Web 2.0 (my 5th Big Bang of the Internet) must be for real, but why has FaceBook been so successful? It must be fulfilling a social need. Without question when FaceBook when started in February 2004 it was aimed at college students, but today the fastest growing segment of its membership is the 35 year and older category. As social networking evolves other Internet activities might replace FaceBook, but for the time being the growth is mind-boggling. Please stay tuned for the 6th Big Bang!
 

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