Category Archives: Communications

Privacy between Private Parties and the Disclosure of Information

Privacy law in Canada between private parties is biased toward the protection of privacy rather than the protection of free enterprise. … In Canada, and specifically in British Columbia, an individual’s personal information may be considered forever to be bonded to that individual. Continue reading

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Lawyers and iPhones (and iPads) Shouldn’t Mix

“A lawyer shall not disclose … having been consulted or retained by a person…” … The question that remains for me is whether, in light of the iOS4 privacy policy, lawyers should avoid even carrying unsecured electronic devices that allow questionable access to information by undisclosed third-party app providers. … You don’t need a person’s name to identify them, nor any unique piece of data. What you need is a unique combination of non-unique pieces of data. Continue reading

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RoB Magazine declares victory on the Smartphone Plains of Abraham

RoB Magazine has declared Apple the victor over Research in Motion in a presumed battle between Cupertino and Waterloo for the smartphone Plains of Abraham. … I understand that for an investor, the likely more profitable performer in the short term is an important determination; but to pronounce the industry a zero-sum game is foolish. That said, the author raises an important point that if followed in combination with RIM’s existing advantages could shoot it back up to leading Apple around a marketplace of its own design. Continue reading

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Research in Motion’s Opportunity to Promulgate Freedom

Several countries, none of which is a finalist in the Freedom to the People sweepstakes, are considering blackballing the BlackBerry for being too secure… The better route for BlackBerry is to work with these governments to reshape their privacy policies in favour of citizen rights. Continue reading

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The Speciation of Web Sites

I saw a headline the other day in someone else’s newspaper:  Days of Static Website Over.  Not that I was on the bus and read the headline from several yards away and didn’t read the article at all. My first … Continue reading

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Information is the Good, the Currency, and the Era

I’m reading “Business @ the Speed of Thought,” by Bill Gates.  (Chapters-Indigo Link Here)  He wrote it ten years ago, which allows me the critical distance I prefer when reading a book that prognosticates. Say what you will about MS … Continue reading

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Opening the Scope of Employee Contribution

Just because an employee has a job with certain assigned tasks for which he is responsible, it is nowhere mandated to limit the scope of that employee’s contribution to those tasks. Continue reading

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Who carries your Web 2.0 banner?

What’s at stake when you let others step in your online footprint? Goodwill has to do with the perception of your enterprise, and liability has to do with getting into real legal trouble. How are they connected by this Web 2.0 stuff? … Being obnoxious, opinionated, or siding with one side of a contentious debate will not likely create more than a bad taste in the reader’s mouth. Being wrong, when you carry a banner of knowing better, can create a problem. Continue reading

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Does WOM or Social Network Marketing Create Agency?

With WOM and social network marketing, we move from getting people to wear branded clothing to transforming them into fans banding together to pontificate, not on the merits of your product, but on the social imperative of being a fan of the brand. … We do have something that looks a lot like agency… Once you let someone use the stuff you’re supposed to be protecting, and you let them use it to an extent that gives them a fair bit of potential power because of the near-instantaneous and viral nature of the networks used, you’re actually handing over some pretty hefty reins. Continue reading

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What would you call open-source marketing?

Instead of tightening your grip on intellectual property (mostly trade-mark with a healthy dose of copyright and some neighbouring rights) and then hoping for royalties, the group doing the marketing attempts to engineer a type of personality cult for the brand. … What I’m talking about is tying differences (real or created) to cultural phenomena, and then grabbing hold of those phenomena and driving from that end; the product becomes a tag-along to those cultural memes. Continue reading

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