Non-Facebook Timelines For The Ages
I recently admired a friend’s Facebook Timeline, a feature I haven’t turned on and probably won’t. It feels intrusive to me, although that might change. It dawned on me that each of us has personal timelines limited in number and scope only by the contexts we wish to examine. For example, our health or financial.. read more →
The New Way Twitter Will Dominate Online Journalism
Over the past few months, I have become increasingly interested in #Twitter with the help of my friend, Julie Hunt (@juliebhunt) of Austin. Like (@Univ_of_Oregon) #Prof. Kyu Ho Youm (@Marshall Youm), I use Twitter to share, learn, and keep virtual note cards. As you’ve immediately noticed, I (@BenKerschberg) am writing this short piece in a series.. read more →
Unleashing the “Snoball” Effect of Charitable Social Giving
As originally published in Forbes on December 16, 2011. Imagine that you and two friends are in Atlanta this New Year’s Eve to cheer on your UVA Cavaliers in their college football Bowl Game against Auburn. Early that morning, you guarantee a victory and back it up by pledging a donation to charity. “I’m going to Snoball this,”.. read more →
Managing Information Risk and Archiving Social Media
As originally published in Forbes on September 28, 2011. Imagine a simple scenario. Jane Doe, a disgruntled employee at a multi-billion dollar mineral spring water company (A), sends out the following tweet from her work station and the marketing department’s Twitter account, which she is authorized to use. Senior Management here at (A) is telling industry analysts.. read more →
Eight Great Law & Technology Resources
As originally published in Forbes on September 14, 20011. I always look for new resources to research Law & Technology, and I thought I’d share eight of my favorites. In no specific order: SCOTUSblog. For my money, SCOTUSblog is the finest legal blog, period. Since 2003, the husband and wife team of Tom Goldstein and.. read more →
Google: Can Anonymous Emails Remain Anonymous?
As published in Forbes (May 27, 2011). When may an anonymous email remain anonymous? A New York appellate court addressed this very question last week in Sandals Resort International Ltd. v. Google, Inc. and held that the validity of a request to an email service provider such as Google (GMail) to ascertain the identity of.. read more →
Facebook Strikes A Blow To Social Media Spammers
As originally published in Forbes (May 9, 2011). In Facebook, Inc. v. Max Bounty, Inc. (N.D. Cal. Apr. 28, 2011), U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel struck a serious blow to spammers who had transitioned from “mere” email schemes to social networking platforms like Facebook. Facebook argued that communications on its website fall within the meaning.. read more →
Doninger v. Niehoff — Student Blogging, The School House, and Free Speech Collide
As originally published in Forbes (May 3, 2011). In Doninger v. Niehoff (2d Cir. Apr. 25, 2011), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that public school (i.e., government) officials didnot violate a student’s First Amendment rights by preventing her from running for senior class secretary in response to a blog entry.. read more →
Facebook Must Produce — Not Merely “Provide Access” — to Electronically Stored Information (ESI) in Native Formats
As originally published in Forbes (May 2, 2011). United States Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd of the Northern District of California compelled Facebook to produce electronically storedinformation (“ESI”), not merely “provide access” thereto on a commercial website that allowed it to restrict class action plaintiffs from reviewing those materials properly. The court’s order granting the plaintiff’s.. read more →
Why The Wikileaks Twitter Case Was Correctly Decided. And Why It Shouldn’t Be.
In an important opinion issued Friday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in United States v. Appelbaum upheld a previous order instructing Twitter to turn over to the U.S. government Twitter records—not the content of tweets (that in this case were already publicly available)—related to the government’s ongoing Wikileaks investigations. The.. read more →