At Stanford, a $2K ticket admits of empowerment pow-wows ... inverted pyramids ... power structure finally penetrated gives rise to post-coital double-decaf lattes ... we wonder when Colin finds the time to read Michael's blog (does his assistant slip a printed copy into the PDB for the morning ride over?)

Meanwhile, without so much as a webcast, an institute in Aspen quietly convenes a coven of media generals to discuss assimilation strategies ... and tactical executions.

Out-of-body, drifting through convergence of blogosphere and stratosphere ... high fives:  30 bloggers are being credentialed to the Democratic National Convention -- perhaps we really need to believe they will be "covering" something other than CNN's newest reality miniseries.

And then, that haunting refrain -- Dean!  Dean!  Dean!  Of course, had he only raised $10 M, he wouldn't have gotten a seat at Cheers.  Don't be a blog-head, Charlie Brown -- follow the money ... it's the economy, stupid!

Over at the NYT, the great gray lady now sports an orange box, on every page ... MyYahoo now means working RSS feeds, the testing over -- hey-yo-hey -- beta this!

Blogs about blogging and -- three million strong, don't you know -- and blogging about blogs ...

Blogging has added to the lexicon and so, reciprocally into the blogging lexicon arrive ... critical mass ... business case ... narrow-cast ... cpm ... We too have seen this movie too.  And all those poor people who got their knickers in a knot over the Raging Cow thing -- please don't let them see what's going on with bra tags this month ...

Although we have yet to read this year's survey, there is general agreement that the survey this team produced last year was breakthrough stuff, representing the first measurements anyone had taken of this emerging marketplace.  And this year's report promises to be even better ... for one thing, George has the opportunity to compare two data points.

According to George's web site, the survey covers:

Market size & shares
Market segmentation
Projections for 2004 to 2006
Top 20 providers
Perceptions of market leaders
Growth in number of providers
Who decides what to buy
Popular software
Consumer & provider opinions

Now, as many of you know, EDDix is the process of finalizing a research project which profiles the top EDD suppliers, which we had originally planned to have published two months ago (and thereby, even though we see ourselves as totally non-competitive, we would have scooped GS).

Newcomers to the scene, we didn't realize that high-voltage George Socha was so wired -- one of the reasons for our delay in publication is that it seemed as if everywhere we went and everyone we spoke with was "in the middle of something with Socha right now -- call me later."

Soooo, in honor of the publication of the The 2004 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey, we say:  Damn you George Socha! and, Damn you George Socha!  But seriously, we say congrats to George and Tom for what is no doubt another job extremely well-done.  [To George:  when we sent the email to you requesting a free copy of the new survey, what did you mean in your reply when you referenced "the devil in ice skates?"  Translation please ....]

In 1999 the ABA adopted a set of standards intended to bridge gaps between state and federal discovery rules and the growing area of electronic discovery.  Tick, tick, tick -- wind blows through window, calendar pages turn -- technology advances, electronic discovery grows (and overgrows) with significant consequences for the judicial system and practice of law.  (Some have gone so far as to argue that a now out-of-control EDD threatens the very fabric of trial law.)

The ABA is has developed a series of amendments to its civil discovery standards, designed to fill more gaps -- scheduled for adoption by its House of Delegates next month.  Specifically ...

Revisions to Standard 29 ... expanded checklist of discoverable sources ... cost allocation guidance
Revisions to Standard 30 ... promotes production in electronic format
New Standard 31 ... EDD conferences -- early and often
New Standard 32 ... addresses privilege issues
New Standard 33 ... and anything that happens in the future is covered by this too

Gregory Joseph is co-chair the ABA Task Force that drafted the proposals and former Chair of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association.  His summary of changes , "Electronic Discovery Standards," is clear and concise.  We were not able to get a date on this article but it shares the title of an article GJ wrote and which appeared in the National Law Journal, Nov. 24, 2003, at 30., i.e. based on the prior draft.

 ABA Section of Litigation Electronic Discovery Task Force ... contains all downloads +++

Final Revised Standards

Executive Summary

Report

Recommendation

1999 Civil Discovery Standards  (.pdf)

We welcome any and all opportunities to introduce people to David Giacalone's world.  Initially, we read Ethical & Haiku Esq. for its ethical commentary and kinda glanced over at the other stuff.  Next thing we knew, we were reading the haiku first and then the legal content.

Earlier this year, David owned up to the fact that "Punditry makes me grumpy" and he jettisoned the ethics gig (including the renowned columnist Prof. YABUT) in favor of a (virtually) all-haiku-all-the-time format.  The blog has been renamed f/k/a .... one-breath poetry & punditry with haikuEsq.

You do what you want, but here's what we do -- we treat f/k/a like the shade of a large, old tree on a bright, hot day ... in the process of reviewing 100+ blogs a day, we set markers every 25 blogs.  Once we get a meaningful portion of our work done, i.e. reach a 25-blawg-line marker, we click over to f/k/a, and sprawl beneath the limbs for a few of minutes -- laying back, sometimes we can see clouds moving between the leaves, sometimes we just see the leaves ... and then we head back to work.