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fusenet’s employment/entrepreneur program

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A very interesting story in IT World Canada about a company called Fusenet that has put into place a novel approach to business. In effect, it is empowering its employees to become entrepreneurs and giving them equity in their creations. Fascinating approach. Inevitably comparisons can be drawn with a similar program Google runs, but as far as I’m aware Google retains ownership of everything created by its employees. Not so with Fusenet’s model. From the article:

Every Friday, the Pet Project Program (P3) goes into effect. “If you’ve been approved into the program, on Friday, we don’t expect to see you at your desk. You’ll be in our lab or you’ll be collaborating with other people,” said Singhal.

The P3 model is codified into employee agreements and the intellectual property developed during this time does not belong to Fusenet, he said.

If an employee spends three months working every Friday to develop a new technology for better video compression, for example, and then presents it to the company, the idea still belongs to the employee, said Singhal.

Fusenet will ask the employee how much they want to sell the idea for or whether they want to start a company that will sell or license the product, he said. “We’ll help you market that and say, ‘We’ll take 50 per cent of the equity, you take the other 50 per cent,’” he said.

“We will help you with money, we will give you all the resources you need – marketing, customer service, R&D – but you get to keep a significant chunk of the equity in the business as opposed to having just the pride of being able to say you started it,” he said.

The policy applies to all employees, but it’s the software developers who are most likely to come up with the ideas, said Singhal. “We thought this was an interesting model … 99 per cent of the companies out there will take the software,” he said.

Fusenet has experienced one major success, one emerging success and two failures as a result of the model, said Singhal. Another five projects are currently in the R&D stage, he said.

Of course there is a caveat noted in the story about how such an arrangement must be carefully documented. I could also see a few risks associated with this as far as delineation of IP and who owns what. Very often, when new ideas spring up, they may be closely related to some existing intellectual property or based upon it. The question then is where the dividing line is or should be drawn and how that is set out in the documents. Not an insurmountable issue but one that does warrant a bit of thought.

I certainly admire Fusenet for having the vision and courage to adopt such a model. Of course, it’s no guarantee for success but certainly puts all the right incentives in place to have an environment conducive to that. I really do hope to see some interesting things come out of their shop in the near future. They will, after all, be very likely to attract the right sort of folks with this program.

“Anonymized” data really isn’t—and here’s why not – Ars Technica

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You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.

So spoke Scott McNealy more than a decade ago. At the time he made this statement, he received a fair amount of criticism. Turns out, he might very well have had a point, though perhaps for reasons he might not have foreseen.

A recent paper highlights the issue of the “reidentification” or “deanonymization” of anonymized personal information. However, the issue goes beyond anonymized information to the very heart how one should define personal information that is or should be protected under privacy legislation.

“Anonymized” data really isn’t—and here’s why not – Ars Technica.

Canadian privacy legislation simply defines personal information as “information about an identifiable individual” (excluding certain information about someone in their capacity as an employee). However, what does “about an identifiable individual” mean? Does it mean that the person collecting the particular nugget of information can associate it with a person’s identity? Or, perhaps more disconcertingly, does it include data that has the potential to be associated with someone by analyzing that particular bit of information, which alone (or even in conjunction with all the other information collected by a given organization) could not be linked with a particular individual, with information available from other sources?

dooced, canadian style

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A good article in The Lawyer’s Weekly about someone getting dooced in Alberta. The short version: Woman blogs anonymously about her supervisors and co-workers, but in a way that makes all of them easily recognizable to anyone in her work place. Oh, and things she says aren’t exactly nice. Her employer fires her as a result. Goes to arbitration and the termination is upheld. Perhaps not all that suprising. Anyway, some thoughts and tips from the article:

Although the dismissal was upheld in Alberta Union, not all Web 2.0 posts that an employer finds distasteful will provide grounds for discipline or termination. Blogging or Facebooking at work is one thing, but the general rule regarding discipline for off-duty conduct is that an employer is not the custodian of their employees’ private lives. Exceptions are made when, as it was found in Alberta Union, the posts irreparably harm the employment relationship. This can include conduct that:

• prevents employees from performing their duties satisfactorily;

• interferes with employees’ ability to work effectively with fellow co-workers;

• breaks confidentiality policies or employees’ duty of fidelity to the employer;

• harasses or defames management or fellow employees;

• deliberately attempts to undermine management’s ability to direct its workforce;

• harms the company’s reputation (however, rank and file employees may be held to a lower standard than those employees who hold higher positions of trust or responsibility).

Counsel should encourage employers to take measures to prevent the sort of conduct that attracts discipline in the first place. Having a discussion with employees is a good start. The general tenor of blogs and social networking sites is akin to casual conversation, and, naturally, many people will talk about work.

Unfortunately, as Alberta Union illustrates, many employees are unaware Web 2.0 conduct can affect their careers and attract legitimate sanction. Pointing this out to employees can save both the employer and the employee a lot of grief.

Alberta v. Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (R. Grievance), [2008] A.G.A.A. No. 20

taking the fun out of blogging

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As a lawyer, I understand the need for policies, procedures, practices, etc. when running a business, managing vendors, employees, etc. Of course. Sure. That’s part of work – both my work and the work of my clients. But when I see an article entitled “Blogging Policies and Best Practices for Lawyers and Law Firms” well, gotta say, my eyes start glazing over.

Not that there’s anything particularly bad or wrong about the article. In fact, it offers some good advice on avoiding “ethical minefields”, creating “powerful marketing tools” and ensuring you realize a good return on your “investment”.

Ugh. To be perfectly honest one of the primary reasons I blog is not to realize a return on investment, or to create a powerful marketing tool, but rather just to offer casual observations (or ruminations) on my work or things related to my work. In other words, its a bit of fun, as compared, for example, to writing a formal research paper, journal article, or a 100 page outsourcing contract. For those types of writing, there are many, many rules, requirements and policies to remember and adhere to, amongst other considerations. And relatively speaking, its not quite as much writing that stuff as it is posting what are ostensibly meandering ramblings about the next new thing. Don’t get me wrong, its certainly interesting and challenging work, but its not the type of thing one typically does to relax.

I guess what I’m getting at is along the same lines as the previous post about making blogging part of someone’s job. Its kind of like saying that its part of your job to chat up your friends at work on a regular basis. Its kind of like saying that there should be internal policies governing who you go to lunch with, and what you talk about over lunch. In other words, to me, it seems to take all the fun out of it. It makes it seem like work. It puts you in the mindset that it is work. And, to be perfectly honest, I think it makes it less interesting, because you’re too worried about the time being put into it. Too worried about whether you’re writing for your “target market”. Too worried about “visualizing and addressing your market”. Too worried on making your blog sound “informal and conversational”. Too worried about this, that and the other thing, none of which have much to do with the subject matter of what you’re writing about.

Of course, this is just my take on blogging and what I hope to achieve (or perhaps rather not to achieve) by doing it.

Pretexting, Canadian Style

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From one of my very smart colleagues at the firm – a recent Canadian case involving “pretexting” like activity a la HP.

The short story: A company hires an investigator to see what some former employees are up to, since they’ve started a competing business. Based on what they find out, they sue the employees. In discovery (in rough terms, the process through which each party gets to look at the information that the other side has supporting their case), the employees find out that the investigator has obtained their phone records and also has recorded them on video at their business premises, in both cases without their consent and without a court order.

Sound somewhat familiar?

So the employees countersue the company and the investigator. It turns our that the company wasn’t aware of the methods used by the investigator and so is left off the hook, but the action against the investigators is given the green light.

Whether or not the claim of the employees will succeed remains to be seen. In the meantime, folks thinking of using investigators, for whatever purpose, would be wise to give serious consideration to the nature of information that they want to collect.