Reading over the tawdry details of a disgruntled employee's lawsuit against Morgan
Stanley, any reasonable person is going to break out in a
cold sweat and get a feeling that what happened to Morgan Stanley
executives could happen to any one of us if we fail to follow
some commonsense rules about doing business.
Arthur Riel, a former Morgan Stanley IT manager who set up the
company's E-mail archive, filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit.
He charges:
- CTO Guy Chiarello received hard-to-get sports tickets and other
favors from tech vendors that do business with the firm.
- Morgan Stanley investment bankers pressured the firm's
IT department to buy from vendors as a way to win their
banking business.
- Former CFO Stephen Crawford tried to wall himself off from all
E-mail communications coming from outside his inner circle. The
reason, according to Riel's complaint: to make it virtually
impossible for whistle-blowers to contact Crawford.
Morgan Stanley counters that the accusations are groundless.
The courts will decide on whether Riel is telling the truth,
and whether Morgan Stanley violated the law or regulations.
However, we can already learn some lessons from the
Morgan Stanley execs' misfortunes:
Don't put anything in E-mail that you don't want to have read
on the pages of InformationWeek. Or the Wall Street
Journal or The New York Times or the New York Post.
When we write or read E-mail, we think we're dealing with a
private, confidential communications channel. But in fact, E-mail
is a public medium. Laws and regulations require companies to
archive their E-mail and disclose messages under subpoena. Those
messages can be made public as part of a lawsuit, which is what
happened here.
Don't accept gifts of more than nominal value from
vendors. Don't accept any gifts from vendors you'd be
embarrassed to read about in the pages of InformationWeek.
E-mail is fundamentally broken. Workers are overwhelmed by
the amount of legitimate E-mail they're receiving.
It's not just spam--even after we've deleted all the junk, some
of us don't have time to even read all the legitimate E-mail we
receive. We need tools to help prioritize messages. Some of us
turn to technology, some of us hire assistants to cull through
our messages, and some of us rely on developing good work habits
to deal with the E-mail overload.
My colleague Paul McDougall has been weighing in on these
subjects on the InformationWeek Weblog. He takes Morgan Stanley to task for
allegations about misconduct in how it awards IT contracts. He
also quotes from some of the E-mails surrounding
gifts from vendors to Morgan Stanley's CTO and asks whether
Morgan Stanley was out of line. What do you think?
Mitch Wagner
[email protected]
www.informationweek.com
2. Today's Top Story
High Court To Hear Landmark eBay Patent Case
The case, which hinges on eBay's "Buy It Now" feature, is being
closely watched to see if the Supreme Court will scale back the
right of patent holders to get an injunction barring infringers
from using their technologies.
3. Breaking News
Consumers Say They Want Their Mobile TV
Adoption of mobile video has been slow so far, with only 2% of
cell phone subscribers having the service, JupiterResearch says.
But that number is expected to reach 40% soon.
Google Gains Search Share, Widens Lead On Yahoo
Google's share of search queries widened to 42%, up from last
year's 36%, according to ComScore. Ask.com was the only other
search site to increase its market share.
Special Video Games May Help 'Lazy Eye'
Published findings in a medical journal suggest that some video
games may be a helpful part of an experimental treatment for lazy
eye, or amblyopia. More experiments are planned.
NSA Awards Harris $41.6 Million For Secure WLAN
The cryptographic networking gear is expected to be deployed in
several DoD-related programs, Harris said.
India Develops As Hotbed For Semiconductors
India, with its huge consumer population and intellectual
capacity, is shaping up as a burgeoning market for
semiconductors, according to the head of Texas Instruments.
Top Execs Insist Too Little Is Spent On IT: Survey
The 10% of executives who believed IT departments were
overspending were nearly twice as likely as IT managers to
look toward reducing or reallocating staff as the primary way
to reduce costs.
Logistics Firm Uses RFID, Sensors To Track Financial Data
Eagle Global Logistics can securely transport everything from one
tape containing a backup of sensitive customer credit card data
to two pallets of mortgage records.
Metalink Targets HDTV With Wireless LAN
For the first time, advanced Wi-Fi technology was used to deliver
multiple simultaneous high-definition television streams anywhere
in the home, with full quality-of-service guarantees.
In-Q-Tel: The CIA's Tech Matchmaker
Why not have mini versions of the CIA's investment arm for many
federal agencies?
SAS Expands Into Credit Risk, Bank Compliance Areas
At its annual user conference, SAS also details its expanded data
integration R&D efforts.
All Our Latest News
----- The latest research, polls, and tools -----
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find the best tech content from across the World Wide Web--all
in one place.
Do You Access Our Content From A BlackBerry Or Treo?
Many of our readers do, and we want to ensure that you get
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4. Grab Bag: News You Need From Around The Web
'Sandal And Ponytail Set' Cramping Linux Adoption? (CNET News.com)
Yes, says former Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn. To be taken
seriously, the open source community needs to start dressing
the part.
Blu-Ray And HD DVD Are Coming, But What's The Difference? (ABC News)
HD DVD and Blu-ray are poised to take over TVs across the country
this year. But how are they different from each other, and do we
really need them?
Analysts: Apple's Next Move Likely To Be An iPod Phone (Yahoo News)
As Apple prepares to head into its 30th year, analysts and fans
alike are predicting that the company's next move will be to
introduce an iPhone, a handset that will offer mobile phone
capabilities plus all the functionality associated with the iPod.
5. In Depth
Microsoft Hired Ex-EU Judges For Mock Trial: Source
The software giant is said to be engaged in some major planning
for its last chance to stop the European Commission from levying
heavy daily fines in a closed hearing on Thursday and Friday.
New European Anti-Patents Crusade On Tap
Florian Mueller, a German software developer and anti-patents
activist, says the recent BlackBerry patent battle is helping
reunite Europeans who oppose software patents.
Skype Founders Sued For Racketeering
The suit claims that peer-to-peer client maker Kazaa, also
founded by Skype founders, violated StreamCast's exclusive rights
to the technology behind Kazaa by selling it to a shell company.
NY Police, Privacy Advocates Clash Over Surveillance Cameras
One of many battles is over whether police can take and keep
video footage of people participating in political demonstrations.
House Lawmakers Offer Bill To Aid Telcos' Video
Some telecom vendors have complained it would take them years to
obtain the necessary licenses from thousands of local authorities
to offer video service, which is aimed at competing with cable
companies like Comcast.
Beatles Say iTunes Is Bad 'Apple'
A new lawsuit marks the third time the company that holds rights to
Beatles music has taken Steve Jobs' company to court over its name.
6. Voice Of Authority
Confessions Of An Adware Purveyor
Eric Chabrow writes: York Baur, 180solutions' executive VP for
business development, explains in a podcast how his
company--which many critics see as the reigning bad boy of the
adware business--is trying to legitimize itself, and how it may
have hit on a formula to reap millions upon millions of dollars
in revenue by providing an alternative to subscription-based
businesses charging users for content.
7. White Papers
Choosing The Right Disk-Based Backup Solution
In this white paper, Dianne McAdam of Data Mobility Group
discusses the benefits and disadvantages of various disk-based
backup solutions, presents questions to ask vendors, and makes
recommendations on choosing the right solution based on budget
and environment.
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