If you are an employer, are you monitoring your employee’s personal emails sent from work?   Can you?   Until recently, courts have generally accepted the argument from employers that they can monitor anything over their corporate computer networks, including personal emails sent from work.   The Wall Street Journal recently reported, however, that courts are now more likely to side with the employee, unless the employer has put the employee on notice that personal emails may be monitored.  In the absence of such notice, courts have said that employees have a reasonable expectation that their personal e-mails will remain private and will not be accessed by the employer.

The whole article can be read here.

–Matt

First, the news.  Detroit Startup Drinks is mentioned in this article in the online magazine Metromode.  The article talks about the burgeoning scene of informal, offline social networking events taking place in the Metro Detroit area.  From the article:

For these organizers, and many of their patrons, there are many underlining themes, none of which are more important than the informality of each group. Most people don’t fill their social cards with banquet events, boardroom meetings, and conference calls. There’s more practicality than pleasure in those. However, what if you could get them all at the same time? Knock out some networking, do a little handshaking, and engage in some relationship building, all with a beer or glass of wine in your hand? Hell, forego the handshake for a high-five or fist-bump. These budding groups in Metro Detroit offer just that. They bring the importance of the Holiday Inn networking session to your local watering hole. Ties are optional.

“You don’t even have to brush your hair,” says Bower about the Detroit Startup Drinks. “Take the tie off, find out what people are working on. … In the bar, it’s easy to talk. No coffee and crackers, no handouts, just people.”

Other groups mentioned include Motor City Connect, Detroit Tweetup Network, Tweetea, and Detroit Green Drinks.

And, now, speaking of Detroit Startup Drinks…THE NEXT EVENT is December 10, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at The Whitney in the upstairs Ghost Room.  Hope to see you there.

–Matt

Kauffman Foundation’s CEO,  Dr. Carl Schramm, believes the city can revive itself through entrepreneurship.

From the article:

The rise of Detroit in the 20th century was a result of entrepreneurs such as automotive icon Henry Ford taking risks, innovative thinking and start-up companies that provided jobs.

“This city can do it all over again,” he said.

One of the Kansas City, Mo.-based foundation’s missions is to foster and advance entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship-friendly policies and facilitate the commercialization of new technologies by entrepreneurs. The foundation last week released a study showing that young companies are the main drivers of job creation. Companies less than five years old created nearly two-thirds of net new jobs in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Detroit’s greatest assets are the plethora of “human capital” and a new mayor who is well-versed in the business world, Schramm said. Mayor Dave Bing, who founded The Bing Group, an automotive supply company, could be a real boost to the city’s economic growth.

“I have a hunch if there’s a blessing (for Detroit’s business climate), it’s Mayor Bing’s experience,” Schramm said.

Read the entire article here.

–Matt

Safford & Baker client Nextep Systems, Inc., a Troy-based touch-screen kiosk developer, is featured in the Great Lakes IT Report for their next generation drive-thru kiosks.  ”Nextep and MRI have introduced a new concept of touch screen drive-thru kiosks that empower customers, improve order accuracy and efficiency, boost upsell opportunities and can increase revenue.”

–Matt

Ann Arbor New Tech is a group of people from various industries and backgrounds (e.g., entrepreneurs, technologists, investors, lawyers, marketers, students, etc.) interested in fostering local technology startups by organizing events, sharing resources, and building a supportive community.

Ann Arbor New Tech’s signature event takes place on the third Tuesday of each month, at 6 p.m., at Chesebrough Auditorium at UM’s Chrysler Center on North Campus.  The monthly event features three to five companies who are each given five minutes to demo and five minutes to answer questions.  Open announcements and networking follows.

This month’s meetup (on November 17th) features:

• Shepard Intelligent Systems – Adrian Fortino
• YouCompete – Alan Shreve
• Joe – Verdi Ergun
• Phonagle – Jeremy Canfield
• SmallerPage – Steve Fentriss

Hope to see you there.

-Matt