Can a good samaritan be sued?

A controversial court case from California - In 2004 a group of office workers headed home after a party and were involved in a car crash. One pulled a co-worker from the crash fearing it will catch fire. The woman rescued was left paraplegic and sued her co-worker for treating her like a rag doll. Can a good Samaritan be sued?

The California Supreme Court says good Samaritans can be sued. The woman who was pulled out of her car can proceed with her law suit against the co-worker who rescued her. 

The problem is that you can't be careless when you are helping someone. The victim here says I would have been better off if you had not tried to help me and let some professional come on rather than be left as paraplegic for life.

The backlash is so strong that the California Legislator may rewrite the law to give more protection to good Samaritans.

(original source: CBS news)

DDB pushes it forward

During the holiday season, so many of our offices and our people open their hearts (and their wallets) to help those less fortunate than us. It is always gratifying to hear of our toy drives for needy children, the food and clothing drives and all the other good things being done across the network.

They remind me that generosity has always been a trait of DDB people.

This year, one particular story of generosity stood out for me and I'd like to share it with you.

Like many of our offices in this difficult year, DDB Mexico has cancelled their traditional holiday party. The tradition at DDB Mexico has been to take all the employees on a three-day trip to a resort at Christmas time. DDB Mexico is not a bad place to work!

This year, however, all the money that would have been spent on the party is not going to the bottom line. It is going to the family of Mr. Rigoberto Cesario Gonzales, "Don Rigo" to everyone at DDB Mexico, where he worked in the administration department for over 20 years.

In early November, Don Rigo was killed in as freak accident as he was simply crossing the street in center of Mexico City. A small plane that was carrying the Mexican Interior Minister encountered severe turbulence as it approached the airport and crashed into rush hour traffic. Don Rigo was a victim of the crash.

I'm sure that DDB Mexico President Raul Cardos feels it is the least he could do for Don Rigo's family. He took this action quietly, without fanfare, so I'm sure he won't be happy with me sharing it will all of you.

But I thought it said something special about the people of DDB Mexico and what Christmas means to them this year.

Finally, I'd like to wish each of you Happy Holidays, whichever holidays you happen to be celebrating this time of year!

A thought from Bob Scarpelli - Chairman, Chief Creative Officer

For Our Reference 2

Twitter Tools

(source)

For Our Reference

Use Google Web History Without Installing Google Toolbar

(main source)

The Future of the Internet III

A survey of internet leaders, activists and analysts shows they expect major tech advances as the phone becomes primary device for online access, voice recognition improves, artificial and virtual reality become more embedded in everyday life, and the architecture of the internet itself improves.

They disagree about whether this will lead to more social tolerance, more forgiving human relations, or better home lives.

Here are the key findings on the survey of experts by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that has asked respondents to assess predictions about technology and its roles in the year 2020:

• The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020.

• The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness.

• Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020.

• Those working to enforce intellectual property law and copyright protection will remain in a continuing arms race, with the crackers who will find ways to copy and share content without payment.

• The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations.

• Next-generation engineering of the network to improve the current internet architecture is more likely than an effort to rebuild the architecture from scratch.

(for more check this out)

Some features that we should consider

Here are a few features I thought might be helpful to consider:

http://www.google.com/friendconnect

http://yanswersblog.com/index.php/archives/2008/12/01/what-is-mybloglog/