SAGE will be hosting webinars this Summer on a number of hot topics. These webinars are free and all are welcome to participate. Each webinar happens between Noon and 1 P.M. EDT, so please spend your lunch with us.

First up is our popular Metadata 101 webinar, "Your Documents, Your Undoing" (7/15) which discusses the risks from metadata and sensitive content in your documents. We discuss methods and strategies to mitigate those risks using tools like Workshare Protect and best practices.

Next is our webinar on Getting the Most From Your IT Budget (7/23). In it, we provide some benchmarks for what your IT budget should be, and how to stretch it to extend your capabilities. During the webinar, we discuss where IT provides maximum value to a firm and how to balance user support, projects, and regular maintenance.

MS Office is more than just spreadsheets and documents. In August, we debut a new webinar on Doing More with MS Office (8/19). For this webinar, we describe new uses for accounting, CRM, and HR from old standbys like Word, Excel, Access and Outlook, and illustrate what can be done with newcomers InfoPath, OneNote, and Groove.

Sign-up for SAGE Wisdom webinars on our web site. If you have any topics that you would like to learn more about, let us know in the comments or drop us a line.

Here is this week's gems from around the Web:

"Core" Multiplier: Intel says look for thousands of computing cores on future chips. Intel has staked its future on multiple computer cores on a single chip. While a new 8-core chip will soon, debut, an Intel official tells software developers to "start thinking about tens, hundreds, and thousands of cores now." Now everyone needs to figure out how to program for them.

MS Tests Office Subscription with "Equipt". Microsoft is testing the waters with an MS Office subscription service at the consumer level. For $70/year, consumers can get the Home and Office version of the suite with MS OneCare security software. Could a business version be far off?

Hyper-V makes an early debut, set to turn up the heat on VMWare. In a move surely to presage the coming apocalypse, Microsoft released a product early. MS' new Hyper-V server virtualization looks to take on market leader VMWare. C|Net blogger discusses some ways MS can penetrate the virtualization market. In true Microsoft fashion, one strategy is to throw money at it. Surprise!

Have a happy Independence Day and enjoy the long weekend!

This week, an article reported that law firm Reed Smith had let go 50 legal secretaries in recent months in an effort to consolidate some administrative functions in a central, 24-hour call center in Pittsburgh, PA. Why? Reed Smith now operates around the globe--which means around the clock--and mobile technology like Blackberries give attorneys the ability to easily handle their own messaging and scheduling.

This is instructive on how technology often makes the middle vanish through contradictory forces of consolidation and distribution. Technology allows certain jobs to be consolidated to achieve efficiencies: call centers in less expensive and remote locales are feasible because of the available bandwidth (data, voice, and video) connected to "customers" throughout the world via the Internet and cellular phones. Conversely, technology can also decentralize functions. Handheld devices with increased capabilities like the Blackberry and new iPhone will allow attorneys to accomplish more "in the field, " including duties like messaging and scheduling that were once centralized under the domain of legal secretaries.

Duties and job functions that fall into the middle area are most prone to the centrifugal forces IT unleashes, and the vaunted legal secretary may be the next target.