Legal Technology

Watching the news unfold

I'm spending a late night watching the news unfold of Justice Souter's retirement. I first saw Nina Totenberg's lines on it at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103694193 and then I saw a short blip on the AP wire, and more lines at the Huffington Post. Then it started spreading like wildfire: L.A. Times Blog, MSNBC, etc. Then my RSS feeds caught fire. As for Twitter, not so many tweets. I guess birds do sleep, sometimes.

Mac meets botnet

Every so often, I come across a news item or post that heats up the old Mac vs. PC war. But I'm not going to name names or point to posts. Besides, now that Mac is using PC (i.e., Intel) architecture, the war should move on to its logical conclusion: old news. Lawyers should use the operating system that they are most comfortable with that can accomplish their work. But realize that no OS is secure.

Computer appliance?

We hear a lot about computer appliances. But they aren't like other appliances, such as a refrigerator, freezer, washer, or dryer. If they were, they may last beyond the 3 or 5 years we earmark them for depreciation. Computers can, however, be more than a computer. For example, IGMproducts.com has announced the availability of infrared, heated computer accessories to help those who suffer with arthritis or other hand pain.

If your hands become cold and numb after prolong computer use, I would say it's time to see a doctor. But you may want to discuss with your doctor the availability of computer peripherals from IGMproducts.com, who say they can deliver infrared heat to your hands to warm them and restore blood flow. IGMproducts.com further claim that it's infrared keyboard and mice can alleviate the pain associated with carpal tunnel syndrome and many hand-related pains associated with computer use.

Quite frankly, one has to learn to "know when to fold em, Known when to walk away" from the computer when it becomes painful. But if you can't do that on demand, IGMproducts.com may be worth a visit.

    

Foxmarks is Xmarks with multiple browser support

I found Foxmarks to be an excellent tool to synchronize my FireFox bookmarks between the multiple computers that I use. It would be hard to think otherwise of a project with Mitch Kapor at the helm. In fact, I was preferring FF over Internet Explorer solely because I could easily share my bookmarks on different computers.

If I remember right, an early iteration of Microsoft's Live tools featured a mechanism to share Favorites over multiple computers. But either I, or Microsoft, lost it -- or, I just dreamed that up. Anyway,  Foxmarks is now Xmarks and has support for FF, IE, and Safari. So I might have to rethink my browser of choice.

Now, just when I started to do that, I ran into some other FF add-ons that may help my re-rethinking on my next browser.

Senior Moment

I am not a person that takes gadgets lightly, although that's the way I like to carry them. Take the Kindle 2, a sleek, mobile device to carry and read electronic books. I used to see a few of them here and there -- now they are multiplying like Tribbles. Being an avid follower of Project Gutenberg and adept at using Plucker to view e-books on my Palm, even material that I generated myself, it's hard for me to buy into a Kindle 2. But then I realized: "It's the content, stupid." I used to look at hardware and realize that the real value was the software. Now I look at the hardware and the software and realize that the real value is in the content and the service.

Online professional networking: A new way of working the room?

Today’s post is part of a series coordinated by Martindale-Hubbell Connected. See tomorrow’s post on Bob Ambrogi’s blog LawSites.

This is no April Fool’s joke. I have been dabbling in a few social networking sites, like LinkedIn, LawLink, and now M-H Connected, but I am not an expert. In fact, no one is -- no one has figured out a good business model for social networking. So don’t be afraid to put your feet into the water.

And when you do put get your feet wet, know that there is an undertow that can quickly take you out to sea. Social networking can be important, but realize that when you are working the room, it can be a big room. So let it work for you. Translation: choose your room, or social network site, carefully to get the right mix of people and content. And when you find the right room, here are some suggestions to work it.

There Are More People Talking Than Listening

Be a listener. Know what other people are saying and respond when you can add clarity and information to another’s communication. Listening and responding to others can add to your credibility as well as lead readers back to your blog or profile. Where, you don’t need to simply echo posts. Add some analysis, observation, and/or commentary – that’s why you went to law school.

Mean What You Write and Write What You Mean

Update your posts, tweets, profiles, or whatever mechanism the room uses to communicate only when you have something meaningful to say -- whether that is daily, weekly, or monthly. Because when you believe you have something meaningful to say, you will say it with meaning and speak it with conviction. If you simply post to post, it will sound like a grade school what-you-did-for-your-summer-vacation story. Stick to meaningful updates and readers will frequent your site to look for them.

Titles and Headlines Matter

When you communicate in your room, make it known. Use good titles to posts, or headlines. Write them like you would want someone to read them and the underlying communication. I know you painstakingly edit and revise your questions or issues presented in a brief. Use those same skills when you write headlines for your posts. And one more thing: realize that we did not have a Headlines 101 course in law school -- get some help in writing good headlines.

If you take anything away from this post, remember that no one has figured out a good business model for social networking. So make your own model with the best advice of others and be sure to see Robert J. Ambrogi's follow-up post on Lawsites.

ADDITIONAL READING

"7 Tips for Writing a Successful Law Blog," Texas Lawyer
"Is Twitter a Useful Tool or Just for the Birds?" The Legal Intelligencer
"Tools and Tactics to Tweet Well on Twitter," New York Law Journal
"Marketing Your Practice in 140 Characters or Less," Texas Lawyer
"Choose Your Online Friends Wisely," Texas Lawyer
"How to Build a Better Law Blog," Law.com Legal Technology

Free online CLE for IP lawyers

It is an enormous hassle for me to leave the office, so I am constantly trolling for online CLE that will bring high value to my law practice while not taking me away from it for a long period of time. The Intellectual Property Colloquium fit the bill. The colloquium is a monthly conversation on a topic of intellectual property law with Douglas Lichtman, UCLA professor of law, and guests. This month: statutory damages in copyright and the Tenenbaum litigation. N.B., it’s free.

Your digital afterlife

Your digital life will no doubt continue after you are gone. That’s good and bad news for many of us. But regardless of the quality of that news, what to do? Who’s going to take care of all your online content after you are gone?  Well, first check the terms of service agreement you have with your online provider. For example, Google’s Terms of Service says:

“11.1 … By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.”

So if all you’re worried about is your Google content, forget it. Google knows what to do with it. What about Facebook? Facebook, like Google, knows what to do with your content:

“By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to … [Facebook] an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.”

OK. I couldn’t resist that. But to be fair, both Google and Facebook have provisions to revoke their non-exclusive licenses to your content if you remove all of it from their sites. But do catch the provisions on archiving. You may still be infamous in the long run.

Moving on, if you have other accounts that warrant some intervention after you pass on, e.g., online bank accounts, credit card accounts, security exchanges, etc., and you want your beneficiaries to have access to these accounts, there is now a service that will keep the information for you and transfer it to a beneficiary for safe-keeping. Check out the Legacy Locker.

Technology ushers in the new law firm

McDermott Will partner Jeremy T. Elman's office is in Miami, yet most of his cases and colleagues are in faraway states. How can he practice law this way? One word: technology. His files are all maintained in digital format; he corresponds with other lawyers using video and Web conferencing; and his court filings are done via the Internet. Technology enables Elman to work anywhere. People like him are changing the practice of law because they use technology in their practice every day.

Twitter trial

I was having a difficult time trying to figure out how to use tweets. Then I read Kelly D. Talcott's article on  how they failed to impress him until the legal blogosphere began singing their praises. Now, Mr. Talcott finds Twitter to be an effective content delivery system for law firms, well worth the time after he employed a few key tools and tactics.

Well, I followed Mr. Talcott's footsteps and took hold of the tools he mentioned. And now I've come full circle. It seems most tweets are advertising their blog, or someone else's blog, or echoing a tweet. Granted, all that noise can be filtered by your interest categories. Then, all the tweets have the potential to inform you of what's happening faster than other sources of information, say the evening news at 11. But I still lack the tool that will bring it all together. And no, a lawn trash bag will not do. I'm looking for code.