Dennis Kennedy

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February 28, 2003

Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content

Well, I've finally found the blog primer book I have been looking for. I spent last evening devouring Biz Stone's book called "Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content" (now 30% off at Amazon.com). The book is very practical, not too heavy on the technical jargon and written with a great, casual style. It's full of great practical tips (like linking mentions of books through your Amazon Affiliate ID). One of the blurbs for the book calls it "casual and humorous, but authoritative" and I think that that's a great description. If you'd rather learn about blogs in one handy book rather than chase around the web looking for articles and faqs, this book is the one I'd recommend to start with.

Posted by dmk at 04:58 PM

A Short Interview with Dennis on Lawyer Blogs

Jim Calloway, Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program and all-around great guy, interviewed me the other day by email about the lawyer blogging phenomenon. Here are his questions and my answers:

1. Why did you become a lawyer blogger?

It's a great new medium for short, to-the-point, articles with links. Blogs are tailor-made for writers, but the real attraction is something known as RSS feeds, which allow you to have an instant audience for your work. Other than that, someone pointed out to me that I had first written about blogs nearly two years ago and wondered why I didn't have one.

2. What do you see in the future of lawyer blogs, or blawgs?

For certain lawyers, they can become a new and valuable channel for communication to clients and potential clients and they can quickly help a lawyer establish credibility and expertise in a niche area. Blogs are Internet resource tailored to writers and people who like headlines and short coverage of breaking events and developments. They will not replace browsers or the web, but they will capture and be important for certain segments of people, much like instant messaging, chat or newsgroups each have audience segments. The good news is that the likely audience for blogs is an educated, tech-savvy audience who are interested in the written word - a good audience for lawyers.

3. What are some of you favorite blogs besides your own?

The original blog that I found and followed is the blog of Dave Winer, a blogging pioneer, which is called Scripting News (http://www.scripting.com) and is definitely worth a look to give you an idea of what a blog is.

There's been an explosion (well, a couple every day, it seems like) of new law-related blogs, sometimes called "blawgs." Ernie the Attorney (http://radio.weblogs.com/0104634/) is the definitive example of a lawyer blog. It's excellent and, if you want to look at a blog to get a feel for what they are about for lawyers, this is the place I would start. One thing I like about blogs is that they give me a good way to keep up with what some of my friends are thinking and doing. For that reason, I like Sabrina Pacifici's BeSpacific blog (http://www.bespacific.com) and Jerry Lawson's Net.Law.Blog (http://www.netlawblog.com) - lots of great stuff in both blogs. There are some subject matter blogs that are great - Marty Schwimmer's The Trademark Blog (http://trademark.blog.us/blog/) is a great example of this type of blog. For solos and small firms, there's the excellent MyShingle.com (http://www.myshingle.com), although some purists may quibble whether it technically is a blog, but the key thing is that it has an RSS feed. Finally, although I'm leaving out a lot of good ones, Bob Ambrogi's LawSites (http://www.legaline.com/lawsites.html) and Tom Mighell's Inter Alia (http://www.inter-alia.net/) both do a great job of, among other things, covering blogs that are useful to lawyers.

4. Do you have any tips for the lawyer blogger wannabee?

• It's like 1995 and web pages - if you launch a law blog now, you'll always be considered one of the pioneers.
• The key to understanding the utility, promise and excitement of blogs is understanding the value of RSS feeds, sometimes referred to as news feeds or channels. Before you think about launching a blog, download a news aggregator, such as Amphetadesk (http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/). Amphetadesk is free and simple. Install it and start subscribing to a bunch of channels that interest you and get a feel for how the feeds work. It you see the value, you will get the bug to do your own blog.
• I would suggest thinking about narrowly defined subject areas, but I suspect that you still have a shot at becoming the first or a premier law blog in your city or state.
• Watch to see what is happening out there. Ernie the Attorney keeps a list of law-related blogs (http://radio.weblogs.com/0104634/outlines/Law%20Blogs.html) and there are other lists as well.

Posted by dmk at 04:56 PM

February 27, 2003

An Information Explosion Contained All on One Page

This post from The Shifted Librarian blog captures precisely the essence of what I feel is the true potential of RSS feeds and news aggregators. I'm not sure that it can be said any better than: "Yes, it's an information explosion contained all on one page and you don't have to do the work! . . . It won't be a "technology" - it will just be useful." Awesome.

Posted by dmk at 11:26 AM

Practical Techniques for Taming Legal Bills

Law.com has an article today called Cracking the Whip by Catherine Aman that focuses on four stories about ways corporate legal departments have forced reductions in legal fees. Of special interest are the comments of Jeff Carr, who I'll be co-presenting with on a related topic at ABA TechShow. Lawyers and law firms who don't get this issue aren't going to get the business in the near future.

Posted by dmk at 07:11 AM

February 26, 2003

Legal Trends in Technology Outsourcing for 2003

Probably the most important development in information technology law has been the movement away from classic software licensing to technology outsourcing arrangments, such as application service providers. The number of issues in a standard software license deal pale in comparison to the number of legal and business issues raised when outsourcing is involved. Many companies have learned a painful and expensive lesson in the past year or two by treating outsourcing deals on a "contracts as usual" basis.

Paul Roy has an excellent article in Outsourcing Journal called "Legal Outsourcing Trends - A Look Ahead" that highlights some of the key issues and developments in this growing area of law. Based on my experience, his comments are dead-on correct. I'm not saying that this area is the equivalent of legal brain surgery, but this is definitely one area where good intentions, good feelings and a "let's just keep it really simple and not involve the lawyers" approach makes sense. Nor does it make much more sense for lawyers unfamiliar with the special issues to jump in without any help.

Posted by dmk at 07:50 PM

Doing Technology So People Matter

There was a fascinating story on CNN.com about a project to bring wireless web access to a low income housing development, using the wireless "cloud" to span the digital divide. The article is intriguing not for just the story it tells, but for its implications in a number of settings, including rural ones. Read this story along with a companion piece on a cybercafe planned for Mount Everest and I defy you not to have new ideas on what we can do with the Internet.

Posted by dmk at 07:46 PM

Hildebrandt's 2003 Client Advisory

Hildebrandt International has released its 2003 Client Advisory, an excellent summary of the current state of the legal profession. A few notable quotes that may resonate at some firms: "In difficult times you should suppress the urge to grab at random opportunities inconsistent with your firm’s long-term strategy." "Even institutional knowledge quickly becomes dated and worthless if the professionals aren’t constantly updating and enriching it. When clients or professionals lose confidence and begin to depart, no professional services firm can escape decline -- and ultimately dissolution -- if the situation isn’t somehow reversed." Required reading for those in big firms, clients of big firms and competitors of big firms. The weekly Hildebrandt e-mail newsletter is also a good resource on large law firm developments.

Posted by dmk at 07:43 PM

News That Comes to You - A Great Intro to News Aggregators

J.D. Lasica's article, "News That Comes to You: RSS feeds offer info-warriors a way to take the pulse of hundreds of sites" is as good a "you want to get started in learning about this" article on RSS feeds and news aggregators as I have seen. I enjoy his realistic assessment of news feeds and where they show the most utility. A great article to give to those just dipping their toes into news feeds.

Posted by dmk at 07:40 PM

The Double Helix at 50

I love Internet resources that allow me to jump in and get up to speed on a topic, all in one place, particularly good, readable, plain language stories about scientific concepts. The New York Times has a nice retrospective set of articles on the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA (free registration required) that makes for a pleasant and educational diversion.

Posted by dmk at 07:30 PM

February 24, 2003

ABA TechShow 2003 Reminder

Just a reminder that the time for ABA TechShow 2003 in Chicago is drawing near. TechShow has turned into my major opportunity each year to meet in person and visit with people involved in legal technology who I'd otherwise only know through e-mail, articles, listservs or, now, blogs. Plus, I get the chance to speak on some interesting topics.

There's plenty of attractions at TechShow, but I'd certainly enjoy getting the chance to meet more of the people interested in this field. If you're thinking about going to TechShow this year, let me nudge you a bit in the direction of deciding to go.

Posted by dmk at 10:00 PM

MyShingle.com - Perfect Example of a Great Web Resource

I've been doing a bit of research lately about technology for solos and small firms and could not believe how difficult it was to track down relevant information on the Internet. There's great stuff out there, but, man, it is scattered all over the place.

Then, a few blogs pointed me to MyShingle.com. This site is a superior example of what I like to find in a web site - timely, relevant, updated information, collected in one place in an understandable manner. It's fun to return to and the RSS feed makes keeping up with the site very easy. Plus, it has not only some of the great resources that I had laboriously tracked down, but much, much other great stuff, nicely collected and presented. In particular, the very useful Going Solo section gives easy access to most everything the solo or contemplating solo would want to find.

Five stars. Had I known about this site a few weeks ago, it would have made my research infinitely easier.

Posted by dmk at 09:52 PM

February 21, 2003

CALL FOR PAPERS - PRACTICAL AI & LAW WORKSHOP

Call for Participation

IAAIL 2003 Workshop on

Practical Knowledge Systems in Today's Law Offices

University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Saturday, June 28, 2003

Workshop description
Call for papers
Important dates
Workshop program
Program committee

Workshop description

The International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law - the premier international community of scholars, researchers, and practitioners interested in AI as it relates to law - is pleased to announce a workshop on Practical Knowledge Systems in Today's Law Offices, to be held on Saturday, June 28, 2003. This is scheduled as part of the Ninth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law. (Information about the conference is available at http://www.cirfid.unibo.it/~agsw/icail03.)

The aim of this workshop is to foster practical discussion of real-world AI and knowledge management efforts by both researchers and practitioners: those who explore the possible applications of AI in the legal field, those who actually develop AI tools for legal practice, and those who use (or might use) them. The workshop will include presentations of papers, demonstrations of tools, and a panel discussion with audience participation. We expect researchers in the field of AI and law, lawyers, publishers, companies that develop tools for law practice, consultants, and law firm technologists and administrators to contribute and participate.

Call for papers

We invite interested authors to submit papers on topics related to practical knowledge systems, including descriptions of applications, their requirements, legal knowledge management models or tools, and their implications for legal e-business and e-commerce. We're especially interested in work that is high in both theoretical interest and practical concreteness.

Please note that because the workshop focuses on real-world applications, papers need not be academic or formal in any sense. Accepted papers will be included in the proceedings of the workshop, which will likely be published on the Web.

Persons interested in attending or making a presentation without submitting a paper are encouraged to submit a statement of interest.

There will be a small registration fee (reduced for those attending the main ICAIL conference) to defray some costs of the workshop.

Important dates

Deadline for submission of papers and statements of interest: March 12, 2003
Notification of acceptance: April 12, 2003
Final version of paper due (camera-ready): May 13, 2003

Papers should be submitted in a standard format (Word, WordPerfect, RTF, HTML) by e-mail to each member of the program committee.

Workshop program

[When available]

Program Committee

Dennis M. Kennedy, Thompson Coburn LLP (http://www.thompsoncoburn.com),
St. Louis, Missouri; dennis.kennedy@att.net

Marc Lauritsen, Capstone Practice Systems (http://www.capstonepractice.com),
Harvard, Massachusetts, USA; marc@capstonepractice.com

Anja Oskamp, Computer/Law Institute, Vrije Universiteit (http://www.vu.nl), Amsterdam, The Netherlands; a.oskamp@rechten.vu.nl

Ronald Staudt, Chicago-Kent College of Law (http://www.kentlaw.edu),
Chicago, Illinois, Rstaudt@kentlaw.edu

Richard Wright, Chicago-Kent College of Law (http://www.kentlaw.edu),
Chicago, Illinois, Rwright@kentlaw.edu

Please contact the Program Committee if you have any questions.

Posted by dmk at 03:23 PM

February 20, 2003

PlantingbytheMoon.com

Spring can never come too soon for gardeners. My brother Bruce is a certified Master Gardener and inherited my grandmother's green thumb. He's a wiz with plants. Unfortunately, he's also disabled. I've talked him into sharing his gardening wisdom and his interest in lunar and astrological gardening in a brand new web site called PlantingbytheMoon.com.

Check it out, especially if you are a gardener. I've had bad luck with our garden the past few years and am definitely going to give these techniques a try.

Posted by dmk at 10:03 PM

February 19, 2003

ABA Law Practice Today Webzine

One of the other cool new projects I've gotten involved with is the ABA Law Practice Management Section's new webzine, which premieres today. "Law Practice Today" is a new web magazine that will offer new articles on the four core areas of law practice management - finance, management, marketing and technology. Expect new content every week, a monthly e-mail newsletter for subscribers and a growing repository of great articles, book excerpts and other law practice management info. I also see an RSS feed in the near future.

Joe Kashi, Fred Faulkner and I are taking on the lead editorial roles with LPT and I think you will see it grow to become the premier Internet resource on law practice management. We will constantly looking for great new (and classic) articles. If you have some, check out the details on submitting them on the site. Hope you enjoy this one - it's been a long time coming.

Posted by dmk at 04:28 PM

Expert Testimony Via Virtual Reality

I get the occasional phone call from software vendors looking to sell into the legal market. I always enjoy hearing about what's new.

The other day, Sunil Kaki of Nomos Tech got in touch about software his company has developed that will allow lawyers to use virtual reality as part of the presentation of an expert, or in other situations. There's a cool video that was on TechTV illustrating an application that was done for the Courtroom 21 Project at Worldviz.com.

In the right situation, especially where a walkthrough of a room or multiple perspectives are needed, it could make for compelling testimony. Be the first to try this technique in your courtroom.

Posted by dmk at 04:25 PM

On the CD Player - Bright Eyes

My friend Jim McKelly was imploring me a while back to take a listen to a fairly new band he had discovered called Bright Eyes. Since, as he reminded me, he rarely insists that I go out and buy something he recommends, I ordered up two CDs, "Fever and Mirrors" and "Lifted, Or the Story is in the Soil." I've spent more time with "Lifted," which is how I feel when I listen to it. Lots of talent, brilliant lyrics and lots of them, and reminders of Lou Reed, Neil Young, the early Bruce Sprinsteen (think of the second album). Definitely worth checking out.

Posted by dmk at 04:23 PM

February 18, 2003

CaseMap 4

I've often said that CaseMap is the only thing that ever made me think about being a litigator. I've run into a couple of trial lawyers in the last few months who have said "If you are a litigator who doesn't use CaseMap, you're not really a litigator."

In my continuing quest to get my web site updated, I have now posted my article, CaseMap at 4: The Best Litigation Software Gets Even Better, a general review of the recent release of a new version of Casemap.

CaseMap is a litigation management and strategy tool that remains quite unique among legal software products. I can't imagine a client with ongoing litigation who would not benefit from pushing its outside law firms into using CaseMap and taking advantage of CaseMap's reporting tools.

Posted by dmk at 03:40 PM

IP Memes Newsletter

One of the cool new projects I've gotten involved with is "IP Memes," a weekly e-mail newsletter from The TechnoLawyer Community. In IP Memes, Kevin Grierson, Gail Standish and I provide links to IP developments, articles and resources, with an eye toward identifying themes that will come into play on the horizon - new technologies, newly-introduced legislation, speeches and articles from important thinkers, and much more.

It's turned into a very interesting and fun publication. The newsletter itself consists of short summaries with hyperlinks to follow if a summary catches your attention.

The target audience is probably IP lawyers, corporate counsel and business decision-makers, but there are usually interesting stories for any one interested in the future of IP and law.

To subscribe, you simply need to go to http://www.technolawyer.com and join The Technolawyer Community, which is a great resource on legal technology matters. One of your membership choices will be to choose which newsletters you want to get. Just select IP Memes.

Posted by dmk at 03:37 PM

Electronic Signature Law in Missouri

Missouri remains one of the minority of states that has not adopted the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act ("UETA"). Chip Fendell and I have written an article discussing UETA, the federal E-SIGN act, their interplay, and the implications of Missouri's non-adoption of UETA.

It's called Electronic Signatures In Missouri: Moving To UETA Or Staying With E-SIGN and originally appeared in the Winter 2003 issue of the St. Louis Bar Journal.

Posted by dmk at 03:35 PM

February 17, 2003

Partnering and Virtual Law Firm Article on LLRX.com

A big thank you for my birthday present from Sabrina Pacifici: publishing my new article on inside outside counsel partnering, the Dupont Legal Model and virtual law firms called Outside Counsel Inside Counsel Partnering: Through Technology to the Virtual Law Firm on LLRX.com. It's so great to have LLRX.com back.

Posted by dmk at 08:05 PM

Amphetadesk.

Whenever I talk with people about blogs and blogging, I always end up focusing on RSS feeds rather than blogs. When I first learned about Amphetadesk from a review by Steven Cohen on LLRX.com, I had to try it immediately. It fit my requirements for trying a new technology - simple, simple and simple. What I found was that Amphetadesk and, I assume, the other news aggregators, pointed to the fulfillment of one of my long time Internet wishes. By using Amphetadesk, I can subscribe to any number of feeds from sites (with RSS feeds) that interest me and, here's the cool part, I can go to a single web page to see all those headlines. That means that in the morning I don't have to click through a bunch of bookmarks. That means that I know what some of my writer friends are doing on a more regular basis. That means that I don't need a ton of e-mail newsletters. And it means that I can sample new topics on a regular basis. Tres cool! Are news aggregators a kiler app? Maybe. It's certainly been one giant leap for me on dealing with information overload.

Posted by dmk at 08:02 PM

The Magic in Giving

I spent the weekend seeing three performances of a play my fourth grade daughter was in at The College School. The play was called "The Magic in Giving" and was based a parable-like children's book by Jeff Brumbeau calledThe Quiltmaker's Gift. If you are not familiar with the book, it's one that you'll definitely want to put on the list to read to your kids. My obvious biases aside, I can't remember when I've had a more fun and thoughtful time at the theater. It's always good to consider the value we place on our own giving, something I struggle with every time someone tells me that I give way too much information and content away. There's ultimately a place for capitalizing on our intellectual property, but, for me, there's always been a magic in giving away useful information to help others.

Posted by dmk at 07:59 PM

The Harrow Technology Report

One of my favorite resources to keep current with technology developments is the excellent Harrow Technology Report, a weekly e-mail newsletter that I can't recommend enough. Among other things, today's issue has a sobering story about the Slammer worm and its implications. Consider this quote about Slammer: "It infected more than 90 percent of vulnerable hosts within 10 minutes! . . .Imagine if this worm HAD been malicious. Imagine what will happen when one is. Could it be ten minutes to 100% data loss, or to 100% blocked access to infrastructure services, on 75,000+ business and government systems around the globe? To your systems? Or to those that provide the Internet-related services on which your business, directly or indirectly, now rely?"

Posted by dmk at 07:56 PM

Happy Birthday Dennis

Today is my birthday. The blog is really my birthday present to myself. The start of a trend in gift giving?

Posted by dmk at 07:54 PM

February 16, 2003

Client Driven Technologies

One of my Big Themes in my writing and speaking in 2003 will be what I call "Client Driven Technologies."

Maybe I've gotten a little impatient with the snailish pace of adoption of cool technologies in the practice of law, but I know for sure that it irritates me to see how clients of law firms must pay a big price because their law firms do not use technologies that would streamline work, promote efficiency, improve communication and control costs. Whether you look to the Dupont Legal Model or to simpler, targeted projects, there's much that can be done by both law firms and, more importantly, innovative clients and legal departments. This area is definitely one to watch.

I've created a page called the "Client Driven Technologies Resource Center" on which I will try to collect useful resources on this topic.

I'm also speaking twice on this topic at the ABA TechShow in Chicago in April. I'll eventually put copies of my handout materials for those two presentations up on my site, but two new pieces - Placing Your Bet on Client Driven Technologies and Outside Counsel Inside Counsel Partering: Through Technology to the Virtual Law Firm are linked to from the resource center page.

Please let me know about other resources and I can add them to the list.

Posted by dmk at 08:23 PM

Two Recent Articles

I added two new articles to my web site.

The first is The Coming Battle for Control: Predictions for Legal Technology in 2003 - this year's version of my annual article on what to expect in legal technology. I purposely avoided blogs and wireless to focus on some bread-and-butter practical issues. This article is the first place I unveiled my "third age" of legal technology idea. The article originally appeared in a shorter version in the January issue of ABA's Law Practice Magazine, but that issue was not yet posted to the web when I checked.

The second recent article is called Technology To Go: From Wired to Wireless and Beyond. It appeared as a feature article in the Feb/March issue of Law Office Computing. This topic is getting to be an annual tradition as well. This area of tech is a moving target, to say the least, articles are almost dated as written, but I try to focus on some practical ways to think about what you need.

Posted by dmk at 07:34 PM

Drafting in Public

I learned a funny thing today about the blogging world. I started my blog yesterday with the equivalent of a "test" message and noticed that today already at least 3 other blogs had mentioned that my blog had reappeared.

It's time to read the manual and figure out how to do a few things. A little bit of learning in public. I'm glad, though, if I can help people learn from my errors. I have to admit that there were times when I thought of naming this blog "All Typos Intended."

Posted by dmk at 07:09 PM

February 15, 2003

And so it begins . . .

I realized the other day that I had first written about blogs well over a year ago. In fact, the rise of blogs was one of my 2002 predictions for legal technology in my annual legal tech predictions article. As I was working on updating my web site (http://www.denniskennedy.com), I finally decided that I had to have my own blog. Thanks to people like Jerry Lawson, Sabrina Pacifici, the Support Forum at MovableType.org, it's finally here.

Posted by dmk at 05:20 PM