As an author, blogs give you an entirely new set of expectations, especially about time-to-publication. I have several new articles that I’ve written, but I am waiting until they first appear in print before I can blog them or put them on my website. The time lag is a little frustrating.
The first of these articles is now out. It’s my annual legal technology trends / predictions article, which is called “2004 Legal Technology Trends: Do We Stand on the Threshold of the Next Legal Killer App?” It appeared yesterday as a TechnoFeature on the must-read TechnoLawyer email list. I recommend that anyone even slightly interested in legal technology become a member (it’s free) of TechnoLawyer. I also am a regular contributor to the IP Memes newsletter that TechnoLawyer produces. (There will be some interesting news about that newsletter coming soon.)
My 2004 legal tech trends article is now also available on my website at https://www.denniskennedy.com/pred2004.htm.
The answer to the question in the subtitle, by the way, is yes, I think so; and it is the combination of Tablet PC, Microsoft OneNote, Wireless networking/Internet access and practice-specific software. The likely place we will see this happen is with litigators.
The article lists seven of my key trends for 2004:
1. Litigation Technology is Hot.
2. Stopping the Waste of Technology Dollars.
3. Big Firm Lawyers Go Small.
4. Blawgs and RSS Feeds.
5. The Impending Security Disaster.
6. Clients Fire Law Firms Due to Tech Shortcomings.
7. Are We On the Doorstep on the Next Killer App for Lawyers? The Tablet PC, WiFi, OneNote and Practice-Specific Applications.
I also add a few discussion questions.
I’m doing something a little different this year. The published version of the article is about half the length of the full version. The full version contains several more “big” trends and a few “small” trends to watch carefully, as well as a more complete discussion than is found in the published version. The full version will be available in either of two ways: (1) free to my clients or (2) as part of my new “eBook,” Dennis Kennedy’s Legal Technology Primer, a collection of more than 100 of my articles on legal technology topics.
Stay tuned, because I plan to launch the eBook with a giveaway drawing for readers of this blog next week.
The material in this article will also make up part of my presentation on 2004 technology strategies for law firms at ABA TechShow 2004 and one of the seminars I’ll be offering this year.