Denise Howell is a seasoned appellate and intellectual property litigator based in Los Angeles. Denise writes one of the first and most popular law-related blogs, Bag and Baggage, coined the term "blawg" and helped pioneer podcasting for lawyers. Microcontent obsessed since 2001, she is frequently quoted in the media on legal issues involving intellectual property and technology law. "Sound Policy" is Denise's show at IT Conversations, and it's also what she hopes results from the briefs she submits to court. Email Denise at dhowell@gmail.com.
Dennis Kennedy is a computer lawyer and legal technology expert based in St. Louis, Missouri. An award-winning author, a frequent speaker and a widely-read blogger, he has more than 300 publications on legal, technology and Internet topics, many of which are collected in his e-books. Dennis has been described as someone who knows almost every rock song in existence and, more importantly, how they apply to technology and law. Email Dennis at his gmail address.
Tom Mighell is Senior Counsel and Litigation Technology Support Coordinator at Cowles & Thompson in Dallas. He has published the Internet Legal Research Weekly newsletter since 2000 and blogged about the Internet and legal technology at Inter Alia since August of 2002. With Tom's singing, Ernie on guitar and Dennis' encylopedic knowledge of rock music, we may have the beginnings of a good band, if this whole blog thing doesn't work out. Email Tom at tmighell@swbell.net.
Marty Schwimmer left a partnership in the largest trademark practice in the world and founded Schwimmer Mitchell, a full-service IP micro-boutique in Westchester County, New York, where he represents owners of famous and not yet famous trademarks. He founded The Trademark Blog, the first IP law blog and the one with the most pictures. He is the first to come in and the last to leave in his firm. Email Marty at marty@schwimmerlegal.com.
Ernest Svenson practices law with a mid-sized law firm in New Orleans, specializing in business-related lawsuits. Most of his practice takes place in federal court, especially the Eastern District. He is best known for his weblog Ernie the Attorney, which he started as an experiment. Like many experiments it got out of control. Nevertheless, he continues to practice law and, occasionally,
to seek enlightenment. Email Ernest at esvenson@gmail.com.
About this blog
Between Lawyers provides just-in-time group commentary on the issues
raised when technology, culture and the law intersect. We take you
behind the firewalls and conference room doors to show you how
experienced lawyers deal with these issues and help you prepare for
the new challenges we all face. For more, see our introductory post.
In this episode, Dennis and Tom discuss the use (or potential use) of Facebook by lawyers, giving some potential benefits and risks, practical tips, and observations about their experiments in using Facebook. They also talk about how they use the Google Reader for RSS feeds and Google Docs and Spreadsheets for simple collaborations. They also talk about the other podcasts they listen to and how they listen to them.
It's a good introduction for lawyers and other legal professionals to these topics.
You'll find the podcast episode here and there's an archive of earlier podcasts.
It's also a good time to remind you to check out Denise Howell's podcast - This Week in Law - on which you'll find some of the authors of the Between Lawyers blog appearing from time to time.
There's a slew of law related RSS feeds — for press releases and news articles related to "Deals," "People," "Prosecutions," "Lawsuits," "Awards/Rankings," and "Announcements" — at LawFuel.com.
Jake Parrillo got my attention today with his post "Blawggers Getting Their Due." And not just by mentioning the Between Lawyers blog and several of our individual blogs.
What interested me were his comments on the possible uses of FeedBurner's new FeedFlare tool in connection with blawgs.
Brad's idea was to add a Flare that would 'add a disclaimer' on each post that would be a small 'bio' link that would list the firm where the blawger is an attorney. That's a great start, but I'm sure there's bound to be more ideas. What about adding a Flare that would link back to the lawyer's latest publication?
Take a look and give it some thought. Let's collect and share ideas in the comments section for this post and we can get back to Jake with some good ideas. I agree with him that this idea has a lot of potential, especially if Rick Klau is involved.
If you're a regular reader you'll already know that we here at Between Lawyers are big believers in RSS, and the power it holds to convey information to lawyers (and the rest of the world, of course). The problem with RSS is that it's still too darn complicated for the average lawyer to use. That's why many blogs are using services like FeedBlitz, to make sure readers who don't "get" RSS can still read blog posts via e-mail.
Today, in How RSS Can Bust Through, Dave Winer responds to VC Fred Wilson's comment that "RSS has to become brain-dead simple to use." He's absolutely right -- in order to get to the point where RSS becomes easy to use, it's going to require a pretty big shift in the way RSS is currently handled on the Internet.
Maybe the answer lies (somewhat) in reading lists, which you may see us talking about here in the near future.
Though I think there's the possibility an implied license argument could prevail in the right case(s) involving syndicated material, I don't for a second think it would fly in circumstances where the feed is automatically provided by a third party host, and it communicates applicable Creative Commons license commercial use restrictions. See (or more accurately, listen to) Adam Curry'sDaily Source Code #320. What do you think?
I'm going to steer the conversation here back towards technology just for a bit. Those of you who read this blog no doubt have a good handle on RSS technology and its implications for the future of information delivery and management. But one reason it is still being used by only 6% of Internet users (according to one survey) is that it's just too darned complicated. When I try to explain that subscribing to an RSS feed is just as simple as "clicking on that little orange RSS or XLM box, then copying the URL of the feed, then going back to your news reader and pasting it into the subscription box..." I get a lot of blank looks.
People who use online newsreaders have it a little easier; there are specific links that provide "one-click subscription" to My Yahoo! and Bloglines. But that relies upon the feed provider to set up specific My Yahoo! and Bloglines buttons. It certainly would be easier if the newsreaders themselves came up with a "one-click" solution.
Here's a product that's certainly a step in the right direction. A company called KnowNow is providing Enterprise RSS services to companies, but it also has a nifty product called eLerts -- just download the toolbar (for IE only, unfortunately), and it provides real-time notification of new content posted to the feeds you select. But here's the great part: to add a feed, all you need to do is drag the RSS or XML or ATOM button to the toolbar, drop it in, and you're subscribed. Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend the KnowNow toolbar as a newsreader, this drag and drop idea is a terrific advance in making the subscription process more user-friendly.
Denise Howell
Dennis M. Kennedy
Tom Mighell
Marty Schwimmer
Ernest Svenson
