User-contributed links, video, audio, articles, news, photos, and more on the use of Web 2.0 applications, tools, technologies and methods in delivery of legal services. Examples include blogs wikis tags mashups social networks etc.
Will in-house counsel be the first group of lawyers to adopt tools such as blogs, wikis, and social networks? Some have argued that forward thinking groups like IP attorneys have already blazed the tra...
NewsGator, the RSS company, has announced at the Web 2.0 Conference that NewsGator Social Sites are now available for users to incorporate for business use. Social Sites is an add-on for the NewsGator Enterprise Server (NGES), which is a tool that businesses can use as a way to interact, share news, search for items and generally keep up with what’s going on in the company.
Included in this launch is the support of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and 3.0. So now you can let your employees use NewsGator Social Sites for communicating in a circular manner around important information. Incorporate RSS feeds, profiles, self-published articles, tags and more into the network to be searched be employees. The syndication of content from SharePoint Server lets users keep up with updates from their desktop, email service or mobile device.
Some other enhancements come in the way of actual social networking options. Profiles have been improved so that more relevant information is more readily available, making it easier to find people with the necessary area of expertise, for the necessary information. NewsGator has also recently launched its Facebook application.
It has been a few weeks since I mentioned Avvo, the controversial Seattle online attorney rating service that was promptly sued after its debut in June.
Now, it turns out that Avvo will be facing some competition from an Arlington, Va.-based startup called HireTrade that has created a "legal marketplace" in which attorneys can post online profiles and clients can attempt to find attorneys to work on their cases.
For now, the company is focusing on the legal markets in Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia, but it plans to expand to other geographic areas in the future. HireTrade says its HourlyValue Ratings System taps the knowledge of clients to rate attorneys, a method that it believes is more effective than a 1 to 10 rating scale like what Avvo employs. (HireTrade says it will not post a rating of an attorney until it accumulates three projects/reviews of the attorney.)
At the present time, HireTrade's database does not appear to be as robust as Avvo's. I searched for three different attorney names and did not get a result or an attorney rating. (Similar searches on Avvo returned hundreds of attorneys.)
Still, I asked HireTrade Chief Executive Neil Sandhu how his company is different from Avvo. Here's what he said:
We think that existing professional ratings systems, including most numerical ratings systems, result in arbitrary values as it is impossible for a numerical algorithm to really capture every single nuance of a professional's background or decide what is the correct weight to place on different items of information such as experience, education, etc. (not to mention the fact that it appears that some of these systems merely assign higher scores to those professionals who take the time to fill out their profiles in more detail). Thus, meaningful comparisons are difficult to draw from the numerical values that result.
Furthermore, there is very little actual intrinsic value in any number generated by such a system.
And he continued:
But what does a 5.0, 7.5, or 10 really signify when it comes to the seller of a service and, even if a numerical system was somehow perfect at capturing and interpreting data, can you really effectively compare someone who has a 8.8 to someone who has a 9.5--what if the person with an 8.8 has worked on more difficult matters and the person with the 9.5 has worked a long time and done very well with less difficult work? When the service is at the heart of what is being sold, we think an entirely different system must be used.
Those are also some of the arguments made in the lawsuit against Avvo.
Apple may be the undisputed king of preannouncement hype (with the recent flurry of rumours about new iPod features, some of which were announced yesterday, being just the latest example) but Google has to run a close second. And the current hot spot for die-hard fans of the technology giant is the much-rumoured “Google phone” or GPhone.
Whispers about such an animal have been circulating in the geekosphere since last year, but have recently caught fire again, with reports that some Silicon Valley insiders have seen actual prototypes of such a phone, and other reports that Google might be ready to launch a version in India.
Om Malik, a former writer for Business 2.0 magazine who runs a blog network called GigaOm, recently spoke to a technology insider who said the tech company is working on a Google Phone that will run a modified version of the Linux operating system and have a special Web browser.
According to some analysts, Google has been talking with several major carriers about distributing a low-price (or even free) device, the cost of which would be paid for by advertising.
Various reports – including one in The Wall Street Journal last month – have said the phone will be loaded with Google software, including Gmail, Google Talk, an instant messaging and voice-calling service, and a special version of its mapping software that would use the device's built-in GPS.
Skeptics (including yours truly) have pooh-poohed the idea that Google might want to get into the phone business, in the sense of designing and/or selling a specific piece of hardware. Why? Because it seems antithetical to what Google has been about – namely, perfecting software for searching, and more recently for search-related ads, e-mail and other online services.
The only piece of hardware that Google makes or is involved in making is the Google “appliance” that companies can use as part of their internal computer networks – although it also plays a role in customizing the hundreds of thousands of servers in its giant server “farms.”
It wasn't that long ago that Google was rumoured to be building a cheap “Google PC,” one that would be loaded with Google software and sold through retailers such as Wal-Mart. That never came to pass, however, and the company made a point of saying it had no intention of getting into the notoriously cutthroat hardware business.
One of the driving forces behind much of the Google Phone speculation appears to be dissatisfaction with existing cellphone companies and carriers. You can almost hear people wishing that a giant company with billions of dollars in cash – not to mention a propensity for offering things for free – would come in and shake up the mobile phone market.
The GPhone rumours have been persistent in part because there are so many puzzle pieces that appear to fit, with one of the biggest being a Google employee named Andy Rubin. A co-founder of Danger Inc., the company that developed the Sidekick phone/PDA, Rubin started another company called Android, which was acquired by Google in 2005. Google also bought a Waterloo, Ont.-based mobile software company called Reqwireless.
Google recently said that if the U.S. Federal Communications Commission were to change the way it auctions wireless spectrum, the company would be willing to spend almost $5-billion (U.S.). And there have been repeated rumours about Google buying up “dark” or unused fibre capacity across the U.S. The perfect foundation for a new Google Phone service, some say.
But does this mean a dedicated piece of h
Posted Jan 7, 2008, 05:52 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
College grads who want wealth and social status are passing up law and medicine for careers in investment banking.
A career at a hedge fund or private equity firm can offer financial rewards that outpace earnings at even the biggest law firms. Partners at the nation’s largest 100 firms made an average of $1.2 million in 2006, but many senior investment bankers will take home an average of $2.25 million to $2.75 million in bonuses and salaries, the New York Times reports.
But even more important than money are the glamour, control and quick path to financial rewards in investment banking, according to the article.
Lawyers no longer enjoy the prestige they once held, and the quest for billable hours has taken away the notion of law as a noble profession. Doctors and lawyers “have slipped a notch in social status, drifting toward the safe-and-staid realm of dentists and accountants,” the story reports.
The change is reflected in the number of students applying to law schools. The number of applicants dropped 5.2 percent in 2005 from the year before, and another 6.7 percent in 2006, when 83,500 applied to law schools.
The Observer of London is reporting that Google might be working with HTC and mobile/telecom giant Orange to build a Google Mobile Phone, which could possibly have Google software inside the device, and would be able to do many of the web tasks smartly. The device, article speculates, could go on sale in 2008. (Of course, we would all have forgotten by then… if it doesn’t happen.) Orange and Google, both declined to comment.
Their plans centre on a branded Google phone, which would probably also carry Orange’s logo. The device would not be revolutionary: manufactured by HTC, a Taiwanese firm specialising in smart phones and Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), it might have a screen similar to a video iPod. But it would have built-in Google software which would dramatically improve on the slow and cumbersome experience of surfing the web from a mobile handset.
It would be interesting to see if this comes to fruition. Google, in recent months has become increasingly aggressive about its mobile ambitions, and is pushing into the carrier space, though there have been some snags.
Google Phone, if you think about it is a reasonable speculation. Google has been aggressive in developing location based services, has amp-ed up its local search and mapping services. In addition, it has also been mobilizing its applications such as GTalk and GMail. YouTube, the video arm of Google, is beginning to embrace the mobile ecosystem.
Normally, one would not spend too much energy on this bit of news. However, presence of Andy Rubin on Google campus gives us a reason to pause.
Who is Rubin? He was one of the co-founders of Danger, the company that makes the Sidekick devices. He sold his last company, Android to Google for an undisclosed amount of money, and he has been holed up in Mountain View, California campus of Google, doing something.
No one knows what, but since Android was focusing on mobile, it is safe to assume that he just might be involved in Android. Danger, as you might know has become a multimillion dollar business based off the “compress web and take it mobile” technology developed by Rubin and others. Businessweek had reported that Android was working on a cell phone operating system.
One source familiar with the company says Android had at one point been working on a software operating system for cell phones. … In a 2003 interview with BusinessWeek, just two months before incorporating Android, Rubin said there was tremendous potential in developing smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner’s location and preferences. “If people are smart, that information starts getting aggregated into consumer products,” said Rubin.
For Orange, this could be a valuable asset in its triple play ambitions. The company owns broadband businesses across Europe, and has access to 3G networks, and is owned by France Telecom. It could use Google’s web expertise to take on its rivals, by offering web-mobile hybrid phones, and at the same time get a slice of mobile advertising revenues. I know, sounds far fetched, but not out of the real of possiblity.
Your thoughts?
Chances are you know someone who's using free or consumer-class Voice over Internet Protocol solutions and making long-distance calls for "free." But is this VoIP technology suitable for a law firm like yours? Will it provide the business-class security and reliability you expect in your firm's phone system?
Lawyers have been using the Internet for a decade, and even the most unsophisticated consumers have had Internet access at home for at least five years. In this context, a directory that would enable consumers to find lawyers online should have seemed like a logical project for bar associations -- which purport to serve the public by helping increase access to law. The bars did little to provide lawyers with ways to list themselves online and, consequently, a few months ago, one company -- Avvo -- stepped in to fill this void and, in doing so, attracted a controversial response.
While speculation continues over the “GPhone” and when a device with Google’s rumored mobile operating system will arrive, one thing is clear: Google is making a ton of announcements in the wireless space. The latest is a mobile version of Google Docs that just went live, featuring a display of your documents and spreadsheets optimized for mobile screens.
Google Docs Mobile presents a list of your documents, and allows you to open them on your handheld. However, the new Google Presentations are not yet available for mobile viewing. Meanwhile, Spreadsheets are displayed in HTML format or can be downloaded as an Excel file. There are also simple navigation options, such as viewing all of your starred items or your various folders.
For the moment, all of this wireless goodness is “read-only” and doesn’t allow you to edit your docs, but it’s another highly visible move for Google as it pieces together its mobile operating system. Other recent announcements from Google in the mobile space include the acquisitions of Jaiku and Zingku, a mobile version of AdSense, and an new release of Gmail Mobile.
To access Google Docs Mobile, point your wireless browser to: http://docs.google.com/m
Amongst the hundreds of mashups and utilities for Twitter, there are very few that I find particularly useful. In fact, most of my interfacing with Twitter either takes place in my feed reader or in a GTalk window. Matt King’s TwitterWhere is a definite exception to the rule, however. TwitterWhere is an elegantly simple tool that allows you to generate an RSS or XML Feed that will provide you with Tweets around a given geographic area.
Not to be confused with TwitterWhere.com (a tool allowing you to easily update your current location), in Matt King’s TwitterWhere, search criteria can be entered by city, state, and postal code, then designate the range in miles you wish to include. Once search criteria is entered, you’ll be given links to feeds in RSS format, or in an XML file in the format of the Twitter public timeline.
This can be quite useful for not only finding Twiterers in your general area, but in the event of some major news event, it can be an easy way to get instant feedback from folks based in the location where events are unfolding.
NY-based Kaltura has received a good bit of buzz since I first reported about their presentation at the NY Video Meetup last April. Since then they have gone on to win the people's choice at Techcrunch40 and have launched a useful Facebook application. I had a chance to grab a coffee with co-founder Ron Yekutiel and here are my notes:
Ron describes Kaltura as "wiki meets YouTube". He believes there is a movement going on from text publishing to video publishing and that collaboration in the video space is where Kaltura leads the pack.
Kaltura is seeking to empower other social networks by their use of the Kaltura application. Ron says that while Kaltura.com is a destination site, the real power is how other sites use the tool within their framework.
What I get about Kaltura is that small contributions can equal big productions where everybody has a vested interest in the final product.
Ron spoke about four reasons people collaborate on video:
The Kaltura team has four co-founders, two are in New York and the other two are in Israel. The team totals 25 people and are in Israel. From what I gather, the leadership of Kaltura might be the most educated group I have come across. Lots of post-graduate degrees from Ivy League schools.
We spoke about the Kaltura business model which is largely based on rev share. It's an interesting model because it puts the trust in the sites using the application to report the income back as they use their own advertising not Kaltura's ad platform. For sites that don't have their own advertising platform, Kaltura can provide one with strong advertising players involved.
Ron left me with some juicy bits about the future for Kaltura but he asked me not to share them at this time. He said they are coming very soon and as soon as I can share with you, I will.
