Originally published on November 24, 2008 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.
Do you Twitter? FriendFeed? If not, you are among the 98% of the legal profession that neither knows nor cares about the Web 2.0 flavor of the month. But this edition of SmallLaw is not about a fad or Johnny-Come-Lately development. Twitter, Friendfeed, and a variety of similar services are here now and offer a world of possibilities — no technical knowledge required.
Of course it's one thing to say these services can change the way we practice, but something else to explain how, or why we should bother. What is the justification, the use case as they say, for change? Let's start by looking at what these systems do and how you can put them to work.
Microblogging: Like Blogging But Much Easier
In 2004, a featureless text protocol called short-message-service (SMS) was poised to take over the world. While it certainly made a dent, costs prevented it from world domination.
Around this time, a plucky little company called Twitter stepped in to provide its own brand of instantaneous asynchronous one-way communication arranged in a chronological list: the microblog.
Today Twitter is bigger than ever, and its appeal keeps growing. Need I mention it's free. Its popularity has given rise to such me-too services as Jaiku, Pownce, and Yammer. Instead of trying to understand all the nuances of Twitter, let's see how you could use it in your law firm.
Use Case: Always in the Know
Imagine what would happen if you and your colleagues continually added comments, documents, pictures, etc. into one long, self-updating list that every contributor could see. The result, it turns out, is like being in 10 places at once. You can get the scoop from the office, the courthouse, the meeting, etc. all at once or categorized by sender, location, subject, etc.
Lifestreaming (Casestreaming)
In 2005 a Web site called Dandelife enabled users to enter information as if they were blogging, and at the click of a mouse switch to a timeline view. Early adopters consisted of self-absorbed Gen-Ys to discuss their life stories — hence "Lifestreaming."
But a funny thing happened in 2008 when a company called FriendFeed focused on combining multiple information streams about each user and presenting them as one master stream. This version of "Lifestreaming" was completely different and had vastly different ramifications.
Use Case: The Closing
Lifestreaming (let's call it Casestreaming for our purposes) obviously has a number of uses ranging from turning case information into an instant, scalable timeline, to viewing the interplay among parties, employees, judicial opinions, statutory developments, etc. in juxtaposition to one another in real time, and even for billing and time-tracking. An example might look like this:
- 1:00 PM Lawyer: Mr. Client can I see documents from your closing?
- 1:20 PM Client: Uploads 3 pictures and 10 documents from closing.
- 1:40 PM Lawyer: Here is the timeline of events leading up to closing.
- 1:50 PM Auto-Confirm: Timeline sent to client and wiki page for case.
- 2:00 PM Paralegal: Mr. Lawyer, the file will be ready for 3 PM meeting.
- 2:20 PM Reminder: Event @ 3PM meeting (receive file from Paralegal).
I could write more about these tools but why? All you really need to know is that microblogging and casestreaming are in their infancy, nobody has all the answers, and there are as many use cases to be made as there are lawyers willing to put these tools to work. Which is definitely how it should be. I invite you to take a look at your own small firm and figure out a use case of your own. I guarantee you'll find at least one. Then drop me a line and let me know what you've found. You can find me on Twitter.
Written by Mazyar M. Hedayat of M. Hedayat & Associates, P.C.
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