Web 2.0, according to online encyclopedia Wikipedia:
"refers to a second generation of services available on the World Wide Web
that lets people collaborate and share information online".
- What are these
new online services?
- Is Web 2.0 merely the latest Internet buzzword?
- Or, are
these new technical and social developments really changing the way we communicate,
learn and work?
- How does Web 2.0 impact lawyers?
Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell,
two leading commentators about law and the Internet, recently joined a growing chorus promoting Web 2.0 in a series of communications that can be accessed as a podcast via The
Kennedy-Mighell Report (Episode #4: A Web 2.0 Primer for Lawyers) as well as
from their respective weblogs, DennisKennedy.com and inter alia.
Their featured resources are comprehensive and
include links to Web 2.0-related articles in the ABA’s
Law Practice Today. One of the LPT
articles (produced using Writely, a Google-owned word processing tool) is a
roundtable article about Web 2.0 featuring Kennedy, Mighell, John Tredennick, Stephen M.
Nipper, and Frederick L. Faulkner IV.
The issues addressed in the Web 2.0 roundtable include:
- What are wikis? The participants identify two legal wikis - Wiki-Law and Wex. A suggestion: Kennedy and Mighell might consider organizing their Web 2.0 links using a wiki. For one comparable example, see this KM wiki developed by Denham Grey.
- Are blogs part of Web 2.0? Yes. Although not mentioned by the roundtable experts, A Taxonomy of Legal Blogs developed by
Ian Best, confirms the active use of blogs by lawyers. A recent symposium at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard was
titled “Bloggership: How Blogs are Transforming Legal Scholarship”
- Where is RSS taking us? The roundtable discussion does not provide much helpful guidance on this issue. One participant even states: “until it (RSS) becomes easier to use it will remain
primarily a tool of the earlier adopters and tech savy.” Actually, many lawyers already write blogs and use ipods - or their children and grandchildren do. Blogging and podcasting tools are already easy to use. What lawyers do need is a better understanding of RSS and related Web 2.0 technologies (social software) - including strategies and processes for transitioning traditional communications into Web 2.0 formats.
- What Web 2.0 tools do you (roundtable participants)
use? Roundtable answers included: Writely, Rollyo,
eHub, Backpack, Del.icio.us, and Yahoo! My Web. None of the participants identified or discussed the tools they personally use for weblogs, wikis or podcasts. .
- What does Web 2.0 mean for lawyers? Answers from the
roundtable experts: global collaboration; Internet as computing platform;
virtual networks and law firms; cheap collaborative technologies.
- Will Web 2.0 change the way law is made and legal services
are delivered? Roundtable
recommendations and ideas include: public wikis; open-source lawyering.
- Additional observations by the roundtable experts about Web 2.0 focused upon: collaboration; limitations of
Web 2.0; need for revenue models; simplicity of tools; Internet as software
platform; better, faster, cheaper; and attorneys as late adapters.
Thanks to Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell for addressing Web
2.0 issues and introducing Web 2.0 to lawyers.
Here are some recommended Web 2.0 topics for futher consideration and discussion:
- Interactive Web 2.0
visual communication, including concept maps.
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