Web-Tones

SEO Underground?

Probably the "best and the brightest" in the SEO space have always been underground. Any information shared with the masses at conferences and SEO Blogs (e.g. 10 best tips, techniques, etc.) is almost always link bait for the particular site/conference. In the other words, if the masses know about it, then by definition it is no longer insider info. This is constant theme of Michael Martinez, author of the popular SEO-Theory blog. Link Moses himself Eric Ward recently wrote about going completely underground as well.

There is nothing wrong with SEO conferences and SEO blogs. If you are trying to get started in this space then by all means jump in and become immersed. But a word of caution; after the initial swim in these waters be careful not to get sucked in by the undertow of the SEO echo chamber. Take a step back and reflect. Use your business sense to filter the BS. There is a lot of "snake oil" being sold and it tends to attract more snakes. Don't get bit.

There is an obsession in SEO circles with gaming Google. One of the older memes of the early Net was "content is king." There is still much more than a kernel of truth in this trite expression. What is the point (for an online entrepreneur) of driving traffic to a destination that provides little value? Whatever traffic you get: 1) will leave and won't convert; 2) may in fact get irked that their time was wasted (i.e. you are worse off than if they had never arrived). While it is true that "building it" is not enough (you have to get the word out), the initial focus needs to be on having a worthwhile destination.

Yeah content is king. But content is hard to get right and there are no quick fixes that can be bought for $49.95 a month and a couple of ginseng knives. That is the reason that SEO will become more and more of a vertical specialty, because content is a key part and to get the content "right" you must have knowledge of the context (i.e. the specific industry). SEO is not online marketing. SEO is not information architecture. SEO is simply a small piece of the puzzle.

Law firms leveraging the Internet?

If you want proof that in fact most law firms are not leveraging the Internet go here and review how many inbound links some of the top firms in Florida have to their websites. Sure inbound links are not the sole factor (perhaps not even the most important factor) to a site's popularity, but it is a factor nonetheless.

I suspect that many leading legal bloggers have hundreds of inbound links? Why is this important? Because many of these same bloggers, in addition to providing useful information on their blogs, are indirectly (and sometimes directly) promoting their practice sites as well. In other words, they "get" the web.

Sure the big boys have other ways to market, but what they are mostly unaware of is how much potential market share they may be leaking because they are ineffectively leveraging the medium. If IBM (a few years back) slowly nearly bled to death, does anybody really still believe that "bigness" is enough to prevent the "new kids on the block" from advancing their agendas?

TV is Dead!

OK, maybe it just has its big toe in the grave, I mean, I will probably still watch some football today, and maybe catch the weather on the evening news. BUT, definitely, "the beginning of the end has reached a new milestone."

Why? Because after two years of the worst kind of TV commercialism on display,i.e. watching the "ball drop in NY" on any channel, I am done (sort of). I will NEVER watch that shit again, EVER! Is it just me or do the airhead hosts just get more banal every year? The artist(s) selected to perform (this year's "teeny bopper" pop heros), turn in, without fail, the most "unmemorable uninspired performances"--despite the fact that  this "old man" does recognize some of  the tunes and did not particularly despise the artist prior to New Year's Eve.

Is it just that I am grumpy from not haven't slept enough? Nah. TV is dying a death of 1000 cuts. I mean, when was the last time you remember CNN (or anybody else) have "breaking news?" When is the last time you can remember watching a TV show and not thinking that, in terms of minutes, you watched at least as many commercials?

OK, OK, I admit to NEVER being a big TV fan, but what I use to avoid I am now starting to hate (TV is a "thing" and therefore hating it does not offend my Christian sensibilities)! At least with the Net, there are 50 million channels and the odds are that you can find something "ON!"

Strategic Legal Technology :: Dressing the Emperor: Jones Day M&A Lawyers Speak Out

Link: Strategic Legal Technology :: Dressing the Emperor: Jones Day M&A Lawyers Speak Out. I see signs everywhere that the practice of law is no longer what it use to be. Those that are not innovating will soon be forced to. The leveling effect of the Internet and enabling technologies are changing the rules of the game, permanently. The emperor will remain without clothes and it makes so sense dressing that SOB. :) The emperor is being redefined out of existence, may he RIP.

Anonymous in Arizona? Maybe Not. : Privacy Law Blog

Link: Anonymous in Arizona? Maybe Not. : Privacy Law Blog. Not a day goes by when cyberlaw does not morph in some way, shape or form (sort of). Yeah the law still moves rather slow, but the pace with respect to the Internet feels likes it is moving quite fast in an attempt to catch up.

Here, at least in Arizona (and coming soon to a theater near you), the "anonymous poster" may have fallen by the way side, at least under certain conditions. This holding might have a ripple effect in defamation cases. Stay tuned...

Importance of copyright registration!

Link: Privacy and Security Law Blog: Appeals Court Unsettles $18 Million Agreement Between Freelancers and Publishers. Wow, if there ever was a "smoking gun" regarding why copyrights should be registered this just might be it. Eighteen million in damages just vanished because of no registration. As a practical matter, it might have been cost prohibitive for freelancers to register every piece they sold, but there you have it.

It may not seem fair, or just, but it is the law.

Just Pay the Piper!

Link: SiliconValley.com - Symantec, Adobe sue law firm over software copying claim Software. Clearly not "cool"  for any company that relies on their reputation (especially a law firm) to even have it alleged that they are in violation of copyright license agreements. Usually it is a disgruntled ex-employee that "drops a dime." Sooner or later, if you are a consistently abusing copyright, someone is going to report your activities. Needless to say that you are going to wish that you had just paid up.

Web as Defamation Factory

Link: Rome News - Tribune. Be careful what you say on these Internet(s). The web, and especially popular social networking sites, are a virtual defamation factory (waiting to happen in larger numbers). While online defamation is nothing new, its frequency is likely to increase as the "millenials" become less judgment proof. While ISP"s may have substantial immunity via the CDA, private individual certainly do not.

Accusing someone of a criminal act (apparently as was done here) is simply not a very smart thing to do. Sure, "truth" may still be a defense for private individuals suing private defendants (i.e. outside of the reach of Sullivan or Gertz) but the cost of litigation should be more than enough to give you pause.

There is a relative dearth of defamation litigation (sans serious research mind you but I do track these cases on various sites) emerging from MySpace or Facebook at the moment, but that could all change as the "yewts" find their way into their chosen professions (i.e. now with assets for plaintiffs to target).

The Next Billion Internet Users

Link: Michael Geist - How the Next Billion Will Reshape the Internet. Professor Geist has an insightful perspective regarding how the next billion Internet users are likely to impact the medium, and implicitly the rest of us. There is little doubt, IMHO, that this next transformation is likely to be a tsunami of sorts, the likes of which the Western world has never seen.

Consider the fact that, with a very few significant exceptions (e.g. Brazil), the entire western hemisphere can be "targeted" (i.e. from a marketing perspective) with English and Spanish. There are no better marketers than us "yankees" and I predict an explosion of advertising targeting Spanish speaking countries to the south, and BTW, also reaching the millions of Spanish speakers in the "good 'ole USA" as well.

The "melting pot" pop culture of the U.S. is "fixin" to melt South, and the economic interconnectedness, and yes dependence, on our southern neighbors will bring about a change that politicians (on both sides) can't. American business will lead the charge. And despite the fact that American business often overreaches, I have more faith in the business community than I do in those that purport to act on behalf of the people.

The KM Paradox

Link: Does Knowledge Sharing Deliver on Its Promises? - Knowledge@Wharton. In many ways this research adds nothing new, essentially arguing that KM productivity "depends" on the type of knowledge you are sharing and time required to share it. Tacit knowledge, that is the "wetware" in your head, is the most effective vis-a-vis sharing, but takes the most time. Documents can be reused, but often lack the necessary context (or are dated) to deliver on the promise. The challenge is and remains, how to make the latter look more like the former.

The YouTube generation might be closer to solving this problem!

The Changing World of Copyright

Link: Fair Use Means Big Money. This is the kind of empirical data the might sway policymakers and/or the courts. Fair Use (FU) allows for a protected form of cultural dissemination and that, it turns out, is damn good news for the economy.

I have yet to read the study, but I certainly plan to. Look for a more detailed follow-up post.  The FU doctrine (no pun intended) is now codified and has been part of the common law for quite some time, however, it is not as widely used as an affirmative defense in practice due to the fear of litigation costs. Most "little guys" simply cannot afford to assert their rights and fold when threatened. This often allows "Big Copyright Holders" the ability to win through intimidation.

The courts have been reluctant to alter the status quo due in part to the fact that there has been no demonstrable evidence of PAIN. This study may help to shed some light on this issue.

The Next Killer App?

Service is the next killer app!

How many "lost hours" have you spent with your phone/cable/utilities company trying to resolve a billing dispute? How often have you cursed those automated voice machines when they repeatedly failed to understand you? How many of us automatically hit "zero" when presented with a confusing, and almost always useless, set of automated menu options? How many of us cringe when we get tech support with a foreign accent, with agents not empowered to do much of anything except follow the damn script?

We are not "seats or eyeballs or consumers BUT human beings! Deal with it."

That is one of the famous quotes from the "cluetrain manifesto" and becomes more and more on point as time passes. We are so obsessed with automation and efficiency that we woefully neglect the human experience. I can assure you that "vendors" (including attorneys) that crack the "service code" are going to acquire a significant competitive advantage.

Here are some stats on why clients leave attorneys:

• 1% die
• 3% move
• 5% dislike the product
• 24% have some dispute that does not get adjusted
• 67% leave because they feel they were treated discourteously, indifferently, or simply were not provided good service

I rest my case.

When the Levee Breaks

Link: Tech GC Reflections on Big Law. I was led to this post by Chuck Newton  (a rider of the third wave) and it suggests what many of us have been writing about for quite some time now: "The Times They are A Changin." There is no way that the legal industry (read Big Law) is going to escape the drive for efficiencies that "globalization" and enabling technologies are mandating.

Cisco's General Counsel sounds a similar note here. The message is quite clear, especially if you hope to do business with tech firms, improve both your efficiency and your effectiveness or you will not be doing business with us. Given who they work for, these GC's are likely to be influential in organizations such as the ACC.

The alarms are being sounded and the word will spread, when the levee breaks there will be no place to run. Having said all that, Big Law will NOT disappear anytime soon, it is more like to be a "death of 1000 cuts" unless of course "they" manage to turn the ship around at sea--a difficult proposition but not impossible.

Law Firm: The Three Evils

OK, I shamelessly borrow great "stuff" wherever I find it, and here again I am borrowing from my good friend Chris Saah, CIO and all-around tech visionary (often known to "channel Steve Jobs").

There may be more than "three evils" with respect to law firm technologies (high probability) but I want to focus only on three today (you can call these "Chris' three" although he used them in reference to an entirely different industry).

1. Paper. Paper is surely evil. Expensive to manage and store. More and more firms need to figure out how to get by with as little as possible, recognizing that it may never go away entirely is no excuse for killing more trees and continuing to run a less efficient practice.
2. Email. People are beginning to wake up to just how evil email can be. Firms lagged in their implementation and now are addicted to this stuff. But in many circumstances there are better ways to communicate--start to wean yourself off of this addiction--think collaborative communications platforms.
3. PCs. Yes you heard that right, the personal computer is evil. How can that possibly be? Well, because you can't get to it (most can't) in an "anywhere/anytime" basis and it doesn't get backed up as often as it should, and finally, it is subject to all kinds of man-made and natural disasters (think fires and Katrina). Virtual PCs are already available at a theater near you.

Yes, as Yogi Berra once said, "the future ain't what it use to be." Deal with it. Can I get a witness?

Cyberlaw: Copyright is the 800 Pound Gorilla

Link: Google, Microsoft-backed group ready to Defend Fair Use. What is cyberlaw? That is not an easy question to answer because it touches so many areas of the law including: contract, torts, First Amendment (i.e. con law), trademark, patents, domain disputes, spamming, and the list goes on. But the 800 pound gorilla is copyright law. Much has been written about the "copyright wars" and the battles continue to rage between big media incumbents (movies, music, news,etc.) on the one hand and the new kids on the block (Google, Microsoft, et. al) on the other, AND everybody else (i.e. you and me) thrown into the mix as well.

Here the new kids on the block appear to be taking a populist stand in order, no doubt, to serve their own self interest, but nonetheless this might be the best hope for the rest of us to get the benefits of Fair Use that we are entitled to. The doctrine is well established, but strong arm tactics and litigation costs have blunted its practical application.

Game on!

Legal Practice Niches & The Long Tail

Link: Legal Business Development: How to define your niche. Good post here about practice niches. Given the long tail  of Internet search, it would seem that more and more profitable niches will emerge in the legal ecosystem than perhaps was once thought possible--however, attorneys still face the daunting challenge of getting the word out and will, of necessity, have to become fluent in search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. While this may sound like super high tech "stuff," and there is a learning curve to be sure, it is well within the reach of anyone willing to put in the time. Lots of great resources on the net and here is one of the better ones SEOmoz.

Feed the Network & the Network Feeds You

Link: The Digestion Phase: How We Got Here And Where We Are Going Next. I like this metaphor of the "digestion phase." We are regrouping and the next wave is coming just as surely as night follows day. Although it may be possible that we head the other way, another bubble and another implosion, however these are just bumps in the road. Call me an eternal optimist (and the alternative is?). The status quo will be disrupted, followed by a new status quo, followed by more disruption. This march is inexorable. It always has been. The only difference now is that the rate of change is happening much faster that it has in the past--stay tuned because the change is happening on the wires, and this medium will swallow everything that has come before it.

Whence the law in all of this? Depends on what you mean by "the law." The law will try to keep up, but it will always lag--it always has, maybe now more than ever since the rate of change is accelerating.  The practice of law is likely to be impacted much more than "the law," and significantly sooner than one might expect. The "long tail" will rule as the network serves up economically viable niches for those willing to explore and nurture them. The wires represent the new evolving economic ecosystem. Many ships have already set sail, stand on the shores at your own risk.

Law Firm KM Paradox

Link: Strategic Legal Technology :: Knowledge Management and Social Tagging and Bookmarking. This article "points to" technologies that may, or may not, be useful for law firm KM initiatives, but it does highlight the paradox that is law firm KM. Lawyers use (and create) knowledge on a daily basis yet many law firm KM databases are "knowledge landfills." They either contain "garbage" or not very much at all.

Why is that? Because there is something so conceptually formal about how KM is presented that it appears to be too much work to create useful "content." However, out of all the resources that we use on the Internet, some subset of that represents useful content--and it is content what we need not create but simply link to. Here the "content creation process" resembles something more akin to aggregating knowledge, perhaps adding our own "secret sauce" as opposed to re-inventing the proverbial wheel from scratch. Useful knowledge bases can be built this way in short order with just a little extra effort. It is a recognition that knowledge tends to grow organically from "miscellaneous pieces loosely joined."

eDiscovery: Projects 'R US

Link: Strategic Legal Technology :: Why Specialists Should Manage E-Discovery: 

Ron Friedman has an excellent post regarding eDiscovery and a related white paper that provides several key insights. My, mostly from a distance, watching of this space led me to conclude the eDiscovery was a wicked problem that was in desperate need of agile project management methodologies that have worked well in other disciplines (e.g. software development & knowledge management).

It seems that firms are starting to tackle this issue with a combination of project managers and lawyers. While they may not be using agile techniques, this combination of resources appears to be a step in the right direction. As Ron aptly points out, eDiscovery is as much a process problem as it is a technology problem. Producing high quality results will require a combination of people, process and platform.

IBM A Portrait of Disruption

Link: IBM Report on "Media's Mean Streets". This IBM report paints a portrait of disruption about to be visited upon the media industry. While most observers of the legal industry might find little, if any, parallels, I am not among those. The enabling technologies and devices that will wreak havoc on the media industry will also have transformational effects on other industries, including the legal industry. Why? Because the changes signaled by the report are manifested by changes in consumer behaviors, what they expect and what they will pay attention to.

These same consumers will eventually, many of them, be in the market for legal services. Consider how they are likely to respond to firms that are not prepared to communicate with them in the manner to which they are accustomed. Can't happen you say because the legal industry is so much different than other industries? It is precisely this cavalier attitude that will prevent many incumbents (i.e. big law) from "seizing the day." They will be slow to act as the ground around them starts to shift, creating opportunities for some "new kids on block."

Stay tuned...

Forget the "e"--lets just call it commerce!

Link: Online Ad Sales Growing, But Not At 'Premium' Sites. Online ads are poised to out pace print ads by 2011. This is NOT e-Commerce any longer, it is simply the way business is done. We didn't give phone-enabled commerce a different label because it didn't make sense to. While at one time the "e" may have been relevant, it no longer is.

That said, the legal industry is still woefully behind the curve with respect to the changing business landscape. How many firms leverage PPC? A few, but not very damn many. Still fewer understand SEO and the ability to generate organic traffic. Most don't feel a need to, but that will change. There are legal platform based businesses out there for the taking and you can bet that some of the more enlightened firms are starting to target them--however, don't expect any ABA Journal articles on topic any time soon, at least not while the getting is good!

Law School: This wild ride is just about over

I'm in VA working for the summer and have finally come up for air. Time to reflect a little on the "law school experience." I will be writing, bandwidth permitting, an essay on the topic shortly. Hopefully, this piece will be seen as valuable by law students in general, but especially for those that are "non-traditional," which for those of you who are not aware, is an academic euphemism for "old." :)

I approached law school like I have approached most work activity in the past twenty some odd years. It was job and it consisted of getting closure on a project. A project that had a beginning, a middle and an end. The end comes in the fall, but for all intents and purposes I have already "checked out" and moved on. It has been a wonderful experience, but I don't really see it so much as "a legal education" but much more akin to  an extension of my business education. The law is just another system that underpins the great American economic experiment, one that continues to evolve and morph, its best days, I believe, still lie ahead.

My current intellectual curiosities have much more to do with the "law business" than with the law itself. That is not to say that I don't "geek on the law." I probably geek on it more than most. It is just that I get the sense that the "law business" itself is undergoing a major change; and where there is change there is usually opportunity. It is unclear (to date) whether the Internet is transforming the practice of law, but it does appear to be taking it in a distinctly different direction.

Copyright Wars: Game On!

Link: Big Internet Companies (Except Google) Brought Into Line - Thoughts on News Corp/NBC Online Video Deal. Is it game on in the copyright wars, as this article implies, or simply big media sticking it to Google from a business perspective? No way that there wasn't going to be a huge copyright suit sooner or later. Google bought the suit when they bought YouTube. They did not do this naively. Not with the kind of copyright legal talent at their disposal (see The Patry Copyright Blog ). Probably felt they had a shot at prevailing under the DMCA and setting precedent that would ease any subsequent copyright hurdles. It is a huge bet, but the boys from Google didn't accomplish what they have achieved by being risk averse.

Yeah it's game on, should be interesting.

Six Degrees of Separation

Grant Griffiths points to a post that describes one of the reasons that the concept of six degrees of separation is such a powerful one. You are either getting plugged into the network or not. It is difficult to explain the idea that you feed the network and the network feeds you unless you start participating in the dialog and experience first hand how this works!

Kevin's explanation of why linking to the competition is important is insightful because it is a "crystalline" example of the network effect.

2007 Year of Internet Video

While 2006 was the year that YouTube took center stage, 2007 is destined to be the year of Internet video. The legal community is already starting to experiment as featured in the post from MyShingle.

When attorneys start experimenting with cutting edge technologies you know that the time for mass adoption by the general business community has already arrived, since historically the legal industry has lagged (slow to adopt) technologies that appear "edgy."

That said, I suspect that the power and allure of context sensitive rich content (CSRC) might just turn the conventional wisdom on its head, with the leaders defined as those most willing to be creative risk takers.
 

Enabling Law 2.0: People, Process & Platform

What is LawTechTV (LTTV)?

Glad you asked. It is the new direction for the Web-Tones blog that will feature “chalk talk” videos on various legal technology topics: applications, knowledge management, marketing/new media, practice management, infrastructure and more.

This content will be brought to you by Web-Tones, with “a little help from my friends.”

LTTV is a legal technology consulting firm that helps clients with online marketing(including SEO), technology and infrastructure strategies enabling them to effectively participate in Law 2.0. If you are interested in experiencing the difference check out our services here. To contact us click here.
 

Stay tuned…

Enterprise 2.0

It seems that these days everything has a 2.0 "moniker" associated with it. We have Web 2.0 and Law 2.0 and now Enterprise 2.0. What is it you ask? Essentially it is a name given to a set of  emerging technologies (e.g. wikis & blogs) that have the following characteristics/capabilities called SLATES: (search, linking, authoring, tagging, extensions, and signals). These capabilities, and perhaps the term itself, were first identified (I think) by one of its leading proponents: Andrew McAfee (Associate Professor Harvard Business School). McAfee writes not only with the clarity of a top notch academic but like someone who is an IT industry veteran, a rare combination!

In any case, I stumbled unto Enterprise 2.0 during my research on "Search, KM and the Practice of Law" and managed to throw in a late reference since the concept as described by McAfee & others (Dion  Hinchcliffe of ZDNet) embodies much of what I was describing, albeit the general principles and not within a law firm context. In any case, this is certainly a space to watch for anyone with an interest in KM platforms...

Blawggies

Congratulations to my friend Rick "Saint" Georges for his honorable mention in the Blawggies. It is well deserved because no one in law blogging covers new products with quite the same wit and insight as Rick. Rock on!
 

Net Neutrality

Link: What the Democrats' win means for tech - page 2 | CNET News.com. Whatever other "goodness" might come from "new blood" in Washington it seems likely that that the new powers that be will be more receptive to drafting legislation that favors Net Neutrality. It makes sense that the Democrats will move on this because not only is it a popular idea with the informed "online masses", but it is also in the best interest of potentially large donors: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft & many others.

This seems like a "no brainer" from a purely political perspective; from the point of view of the Democrats what is there not to like about it?

"Free Culture" But Not as In "Free Beer"

Link: == Free Culture ==. Lessig should be required reading in IP law classes but unfortunately, I suspect, many (if not most) law students get through all their IP classes without ever hearing his name. Why? Because law schools are too busy teaching the basic elements of this or that test to focus on something as "mundane" as real education. And what might that be? Well, at least for starters, questioning why things are the way they are and who might be asserting a "controlling influence" on that reality.

I suspect that this will all change and we head into the IP wars that are certain to follow the mega deals such as Google/YouTube. The "good professor" is likely to get his due. You might agree with him or disagree, but he is a force that will have to be reckoned with! For those unfamiliar with his work check out Creative Commons or his blog here.

It is the little things...

As always the Future Lawyer is finding tools that improve his law practice and yours. If you ever have spent a frustratingly long time searching for an app you will appreciate this tip.

First Year of Law School is History

Wow, the first year of law school is over and what should have been a collective sigh of relief (it was) was tempered by the passing of one of our classmates, Raman "Noodles" Subramanian. Raman took ill right before the start of finals, diagnosed with cancer, and passed a few days after finals were over. It is hard to believe that the person I sat two seats from in PR, the person with the constant smile, who (it seems) never failed to greet a classmate, is no longer with us. He will surely be missed, that smile was infectious and even those of us who were not his closest friends, all feel a deep sadness because we have lost "one of the good guys" and "one of our own."

There is, without a doubt, a certain "bonding" that occurs during the first year of law school (even for the "old guys" like me) because for the entire first year (and in our case summer 2005 as well) you spend all your time in the same classes with the same classmates. You get to know each other quite well, and everyone has their favorite "war stories" of class incidents that will always be remembered. We all have our favorite memories of Raman, and therefore his spirit will live with us regardless of where our travels lead us.

Disaster Recovery

OK so disaster recovery from computer perspective is a pet peeve of mine and what happened to the legal community (Law and Lawyers Post-Katrina) in New Orleans is a case in point. I lived in New Orleans during my high school years and know the city quite well. My mom and my sisters (both attorneys) weathered the storm in New Orleans and had to be rescued after watching neighbors perish and seeing their homes completely wiped out. Let's just say that Katrina had a huge impact on all of us and my mom and sisters are still in the process of rebuilding their lives. So I realize that the destruction of computers and data is trivial compared to the lost of life and the emotional damage suffered by the survivors.

BUT while nature wreaked havoc on the New Orleans and we will debate for quite a while how much of it was preventable, the damage to computers and data, both private and public, was almost entirely preventable. How so? Well to begin with, backups and off-site storage for tapes would have been a good start. If you are lucky and your off-site storage site wasn't flooded then perhaps all you lost was a week or less of critical data. However my twenty years in IT has proved that most small to medium size businesses (and many large ones) do not even do the basics correctly. What is more, even if you did, if your entire infrastructure was wiped out (e.g. your network) then the potential recovery might last months or more. Bottom line is that partnering with a hosted solutions provider (e.g. Vericenter) with "hot" sites potentially available in remote locations solves many of these problems and prevents the computing recovery from contributing to the disaster.

Attorneys and many other professional services providers need to get out of the computer/data management business and focus on practicing law, medicine, consulting etc. Managing this stuff in house is becoming more and more a losing proposition. Why bother when these services are available 24/7 from a utility provider? The trend is captured in an article by Nicholas Carr.