I thought I felt something and, no, it wasn't the recent Oklahoma City area 4.0 earthquake. I kept noticing that I was hearing a lot more excitement about new things on the Internet in 2009 when we'd all been taking it for granted for some time. I knew a lot of lawyers in my audience would dismiss anything about social media as a timewaster for "kids." But I was also hearing stories of grandmothers who barely used the Internet until Facebook. So I mentioned social media quite a bit.

So check out these stats on 2009 Internet growth, fueled in part by the surge in interet in social media.

  • 1.73 billion Internet users worldwide as of Sept 2009; 18% increase in Internet users since previous year.
  • 234 million websites as of Dec 2009; 47 million were added in 2009.
  • 90 trillion emails sent on the Internet in 2009; 1.4 billion email users worldwide.
  • 26 million blogs on the Internet.
  • 27.3 million tweets on Twitter per day as of Nov 2009.
  • 350 million people on Facebook; 50% of them log in every day; + 500,000 active Facebook applications.
  • 4 billion photos hosted by Flickr as of Oct 2009;
  • 2.5 billion photos uploaded each month to Facebook.
  • 1 billion videos served by YouTube each day; 12.2 billion videos viewed per month;
  • 924 million videos viewed per month on Hulu in the US as of Nov 2009; + the average Internet user in the US watches 182 online videos each month.

The stats above are from Adam Thierer's post on the Technology Liberation Front, which he distilled from Internet 2009 in Numbers. Hat tip to Dan Pinnington for the link.

Topics like unbundling of legal services or limited-scope-representation may sound like academic exercises or impractical theories to many busy practicing lawyers. But when John T. Broderick Jr., the chief justice of New Hampshire, and Ronald M. George, the chief justice of California, pen an Op-Ed piece titled A Nation of Do-it-Yourself Lawyers for The New York Times maybe you owe it to yourself to read it and think about the concepts more.

"100 Quotes Every Geek Should Know" is just too entertaining to not pass along. You can add your own favorite quote in the comments section.

The first one is: " “Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.” — Dennis the Peasant, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Now go read the rest.

Cloud computing was one of the hottest topics of 2009. Can a lawyer be comfortable with a third party hosting confidential client data? We decided to attempt to shed some light on the subject with our December Digital Edge podcast Cloud Computing for Lawyers. Sharon Nelson and I asked Erik Mazzone, practice management advisor for the North Carolina Bar Association and Ben Schorr  of Roland, Schorr and Tower to join us to discuss the cloud computing, with Ben taking the role of the cloud curmudgeon and and Erik acting as the cloud champion. It was a very interesting discussion.

Click here to listen to the podcast. Here's the home page for the podcast with some links to articles on the topic and, if you are unfamiliar with the Digital Edge podcast series, here are the podcast archives.

The Clio blog did a nice review of our podcast. Of course, this is their business, so we understand their interest. It is certainly a nice post and they have an interesting product. One interesting event after we recorded the podcast was the publication of "A Case for Operating in the Cloud"on law.com where James C. Nolan, a diehard cloud computing evangelist, made the case for cloud computing with statements like "as an IT person in your firm, your most important mission is to get your firm to move to the cloud." After Ben Schorr read that article, he had to respond by tapping on his virtual microphone and asking "Hello? Is This Thing On?" as he took issue with virtually every point in Nolan's article. I hope you take the time to read these articles.

Those of us who have spent years following technology trends recall when something a lot like cloud computing was called ASP and it was touted as the new greatest thing. We also recall the fear when clients of a company called Red Gorilla learned that the company had abruptly ceased operations and they could not access their business data. Having said that though, in my opinion, the cloud computing model may well be the future of law office technology, and for many lawyers, the future is now. We will certainly be hearing a lot more about cloud computing during 2010.

One of the easiest ways for lawyers to both do a public service and give their firm a little marketing boost is to give speeches to civic organizations and community groups. If you haven't done that in a while, think of how you can gain some exposure doing this during 2010. Contact someone you know who is a member of a group to ask who arranges for presentations at their meetings. You can talk about the legal system generally or a topic within your area of expertise. I note in our Oklahoma Bar Journal such diverse persentations as Edmond lawyer Courtney Davis Powell driving out to Elk City, Oklahoma to discuss wage garnishments with a group of human resources professionals and Tulsa attorney Leah Farish speaking to the United Nations' Special Politcal and De-Colonization Committe earlier this year at the United Nations. Not every speech will bring your new clients. But the mere fact that the attendees get to meet you and hear from you may make it likely they would feel comfortable calling on you if they need legal services in the future.

The Automated Attorney is the theme of the December, 2009 GPSOLO magazine. It is one of those must read issues. Congrats to Jeff Allen and the rest of the contributors and staff. If you are not an ABA GPSOLO member, then you should thank the generous members of the section who provide all of the articles online for free. Share this link with a fellow lawyer who might have an interest in law office automation. no matter what their firm size or practice setting.

Every feature and column is worth your time!

Hardware That Automates Routine Office Tasks 
by Alan J. Klevan and Jared D. Correia

More Access Can Mean More Problems 
by Brett Burney .

Software That Automates Routine Office Tasks 
by Sandra H. Adams

Effective Software Training for Law Offices 
by Wells H. Anderson

.

High-Tech Penny Pinching? 
by Jim Calloway

Here's the blurb for my piece: "When adopting money-saving tools, make sure you're not "cheaping out" with technology that wastes your time."
Law Firm Marketing 2.0: Internet Marketing for Rainmakers 
by Stephen Fairley

Widgets and Apps 
by Anita Fuoss, Jason Beahm, and Aaron J. Rittmaster

The GPSolo 2009 Shopping Guide to Holiday Techno-Gifts 
by Jeffrey Allen  
It may be too late for holiday shopping, but Jeff has outdone himself with this year's review of cool gadgets, phones and office equipment. So you may see something you really need to buy for yourself.

The Road Warrior Looks at Netbooks by Jeffrey Allen

BEING SOLO – Techno Tips and Tricks 2009: Being Solo Strikes Back By David Leffler

And last but not least —Sites for Sore Eyes this month is AUTOMATE THIS by Jim Calloway and Courtney Kennaday. We focus on web sites lawyers can visit to help automate parts of their practices.

Again, after you read these articles don't forget to share the link.

My early Christmas gift this year was being awarded a prestigious Blawggie award. Woo hoo! I'd like to thank the Academy, my producer (me), my director (again, me) and anyone who read one of my posts this year! Seriously, Dennis Kennedy has a great deal of credibility in our profession, as evidenced by the fact he now writes the technology column for the ABA Journal. My Blawggie was  for Best Law Practice Management Blog. Thanks for the recognition, Dennis.

I also neglected to mention the 3rd Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100 has been released. You can view the list here. Sadly, they didn't name this blog to the list after it made the cut the first two years. My mom is very upset. 🙂 It is interesting that this year they apparently decided to shift the focus of their list to include more light, gossipy and entertainment type of law blogs. Maybe they thought we all needed more cheering up and diversion during tough economic times. I should note my great pleasure at the inclusion of two great relatively new blogs from some of my friends in the Blawg 100. You will not be disappointed if you take the time to visit Allison Shield's Legal Ease blog and the irreverent and witty3 Geeks and a Law Blog.

I was invited to speak at the Ohio State Bar Legal Technology Conference for Solo and Small Firm Practitioners last week. It was a great conference and they had a great faculty. It was good to see Barron K. Henley, Paul J. Unger, Brett Burney and Britt Lorish-Knutgen. I would think any state bar would be proud to have a technology conference featuring three current ABA TECHSHOW board members. My topics were not all technology, strictly speaking. I spoke on Billing Strategies for a Changing Economy, How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times, Social Networking and "Keeping Them Satisfied: Exceeding Client Expectations Every Day."

I greatly appreciate the Ohio State Bar inviting me to be a part of this great conference. The last trip I made to Columbus, I got snowed in. So this time I was happy to get out before any snow even though lots of other people were snowed in across the eastern part of the U.S. this past weekend.