Wednesday, July 23, 2003 1:35 PM
As I watch the rolls of blawgers expand week after week, and at the same time see the interesting new weblog-related tools and services that the more technically-skilled members of the blawg community seem to be constantly developing, I feel compelled to pose this open question: where are the legal vertical's technology companies?
Am I missing something or are the players like
LexisNexis and
Thomson-West simply standing on the sidelines? I realize that blawgs are still a drop in the bucket in terms of acceptance and actual use among the legal community, but I also am realizing more and more every day that the weblog concept, and in particular the derivative technologies resulting from the weblog concept, have the potential to be a true disruptive technology.
I remain as skeptical as anyone else as to the long-term effect of the personal blawg journal in itself. Most legal professionals (and the clients they serve) are living hectic lives and maintaining busy work schedules. In a world of information overload, I find it dubious to expect that the average person will bounce through a number of blawg sites every day searching for nuggets of useful legal information.
On the other hand, leveraging the whole class of blawg content aggregators, parsers, compilers, feeders, searchers, e-mailers, etcetera, which are already out there (and improving every day), is not in the least bit dubious. For example, the day will arrive when Microsoft integrates a whole set of weblog (and blog feed) reading and writing tools into its Office Suite. As I noted last month in my review of News Gator, the model for some of these tools already exists. In addition, existing blawg aggregators like The Daily Whirl and The Blawgregator are already showcasing useful tools for connecting blawg content to interested readers. And, as multimedia and wireless weblog posting becomes more user-friendly, a whole new set of features and functions which will enhance the efficiency of delivering of legal services can be expected.
Which brings me back to my original question. When it comes to blawgs, where are the technology companies which serve the legal vertical? With the money, experience and expertise these companies have available to develop business solutions which leverage these technologies, one has to wonder why none seem to be dipping their foot into the water? As I said at the outset, please correct me if I am wrong, but I just don't see any stepping forward. So, for now, my question remains an open one...