pm blog

When we first spotted this story 10 days ago, it opened some interesting conversations.

Protecting Copy Rights - its simplest form, protection against infringements or out-right stealing your efforts for monetary gains. This however throws a curve ball that at first leaves you looking foolish, forcing you to re-read what you just read. An after careful viewing of the comments posted against the article you soon realize they(other readers) didn’t get either.

What attracts me is the prue ideology behind this. Monsoon uses Open Source Code (free software) to develop their “proprietary” backbone. This Code is actually BusyBox’s, which freely publishes and distributes. Under the agreement, use the code to build your tools, then make your code available. Which seems fair enough, in such an Open Sourced World, but will it prevail.

Remember the technical arm of Monsoon is in India, so when we get into semantics of what this license entails it could get pretty crazy, but a hell of lot of fun too watch….

Surface, just release the code everyone’s happy. Not so fast, Monsoon is claiming they have sold this to some pretty big heavy weights including some large Retail chains. They release the code, that relationship will dry up pretty fast. Not just distribution, OEM is more damaging. If under the rules of GPL version 2 is upheld, an a OEM used said code in development, they would be subjective to “making their code available”. The ripple in that scene……

If Monsoon has placed their relationships in a potential damaging position, it was nice reading about you. And their position to stand firm is wise, not like they have options. The court will be looking at principals and purity of legal writings, plus the kicker, BusyBox is only looking to UP-Hold the practice of “making your code available upon use”. Monetary considerations have little or nothing to do with this, expect maybe court cost afterwards.

Payment Processing, Inc., (PPI) an industry leader in integrated
transaction processing, has announced an alliance with LexisNexis.
The deal will integrate PPI PayMover, PPI’s proprietary payment
gateway, with Lexis Back Office, powered by PCLawTM.

Currently Law firms accomplished this by a 3rd party.  In itself
creating an additional administrative task.  With this annoucement
we turned the question of intergration with PCLaw over too Craig
Bayer, Law Office Technology:

“More and more firms are accepting Credit Cards and therefore
Lexis added the ability for firms to process payments for clients
and input them into PLClaw in one easy step.  This will only work
with PCLaw 9.0.  I could go on and on about how great it is, but
just watch this 3 minute Video“

As reported by Josh Catone in the excellent blog read/write web, a new study claims that web-based applications or web apps are beginning to enjoy mainstream fame, if not acceptance, and acceptance, if not actual use.  A web app is essentially a website that replaces a task previously performed using software on the PC — i.e. using Google Docs or Gmail instead of Microsoft Word or Outlook. According to the company that conducted the study, e-mail and game applications are “already spreading rapidly through the PC user base.” Work and office applications have been slower to take hold. The study concluded that some users are already to switch over to web apps entirely.

So to recap, e-mail and games are big winners while applications that help us work smarter are being shunned as too new, too risky, too untested. Is that supposed to be progress? Well, it might be a sign of progress if it means that users would be willing to give up their Microsoft Word, Excel, or Outlook if only their boss would let them. In other words, the #1 barrier to mass adoption of web-based applications is that managers are more comfortable over-paying for features they neither understand nor need in a product than they are taking the slightest risk on less costly applications that could make their companies more prodcutive. And why shouldn’t they take that attitude? After all, corporate America, and our profession in particular, is quicker to punish mistakes than to reward progress, and is famously intolerant of change. It’s the perfect storm of resistance — the software buyer is too scared to take a chance or admit that he/she doesn’t understand a product’s features or benefits, and is easily sold b software salespeople willing to lie their asses off for a commission … and so the cycle of economic life continues. Beautiful. Really beautiful.

Are you making the most of the Internet technology to develop business?
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Google, Shmoogle … but cool to look at, no?

The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 23, 2007

The Dark Side of the Legal Job Market

Posted by Amir Efrati  

According to this story in today’s Wall Street Journal, prospects have never been better for graduates from elite law schools and those at the top of their classes in 2^nd tier schools; but the  majority of JD’s are taking the brunt of economic trends that have conspired to suppress pay and job growth. The result is that average graduates must struggle to find work; often taking positions doing repetitive tasks such as document review for as little as $20 an hour, sans benefits.  

The thing is this piece could just as well have been written when I graduated in the mid-90’s. How little things have changed … So I ask you, does this mean that the media is slow to catch on to our plight, or that our industry has been (and remains) in denial because law schools make too much money to let the myth of the ‘rich’ lawyer die, or is it that the problem is just too chronic to go away?  As Peter, the main character in Office Space, noted; “Every day of my life is worse than the day before. So every day is the worst day of my life.” And there you have the profession in a nutshell. Lawyers from the 50’s report doing better than those from the 60’s and 70’s, who did better than those from my generation and so on. And if you follow the logic in the article, this year’s graduates are entering the worst market in history. That’s not my opinion; look at the statistics in the article laid out in these eye-catching charts(the series is presented online using Flash).