Technology
Using Electronic Mailing Lists to Discuss Legal Technology
There's more to the Internet than Web sites and email - like
subscribing to and participating in lists that discuss a multitude of
topics. This article focuses on legal technology discussions conducted
via electronic mailing lists, but the general tips can be applied to any
discussion topic.
By Ross L. Kodner
If your personal quest is tracking down the
hottest new laptop information or searching for the latest information
on case management systems, you're reading the right article. Need to
know how other law firms are addressing the laptop versus desktop
personal computer issue for their lawyers? Wondering if the latest crop
of voice recognition systems actually works? Anxious to enter the fray
on the hottest legal technology wars? Then you need to subscribe to one
(or more) of the legal technology Internet email lists, or listserves.
(The spelling as "Listserv" without the final "e" is the trademark of
L-Soft, a company that makes Listserv software.)
Email lists oriented to legal technology topics are some of the most
heavily trafficked, and most useful. Thousands of lawyers, legal
technologists, law firm administrators, information system staff, and
legal librarians populate these lists. From the perspective of a heavy
and regular participant, the net effect is that the "conversation"
taking place on legal technology lists comes from a realistic
cross-section of every kind of lawyer, practicing in every kind of
setting imaginable.
A listserve is the ultimate in online information, delivered to your
virtual mailbox. Postings to a list are sent just like email, except
they go to every subscriber of the mail list instead of just one
recipient, all of whom are put right in the middle of the ongoing
discussion. Subscribe to a mailing list on legal technology, for
example, and you'll find the latest discussions of email privacy, what's
new with Windows NT, which laptops not to buy, and more.
Important Points About Mail Lists
Finding and Signing on to Mail Lists. The best place
to find the listserve you are interested in is Lyonette Louis-Jacques'
"Law
Lists." (I offer some of my other favorites later in this article.)
The compendium includes hundreds of law-related mail lists, with full
subscription instructions for each list.
For example, for a description of the ABA's "Solosez" listserve, on
the Louis-Jacques list you'll find: SOLOSEZ@abanet.org (open forum for
lawyers practicing alone or in a small law firm setting, particularly
firms with five or fewer lawyers; sponsored by the American Bar
Association).
Full subscription information is included. When you subscribe, most
lists will send you a return email confirming your subscription. I
strongly recommend that you print and save the confirmation because it
may contain important information about the list, such as how to post
messages, contact the list administrator, unsubscribe to the list, and
so on.
Mail List Addresses. Mail lists typically have two
addresses: one for posting messages and one for subscribing,
unsubscribing, and other housekeeping tasks. Don't confuse the two, or
your subscription request will be posted for all to see. Messages sent
to the subscribing address go either to the person managing the list or
to an automated computer program that responds to commands it receives
via email. (This is always made clear in the subscription
information.)
How to Post and Reply to a Message. Just address
your email message to the posting address provided for your group in the
instructions (you did save your subscription confirmation, didn't you?)
and send it. Some lists let you reply to messages posted in the list
just by hitting your email "return" or "reply" button - your email will
be posted to the list itself, not the individual. Check the instructions
you received when you subscribed to your list for information specific
to it.
Learn the Tone of the Group Before Posting Messages.
If you're new to a mailing list, "lurk" (read without responding or
initiating a post) for a while before posting to pick up its tenor. Try
and learn something before commenting. Similarly, don't clutter up
everyone's mailbox with lots of comments such as "thanks" or "I totally
agree," which can be sent to specific individuals by private email. This
is a sure way to irritate other participants.
Also, conversational threads between you and one other person are
better taken to private email. It's the same with situations where you
end up involved in a heated argument. And try to remember the list's
charter before you post - no one appreciates a participant who tries to
hijack an established list to meet his or her own needs.
Mail Volume Can Be Overwhelming. Some lists generate
so many messages daily that you hardly can sort out your personal email
from the pack. Consider subscribing to only one list until you feel
comfortable with the procedure, content, and volume of messages.
Be careful what you subscribe to; you may get far more than you want.
Rather than receiving scads of separate messages each day from your
mailing list, you can ask to receive them in digest form - a single
email containing all that day's or week's messages. Only automated lists
can create a digest for you. It's usually as simple as typing "digest"
or a similar command into an email and sending it to the list
administrator. Check your list's instructions to see exactly how.
Sorting Your Email. Having all your email from
individuals and mail lists jumbled together in one "in box" can be
confusing. Sophisticated email programs can sort incoming email into
topic-specific or source-specific mailboxes. Using a process called
"filtering" you can create a mailbox for each mail list. The filter
knows to route mail from that particular mail list into the specific
mailbox set up to receive those messages. You can retrieve messages when
it's convenient for you.
Unsubscribing From a Mail List. Signing off a list
is accomplished by sending an email message to the same address you used
to subscribe to the list (not the list's posting address). If it's an
automated list, follow the instructions you were originally sent, which
will likely ask you to type in "signoff" or "unsubscribe," followed by
the name of the group and your name, in the body of an email message
sent to the list administrator. If a human moderator runs the list, send
the same request in a brief note to his or her attention. Consider
stopping your email subscriptions for any period when you will not be
checking your email, and then resubscribing upon your return. Otherwise
you might find several hundred new mail messages waiting for you.
Tips on Netiquette. Get advice from someone who has
become known as the "Emily Post" of the Internet, Arlene Rinaldi. Point
your Web browser to: http://www.fau.edu/netiquette.
For more on netiquette, see the article written by Corel Legal Web
Page columnists Courtney Kennaday, Ross Kodner, and Susan Ross, entitled
"A
Lesson In Netiquette: Mom Was Right - Manners Are Important - Even for
Lawyers!" Here's an example of email list netiquette mentioned in
the article:
Case No. 1: Terrorism by Autoresponse. Attorney Simon goes
on a three-week vacation. An avid email user, Simon wants to be
courteous and let his friends and clients know that he is unavailable
and won't respond to his email until he returns. Using his email
software, he sets up an automatic response function (autoresponder).
With the autoresponder, whenever someone emails him, they get a response
that says: "Hi. I'm in Europe for three weeks, but when I get back, I'll
respond to all my email in the order it was received."
Unfortunately, Simon, who is subscribed to several legal-specific
email discussion lists, forgets to unsubscribe to all the listserves to
which he belongs before setting his autoresponder. So, every time he
gets a message from a listserve, his autoresponder replies to everyone
on the listserve. This causes an endless loop: Simon's email sends an
autoresponse to the listserve, which goes out to everyone, including
Simon. When Simon receives the email from the listserve, his email
autoresponder function kicks in and sends another autoresponse, which
goes to everyone on the list, including Simon, causing Simon's email
autoresponse ... well, you get the picture. The proper netiquette
dictates that Simon temporarily should have unsubscribed to all his
listserves to avoid this problem.
Popular Legal Technology Listserves
Commonly Used Emoticons
To compensate for the lack of visual body language and tone of voice,
mail list participants use characters called "emoticons," which, when
embedded in one's message text, convey the emotion that the raw text
itself cannot.
- :-) Smile, Grin
- :-( Sad, Unhappy, Frown
- ;-) Wink
- :-0 Surprise
|
There are five primary email lists for lawyers eager for serious
tech-talk.
1) Network 2d. This is my personal favorite and one
of the busiest of the legal technology lists. Network 2d is a companion
list to the ABA Law Practice Management Section's flagship "Network 2d"
newsletter. One of the older legal technology listserves, it has about
700 subscribers, many of whom are regular participants. Well-known legal
technology experts abound here including Bruce Dorner, David Hirsch (a
cocolumnist of "In Re Technology" in the ABA Journal), Dan
Coolidge (coauthor of A Survival Guide for Road Warriors),
Jerry Lawson (author of the new ABA Law Practice Management book,
The Lawyer's Complete Guide to the Internet), and even
occasionally Burgess Allison (of the original The Lawyer's Guide to
the Internet).
The list is unmoderated, and conversation is sometimes on the
frivolous side, but the list denizens are particularly good at policing
themselves. Messages per day can vary dramatically. On busy days, there
can be 10-20 messages.
Perhaps the greatest attraction to Network 2d is the feeling of
shared camaraderie and community among its members. This undercurrent
seems to promote familial conversation, enhances the communication, and
is just plain fun.
Commonly Used Acronyms
Acronyms also abound as quick ways to type lengthy phrases. Some of
the most commonly used are:
- BRB be right back
- BTW by the way
- FAQ frequently asked questions
- F2F face to face
- FWIS for whatever it's worth
- FYI for your information
- <g> grin
- HTH hope this helps
- IMO in my opinion
- IMHO in my humble opinion
- LOL laughing out loud
- ROTFL rolling on the floor laughing
- TIA thanks in advance
- <vbg> very big grin
|
Visit Network 2d,
follow the instructions, scroll down to the listing for the Network2d
list, click on subscribe, and fill in the information. Alternatively,
you can subscribe via email, which is faster but doesn't expose you to
all the various lists available through the ABA, an interesting "read"
in itself.
To subscribe via email, send an email message; with body text as
follows: subscribe network2d Your Name.
2) LawTech. This is another ABA list, sponsored and
managed by the ABA's Legal Technology Resource Center (LTRC). Similar in
tone to the Network 2d list, the volume of LawTech messages is somewhat
lighter, typically averaging 10-20 per day. Lively discussion, sometimes
rising to the level of being heated - as did a recent fracas regarding
everyone's favorite legal billing "TABS v. Timeslips" - makes LawTech a
must-read.
To subscribe via email, send a message, with body text as:
subscribe lawtech. Or visit the ABA Web site and follow the
instructions.
This list has roughly 900 subscribers and is semi-moderated, meaning
that if the discussion gets too heated, the list manager will referee
the combatants.
3) Netlawyers. The largest of the legal technology
lists, this is run by legal technology/Internet folk hero Lew Rose, a
lawyer at Washington, D.C. megafirm, Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin &
Kahn. Netlawyers is generally focused on issues related to law,
technology, and the Internet, but topical coverage tends to be a bit
broader in practice.
There are reportedly well over 2,000 subscribers to this busy list.
Message traffic is sporadic, likely due to the fact that this list is
completely moderated by Lew Rose. He reviews all messages sent to the
email list and determines those that should be posted to the group. The
messages seem to come in spurts - some days very few, other days 20-30
or more appear.
The tone of this group is more no-nonsense. For those wanting to cut
to the chase, this is an interesting list to monitor. For those looking
for an equal mix of fun, collegiality, and technology, the former two
lists may be more to your liking. To subscribe, go online and follow the
instructions.
4) Technolawyer. This is a private list with more
than 2,000 subscribers run by New York lawyer and netrepreneur Neil
Squillante. While unmoderated, there are specific topics for discussion
that are posted and approved for each week. This tends to keep the
discussion very substantive and informative. Interesting tidbits include
Neil's TechnoPosts (awards for best postings), TechnoFeatures (articles
submitted), and TechnoReleases (press releases from legal technology
vendors), which are especially useful and innovative. To subscribe, go
online.
Ross L.
Kodner is chair of the ABA Law Practice Management Section Computer
& Technology Division, a member of the ABA TechShow 2000 board, and
secretary of the State Bar of Wisconsin Law Practice Section. He is a
Milwaukee attorney and founder of Legal Technology Consultancy MicroLaw
Inc. |
5) Solosez. This is another great ABA list. Focused
on the solo and small firm lawyer, this group has become one of the most
interesting virtual legal communities around. While topics include
plenty of substantive and procedural threads, technology topics are
always floating about (this list isn't solely technology-oriented in
focus). Message volume is fairly high at about 50-80 messages per day.
The tone is fun and friendly, and members are most helpful. Some
well-known Law Practice Management and General Practice/Solo-Small
section people like Jennifer Rose (the list manager), Bruce Dorner, Reid
Trautz, Sheryn Bruehl, and Ed Poll participate.
To subscribe, visit the ABA Web site and follow the
instructions, or send an email
message that says in the body: subscribe solosez FirstName
LastName.
Conclusion
Email lists are great places to get quick answers from real people
out in the trenches of average law practice. The experience is far more
pleasant, and typically more enlightening, than the all-too-typical
"permahold" one can experience on software and hardware makers'
technical support lines. So remember, paraphrasing Ed McMahon, you can't
win if you don't subscribe!
Wisconsin Lawyer