3 Geeks and a Law Blog

Jordan Furlong’s question on The Future of CLE posted on LinkedIn got me thinking. The question leveraged my prior 3 Geeks post on the Googlization of CLE and included his comments about how CLE’s role could shift towards professional development. So what if we take a step beyond Googlization (which is so “3 months ago” as my son says) and think of applying Web 2.0 to the CLE world? In Web 2.0 environments you stay current by monitoring blogs, watching tweets and engaging in the dialogue. Most of my continuing education comes from these sources. And more importantly, it has greater value based on my participation. I can comment on LinkedIn like I did with Jordan. I retweet on interesting tweet and add a thought. Then another participant does the same. Or they pick up a related line of thinking and extend the dialogue. The result is a combined, asynchronous effort that brings many minds together and allows them to all benefit from the shared experience. The sum is much more than the parts. This post is a great example of that effort. Last October I made a blog post. Jordan creates a Discussion on LinkedIn that extends the idea. A number of comments give me the CLE 2.0 idea which results in this blog post (which will result in some tweets and more comments). On one layer this is basic 2.0 in action. But from the CLE perspective, I now have a new set of tools and methodology for helping lawyers stay current on their practice skills. And this new approach has the potential to deliver much higher value than the old-school presenter/audience model. Am I suggesting CLE Boards accredit CLE 2.0? They should at least start thinking about the idea and how it might benefit the practice of law. Do I still go to live programs? Of course. But those are for the personal interaction as much as the education. If I relied solely on live programs for continuing education, my current knowledge base would be considerably less (Greg – hold your comments on that point). As you might guess – I welcome your comments on this subject.

Do you know what I hate about movie reviews? Chick flicks. Yeah, that's right. Chick flicks. And do you know what I hate about book reviews? Romance novels. Yep. And do you know what I hate about car reviews? Make-up mirrors. Uh-huh. Are you sensing a theme here (pretend its the SAT/LSAT/MCAT/Dumb, generalized, multi- tests that allege to set standards)? ANSWER: The reviewers are not of the same personality-type as the consumers. So remember, when testing your web pages, don't build them to please yourself or your boss. As my boss told me when I first started, "we've fallen in love with our own artwork". I know it is hard to remember. I cannot tell you how many meetings I have been in and we all get caught up in how slick and gorgeous the page, the color, the design, the layout is. We forgot: we aren't the ones who are looking at the pages once it is built. Or we are worried that the approving partner won't like it so we build it to get it approved. Instead, think about your audience; your potential site visitors: what is the predominant personality type? What appeals to them? I know that marketing people that I have worked with are the creative sort. We love to talk, like lots of colors, the prettier it is, the happier we are. And IT, well, they like black and white, either/or kinds of choices. Plain, straight-forward, no-nonense pages are our designs of choice. Now do you see why web sites should be built by both marketing and IT people? So put on your thinking cap: envision your "jury". Conduct voire dire. Once you've figured this out, you've done some good research and can start putting together a plan. Oh. And the chick flick/romance/car rant? Well, its just me being me. I saw "Ugly Truth" and loved it. The Chronicle book reviewer panned one of my favorite authors. And, well, you know, car reviewers NEVER mention make-up mirrors. See?