The internet is changing from a one-to-many broadcasting medium to a many-to-many communications system. It is becoming a shared resource where anyone can put forward their ideas, amend or correct the ideas of others, talk to their friends, locate long lost friends or find new ones, create and load up pictures or video clips or set themselves up in virtual worlds.

This “new” internet is referred to as Web 2.0 and lawyers are already taking part eg:

• There are more than 130 UK law blogs by firms, solicitors, barristers and others.
• There are many examples of in-house wiki projects for knowledge sharing and document creation, for example at Allen & Overy.
• Serious attempts are being made to fulfill Richard Susskind’s public law wiki dream with the creation of wikis in specific areas of law, such as WikiCrimeLine, Wiki Mental Health and a prospective IP Law Wiki.
• Social networking on Facebook and other networks can be used to establish workplace networks. Firms doing this already include Linklaters, Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie and DLA Piper.
• Virtual worlds are places to do real business. Field Fisher Waterhouse established the first virtual UK law firm on Second Life earlier in 2007.
• DivorceOnline recently became the first firm to market its services with an advert placed on the video sharing website YouTube.

We will be covering all these aspects of Web 2.0 for lawyers (aka Law 2.0 – hence the addition to our title) as well as all other uses and information sources of the internet as they relate to lawyers.

This Newsletter has always been at the cutting edge of the internet for lawyers and we intend to stay there!

Delia Venables and Nick Holmes, November 2007