Lucas McDonnell in his Uncommon Knowledge blog posts
27 essential knowledge management sites.
These are great resources for learning more about knowledge management across a wide spectrum of industries and academia.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Great Firewall of China
Great news. This blog is not blocked by the Chinese censors. However my website (dougcornelius.com) is blocked.
At least that is according to this website: Great Firewall of China
At least that is according to this website: Great Firewall of China
Monday, March 12, 2007
The New Real Estate
Arthur Segel published an article in the Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge on the real estate boom: The New Real Estate.
He points out four stories in the commercial real estate markets:
1. Record prices: Highest price for a single building ($1.8 billion for 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City), the most paid for one project ($5.4 billion for Peter Cooper Village, also in New York City) and the largest takeover ever ($39 billion takeover of commercial property owner Equity Office Properties Trust) (now second after TXU).
2. New Capital Markets. REITs are now in 24 countries with 28 other countries looking to implement them.
3. Sustainable Development. Green Buildings are coming.
4. Emerging Markets. Huge real estate growth in China and India.
The problem? REIT dividends are at an historic low of 3.6% (100 basis points below the 10 year treasury), the housing market is in a slump, foreclosures have risen.
He points out four stories in the commercial real estate markets:
1. Record prices: Highest price for a single building ($1.8 billion for 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City), the most paid for one project ($5.4 billion for Peter Cooper Village, also in New York City) and the largest takeover ever ($39 billion takeover of commercial property owner Equity Office Properties Trust) (now second after TXU).
2. New Capital Markets. REITs are now in 24 countries with 28 other countries looking to implement them.
3. Sustainable Development. Green Buildings are coming.
4. Emerging Markets. Huge real estate growth in China and India.
The problem? REIT dividends are at an historic low of 3.6% (100 basis points below the 10 year treasury), the housing market is in a slump, foreclosures have risen.
Disrupting conventional law firm business models using document assembly
Darryl Mountain published an article on document assembly Disrupting conventional law firm business models using document assembly in the International Journal of Law and Information Technology.
He identifies three barriers to the adoption of document assembly: 1. Shortage of Right People, 2. Inadequate Capital and 3. Rules against the Unauthorized Practice of law. Although his article is about externally facing document assembly being made available to the public, I think the same barriers exist for internally facing document assembly products.
1. Shortage of the Right People: For a successful and sustainable document assembly process you need both a technology person for the programming and a legal person for legal expertise. The legal person will need to tolerate the technology limitations, the intrusion of the logic tree and business process on the form documents. The technology person will need to understand the legal needs and anticipate the legal business process. Both of these type of people are few and far between in a law firm.
2. Inadequate Capital. It is difficult to identify the documents that it is worth investing the resources into to automate. The simplest (i.e. shortest documents) are generally the first to be automated. As the documents get longer and more complicated, harder decisions need to be made about the choice of language and decision-making process to achieve the right language. This is where many automation projects fall aside. Attorneys lose interest as the choices made no longer match the choices they would make. I have found the most successful projects to be those focused on a particular client, where a senior partner can force the decisions on those working for his client.
3. Rules Against the Unauthorized Practice of Law. For external document assembly this is the biggest issue. For software vendors, this is largely insurmountable. For law firms making the legal knowledge available through document assembly, this opens them to malpractice claims from unknown individuals. For internal document assembly, there is a similar concern that an attorney without the substantive knowledge will misuse the document assembly program, opening the law firm to malpractice. From a technology standpoint this can be controlled through security. But one should also point out that an individual attorney misusing a document assembly product would otherwise be uncovering a random form or precedent from another knowledge system. The document assembly package can be used to better steer the attorney in the right direction, give better advice and point them to who they need to talk to.
He identifies three barriers to the adoption of document assembly: 1. Shortage of Right People, 2. Inadequate Capital and 3. Rules against the Unauthorized Practice of law. Although his article is about externally facing document assembly being made available to the public, I think the same barriers exist for internally facing document assembly products.
1. Shortage of the Right People: For a successful and sustainable document assembly process you need both a technology person for the programming and a legal person for legal expertise. The legal person will need to tolerate the technology limitations, the intrusion of the logic tree and business process on the form documents. The technology person will need to understand the legal needs and anticipate the legal business process. Both of these type of people are few and far between in a law firm.
2. Inadequate Capital. It is difficult to identify the documents that it is worth investing the resources into to automate. The simplest (i.e. shortest documents) are generally the first to be automated. As the documents get longer and more complicated, harder decisions need to be made about the choice of language and decision-making process to achieve the right language. This is where many automation projects fall aside. Attorneys lose interest as the choices made no longer match the choices they would make. I have found the most successful projects to be those focused on a particular client, where a senior partner can force the decisions on those working for his client.
3. Rules Against the Unauthorized Practice of Law. For external document assembly this is the biggest issue. For software vendors, this is largely insurmountable. For law firms making the legal knowledge available through document assembly, this opens them to malpractice claims from unknown individuals. For internal document assembly, there is a similar concern that an attorney without the substantive knowledge will misuse the document assembly program, opening the law firm to malpractice. From a technology standpoint this can be controlled through security. But one should also point out that an individual attorney misusing a document assembly product would otherwise be uncovering a random form or precedent from another knowledge system. The document assembly package can be used to better steer the attorney in the right direction, give better advice and point them to who they need to talk to.
Friday, March 9, 2007
Operation Spamalot
Someone at the Securities and Exchange Commission is a Monty Python fan and is tired of getting spam promoting questionable companies.
Press Release: SEC Suspends Trading of 35 Companies Touted in Spam Email Campaigns; 2007-34; March 8, 2007
From the trading activity described in the press release it looks like the spam campaigns really work. APPM went from $.06 with a trading volume of 3,500 shares in two days of spam to $0.19 with a volume of 484,569 shares.
A little late by the SEC, USA Today was warning the masses about this many months ago.
Press Release: SEC Suspends Trading of 35 Companies Touted in Spam Email Campaigns; 2007-34; March 8, 2007
From the trading activity described in the press release it looks like the spam campaigns really work. APPM went from $.06 with a trading volume of 3,500 shares in two days of spam to $0.19 with a volume of 484,569 shares.
A little late by the SEC, USA Today was warning the masses about this many months ago.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Search Federal Regulations
Tim Stanley and Justia have launched of a free, searchable database of Federal Register Regulations, Proposed Rules and Notices.
This site allows you pick and choose the subject and topical content, as well as document type, from each daily Federal Register Index, and allows you to browse the content, and create a custom filter of specific content.
Even better, the site supports RSS feeds for each agency's respective documents.
This site allows you pick and choose the subject and topical content, as well as document type, from each daily Federal Register Index, and allows you to browse the content, and create a custom filter of specific content.
Even better, the site supports RSS feeds for each agency's respective documents.
Hyatt Vineyard Creek
I just closed a transaction today. I represented an institutional real estate investor who entered into a joint venture with a hotel operator for the acquisition of the Hyatt Vineyard Creek in Santa Rosa, California.
The hotel is subject to a ground lease from the Santa Rosa Redevelopment Agency. Debt financing was provided by JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.
The hotel is subject to a ground lease from the Santa Rosa Redevelopment Agency. Debt financing was provided by JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.
Monday, March 5, 2007
KM Advertising
The first video advertising I have seen for knowledge management. I think I might start my presentations with this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_x78XLBBVM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_x78XLBBVM
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Directory of Law Firm Blogs
Ron Friedman of Prism Legal Consulting, Inc. and Joy London of Excited Utterances compiled a directory of Large US law firms with firm-branded blogs or RSS - feeds.
Not very many.
Not very many.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
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