Digital. Everywhere. Free.
The title of this post speaks to three significant trends in information sharing that I often speak to both inside and outside Avvo. I wanted to highlight these trends because I see them accelerating to usher in a new digital era in the legal marketplace and beyond.
The first trend is the digitization movement. Today, information is being created in or converted to digital form at an unprecedented rate. Public records have been a big part of this movement, with libraries, courts and the National Archives, just to name a few, aggressively converting their paper records to digital form. We especially see this trend in the state bars, with whom we interact quite regularly. Those states that do not offer attorney licensing records in digital form today typically promise that they will be available in a matter of months. You can see part of this evolution in articles.
The second trend in information sharing is a rising consumer expectation to receive and process information in digital form. If someone wants to find the highest rated law schools in the country, they don’t want to take a trip down to the public library; they want to “google” for whatever reputable data points they can find from their desktop (the fact that “google” is now a verb in the American lexicon only reinforces this point). This expectation is driven by, but also drives, the aforementioned digitization movement: As more information comes online, consumers become more accustomed to finding everything they need via the Internet and its Worldwide Web of information. At the same time, organizations are lured into meeting this expectation in order to remain competitive, relevant and/or responsive.
The third trend is a growing belief that information should be free. Whether you like the idea or not, credit again goes to Google on this one. By introducing a galactically successful free website that makes its money from advertisers rather than the consumers of its information, Google sparked a belief (if not a whole new religion) that information should be free. And the legal marketplace is not immune from this trend. Yes, Avvo is doing its part by offering free ratings and profiles for every lawyer, but take a look at this recent announcement by Public.Resource.Org and Fastcase, Inc. In short, they are releasing a free archive of federal case law, including all Courts of Appeals decisions from 1950 to the present and all Supreme Court decisions since 1754. The archive will be usable by anyone for any purpose. Wow. Blogger Bob Ambrogi has excellent summary of the announcement.
Digital. Everywhere. Free. It’s a brave new world. Are your ready for it?
