If you are interested in the ever-increasing importance of technology in law (and who isn’t?), the Trial Technology LinkedIn group is worth visiting. Featuring current articles from many top experts, the group now has well over 3000 members. Since it is an “open” group, you do not need to join as a member to view current posts.
The Trial Technology group was started in November of 2009 as an updated and improved replacement to the Yahoo Trial Technology group. This is the case for many of the now nearly inactive Yahoo groups, which once served as the main online networking and information sharing forum. In addition to the basic forum, LinkedIn introduced a higher degree of social interaction, images, and a better overall user experience. At first viewed by some as just “another” online group, membership and activity quickly surpassed that of its predecessor group.
While one of the goals of the Trial Technology LinkedIn group remains to provide a forum for like-minded professionals to share contacts and information, another and perhaps more important issue is to offer lawyers and other legal professionals a clear view of the current state of the art in trial presentation and related technology and services. Although probably best-viewed as it appears by default, you can also run searches of group posts on any topic.
Another interesting feature of this particular group is the monthly poll question. Although the sampling size is small, the information gathered could be considered relevant and accurate. The most popular poll thus far asks, “Which software do you use for trial presentation?” Others over the past year share insight on the business climate and other professional topics.
This group is moderated, which helps keep spam and junk out of the forum. Too many groups have allowed anyone to post anything, making them little more than someone’s advertising forum – often by professional marketers, using the same post repeatedly. Promotions and Job postings are welcome on this group, but should always be posted in the proper category.
If you are interested in the demographical information of group members, you can find that here as well. While Facebook still dominates the pure social networking space, LinkedIn has done a good job at becoming the go-to place for professional networking.
