I'd like to speak at Ignite Law 2011 : I need your your vote

Ignite Law 2011 is being held in Chicago the evening before the ABA TechShow, Sunday April 10.

I’d like to be one of the presenters at what’s being billed as twelve provocative and creative talks about legal technology and the future of law practice. I need your help.

Ignite presenters are selected by who gets the most votes (highest rating). To vote for me and my presentation about Facebook, please go to the Ignite page describing my proposed presentation. Click on the stars you want to give me. Five would be great — if you think it’s merited. ;)

I’m using my presentation as much to learn as anything. I’m curious where Facebook is headed and what it’s impact on the legal profession and legal publishing will be. I’d like to provoke a little thought on Facebook.

The presentation I proposed is ‘Facebook: Can it be really be used by lawyers and law firms for professional and business development? How so?‘

What began in a dorm room seven years ago has become a global social network and revolution in communication. Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, along with his Harvard roommates and fellow computer science students have become billionaires and changed the world by creating a central nervous system for online interaction.

But can this site started to compare ‘Hot or Not’ from the online facebooks of nine Harvard houses be tastefully used by attorneys and law firms? And if so, how?

I’ll discuss:

• How Facebook is being used by lawyers today.
• What lawyers are telling me about the opportunities and challenges.
• How Facebook is being used by law firms today.
• What law firms are telling me about the opportunities and challenges.
• Can Facebook be used for publishing?
• Perils, privacy, and ethics concerns.
• Where lawyers and law firms may be headed on Facebook.

As way of background, Ignite got its start in Seattle in December, 2006, as a personal project of O’Reilly’s Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. They dreamed up an event where people could share their ideas over beer, and sent word out through their network. What started out as two hundred Seattle geeks looking for “a fun night of geekery and networking” squeezed into a bar on Capitol Hill as spread to Ignite events around the world.

I’d like to thank Matt Homann and the folks that run ABA TechShow for bringing Ignite to the law. 2011 will mark its second year. And they serve beer.