Law Technology

Opening Up to Open Source ? Podcast

By dmk

Tom Mighell and I have recorded another episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast and it’s now available on the Legal Talk Network and on iTunes, with an RSS feed here. The episode is called “Opening Up to Open Source” (show notes here), and it’s sponsored by Bill4Time. A special thank you to readers of this blog who listen to the podcast – we’re very pleased with the growing numbers of downloads the podcast is getting.
Here’s the episode description:

Budgetary concerns have forced lawyers to take a hard look at software costs. That?s brought Open Source software onto their radar screens. The price ? free ? is obviously attractive, but Open Source is a completely different approach to software than lawyers expect. In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell introduce the approach and philosophy of Open Source, the programs available, and when and where it might make sense for you.

I’ve long wanted to do an episode about Open Source software and Tom was gracious enough to let me pick the topic for this episode.
My interest in Open Source software and the Open Source licenses goes back a long way. Believe it or not, I’ve even written a law review article on the Open Source licenses, “Dennis M. Kennedy, A PRIMER ON OPEN SOURCE LICENSING LEGAL ISSUES: COPYRIGHT, COPYLEFT AND COPYFUTURE, 20 St. Louis U. Pub. L. Rev. 345 (2001), which was one of the early law review articles on the topic.
Although we talk a bit about the Open Source licenses and Open Source philosophy that are playing such a huge role in software development and the Internet these days, our main focus is on the ways lawyers might consider and make informed decisions about if, when and how they might use Open Source software.
If you have not considered Open Source before, I recommend this podcast as a gentle introduction. A diligent researcher should also be able to find other articles and a podcast I’ve done on Open Source topics. We also discuss Open Source programs in our collboration tools book.
In our “things we’ve been talking about” segment, I get Tom to explain the relatively new geo-location social media platform, FourSquare, to me. Tom does a great job of explaining, but he didn’t convince me yet.
We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom likes a free only PDF form tool called FillAnyPDF andalso mentions a resource for PowerPoint templates. I rave about using the keyboard shortcut + .+ T to reopen browser tabs after you accidentally close them.
Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are at here.
And try some of the back episodes as well.
THE KENNEDY-MIGHELL REPORT PODCAST IS NOW ON TWITTER. You can now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy
Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools
Technorati tags: legal technology podcast open source software collaboration

Full post as published by DennisKennedy.blog on February 26, 2010 (boomark / email).