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for virtual intellectual-property protection. This, according to a blog written by Davis' Dale-Har- ris, is quite provocative and has sparked interesting debate, if not opportunity, for its creators. Even a non-profit legal services orga- nization, called the Virtual Intel- lectual Property Organization, has popped up, providing "accessible legal advice concerning virtual property, trade and commerce, and the use of real-life intellectual prop- erty in virtual worlds." And there are numerous other Web 2.0 opportunities to be explored. Last year Marc Andreessen (co-founder of Netscape) launched Ning, a tool that al- lows people to create custom social-net- working sites. This is the latest trend — where you can "mash" together videos, photos, discussion forums, and blogs, so that they work together, rather than in isolation. Law firms, however, aren't quite there yet. When blogs and podcasts first entered Mesh. "It's less edited, more off-the- cuff. And while that has led to a lot of criticism of Web 2.0, it's also one of its charms." But you don't generally see that charm in the way that law firms are using it, says Hyndman, since most see it as an alternate distribu- tion channel for existing marketing material. That's understandable, he adds, because law firms that have in- vested a lot of money in their brand the mainstream a few years ago, they al- lowed average people to use affordable technologies to publish their thoughts and ideas quickly and broadly. "One of the cultural touchstones of Web 2.0 has been a degree of authenticity and im- mediacy that has been missing from the mainstream media and from con- ventional marketing materials put out by large organizations, [which] tend to be very carefully worked on," says Rob Hyndman, a Toronto-based technol- ogy lawyer and blogger, who is also the founder of a Web 2.0 conference called want to be careful about how that brand interacts with their audience. "Over time we may see law firms getting more com- fortable with the loss of control that you have to be willing to undertake," he says. In the U.S. and Canada, there are around 3,000 lawyer blogs, but not even 1,000 of those have a clue what they're doing, says Kevin O'Keefe, who was a trial lawyer for 17 years and is now president of LexBlog Inc., which builds blogs for lawyers. "So your competition is not that savvy." Developing an online presence can establish you as a thought CANADIAN LEGAL NEWSWIRE it's weekly e-news! it's fresh. it's free. Sign up today at www.canadianlawyermag.com FROM THE EDITORS OF CANADIAN LAWYER AND LAW TIMES www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com M ARCH 2008 35