Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

But Enough About Me (Redux)

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

On April 22, 2005, I wrote

But Enough About Me

I was recently interviewed by someone doing an academic project on academic bloggers. He asked a number of questions I found hard to answer (“Why do you do this?”), and one I found nearly impossible to answer with confidence: “Who are your readers?”

So this is my invitation to you, the reader, to please enter a comment telling me something about who you are. If you don’t want to use your name out of modesty or fear of guilt by association, that’s fine — tell me where you live, and a little something something about your circumstances.

The responses were varied and fascinating. Biggest surprise: readers — or at least readers willing to de-lurk — tended to be far more likely to be my age than my students' age.

Anyway, this is my re-invitation to tell me a little about yourself, please.

Posted in Discourse.net | 3 Comments

UM Tops In “Scientific” Ranking

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

News has it that a new magazine ranking puts the University of Miami at #1 at something.

We can now claim (once again — remember “Suntan U”) to be the top-ranked Playboy Party School. What joy. I expect this will be prominently featured in future law school recruiting materials, along with our long-time recruiting video. It sure gets a lot of media.

The categories are scored on a “scientific” 20-point scale, and whatever combination of entrails and calculators were used UM ended up with very high scores:

Bikini* index 20
Sex 17
Campus 20
Sports 12
Brains 20
Total 89

*-Apparently this includes, among other things, the number of days of sunshine in a year, and the number of tanning salons and cosmetic surgeons near campus. Talk about stacking the deck for South Florida.

But only 12 for “Sports”? That seems very low…

Admittedly, if one's going to do well in absurd ratings systems, this wouldn't exactly have been one of my top 100 choices. And it's hard to put much faith in a publication that still calls female college students “coeds,” but then again it does say it is “scientific,” so this has to be on a par with US News.

In any event, we here in the law school will be celebrating this achievement in an appropriate manner: next week we will begin administering exams.

But seriously, whatever is going on next door in the college, students just attend U.Miami Law for the articles…

Posted in U.Miami | 1 Comment

Google Moves Into Letting Search Subjects Write (Some) Search Results

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

One of the principal things nearly anyone does on Google.com is a vanity search: We ask the question: What do people see when they put my name into Google?

Today, Google is announcing, for the first time, that anyone can change what is seen. (The initial launch is US only).

I agree with John Battelle's comments in News: Google Lets You Put Yourself Into Results For..Yourself: this is, as he puts it, “a Very Big Deal.”

Why? Well, Google has always been predicated on being a neutral black box. You, as a solitary entity, could not influence the results that Google provided (though of course a very large industry has emerged that attempts to do just that). But this launch changes the game, in a few very, very interesting ways.

First, and most obvious, this is Google leveraging its might in search to get more people to sign up for Google profiles. I shouldn't have to explain why this is important, given the competition from Facebook and Twitter, but trust me, it's really important that Google 1. know who you are and 2. compel you to have ongoing relationship with the company.

Second, this move creates, for the first time ever, a new signal that is directly controlled by an individual but changes what everyone else will see in results. True, for now, the results are at the bottom of the first page of results, but that doesn't mean it won't move up once Google learns enough to make it truly useful.

There's more at at the Searchblog

I'd add one other reason why this may turn out to be important: it becomes a first major step towards a privately managed amelioration of the “bad people post lies about you and Google links to them” problem that motivated Danielle Citron and others to advocate throwing the right to anonymity overboard. Maybe even better than the one I was talking about at the CCR symposium the other day (see What is To Be Done?”).

Posted in Internet | 2 Comments

Legalworkshop.org Launches

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

This looks like a great idea:

STANFORD, Calif., April 21, 2009—A consortium of America’s most influential law reviews today launched The Legal Workshop (www.legalworkshop.org), a free, online magazine featuring articles based on legal scholarship published in the print editions of seven participating law reviews: Stanford Law Review, New York University Law Review, Cornell Law Review,Duke Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, Northwestern Law Review, and University of Chicago Law Review.

Basically, they're turning law review articles into op-eds. Sorta like legal bloggers do.

Update: Larry Solum strikes a more skeptical note at “The Legal Workshop” — A New Online Law Review.

Posted in Law School | Comments Off on Legalworkshop.org Launches

This England (War On Terror ed.)

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Sierra Charlie, who blogs as a bobby on the beat, tells a tale of Terror!. Worth the click.

Spotted via schneier.

Posted in UK | Comments Off on This England (War On Terror ed.)

Party Tomorrow in Honor of ‘Soia and Her Seven Dwarfs’

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Soia Mentschikoff wasn't our first Dean, but she's the one who is credited with turning the University of Miami onto its current intellectual path.

Stories about her are still legion, and the people who knew her remain either amused by her, or terrified of her, or both. Her ghost still stalks the law school — and (some say) not just metaphorically (see Is the UM Law Library Haunted?).

Among the many things for which Soia is remembered is the “Seven Dwarfs” she hired as legal writing instructors — all of whom, despite the name applied to them when they first appeared on campus, went on to important legal careers. Tomorrow we're having a remembrance of Soia, and a party in celebration of the Gang of Seven.

soia-sm.jpg

You can read more about the event and the 'Seven Dwarfs' in this scanned invitation (sorry about the quality, the background warred with my scanner). Panel discussion at 2pm, reception starts at 3:30. I'm looking forward to more Soia stories at the discussion.

We're also going to unveil the de la Cruz-Mentschikoff Endowed Chair in Law and Economics which will focus on business associations, planning, commercial and international transactions, securities, and antitrust.

Posted in Law School, U.Miami | Comments Off on Party Tomorrow in Honor of ‘Soia and Her Seven Dwarfs’