Technology Corner

• Publication year: 2018
• Author: David M. Lederman

Technology Corner

David M. Lederman

David Lederman is the Immediate Past Chair of the State Bar of California Family Law Section (FLEXCOM). He also served as the Contra Costa County Family Law Section President (and is its current Legislative Director). A Certified Specialist in Family Law since 2001, he is the current Association of Certified Family Law Specialists' Technology Director. Mr. Lederman is a frequent speaker and writer on family law and technology issues and speaks Mandarin.

The New Society

Senator Orin Hatch to Mark Zuckerberg during his Senate Testimony: "How do you sustain a business model in which users don't pay for your services?" Mark Zuckerberg to Senator Hatch: "Senator, we run ads."

Soon after this exchange, Facebook rolled out 2 new apps called Workplace and Work Chat. Think of these apps as a Facebook writ small. Corporate level small. Business owners can create a Workplace for the company, or in my case, my law firm. Users are limited to those on the company's domain.¹ Thus, I invited all my staff to our Workplace. Work Chat is essentially the chat app companion to Workplace, similar to Facebook Messenger. I like Workplace and Work Chat. It serves as an additional way to create organizational community. We are a team. We can post items of interest to everyone else in the office (or to specific individuals) and the whole team can be involved. These posts do not get sent out to the Facebook universe but are restricted to our company Workplace universe. It is a universe I can control and an environment my staff can feel comfortable to be involved in, knowing that it is restricted to only those in our Ledermanlaw.net universe.

So why is this, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the scores of other social media platforms so successful? Why do websites want to be go-to content providers? The answer, quite simply, is community. I know you've seen this sight recently: Two or more teenagers or young adults sitting at a table staring at their phones in silence. Some have smiles, some are intently focused, but all appear disengaged from each other. They are most likely not anti-social. Most likely, quite the opposite is true. They are engaged with each other and their friends not seated with them through social media, text message, or gaming.

I have said before that "distance is dead." As time continues, this truth becomes more and more self evident. As I type this column, my 19-year-old son is in the other room. He has his headphones on, and he...