ParalegalGateway's Weblog

Paralegal Technology Review: Cirilab Research Workbench and Right Click to Knowledge Series Suite: The Next Generation in Knowledge Management?

As a litigation paralegal and techno enthusiast, I'm always excited about some new software product or other, many of which I learn about from subscribing to TechnoLawyer. But, when new software comes along that consistently gets the rapt attention of even those who despise technology, well now, that's impressive.

That's precisely the response that Cirilab's Research Workbench and Right Click to Knowledge Series software provokes, and, in my view, rightly so.

SOFTWARE THAT READS DOCUMENTS?

Cirilab's groundbreaking technology is founded upon its Knowledge Generation Engine, which basically "reads" unstructured content — a document, collection of documents, and even a Web page or Web site — from which it creates a thematic map (Knowledge Signature).

Extracting relevant information from the vast amount and varying sources of electronic data in the law office of today presents a unique technological challenge. But Cirilab has proven that cutting to the chase is simple; once recurring themes and concepts are revealed, you can quickly and easily decide whether a document warrants further review, or can be discounted as insignificant or irrelevant.

An advantage of exposing all existing themes within a document collection is the ability to quickly and easily locate documents with common themes, without ever actually having to construct a search query. The generated taxonomy of themes returns documents with similar thematic content. As a research project continues, you can add more documents to the collection and reprocess them, to produce additional thematic Knowledge Maps, which further refine and update your research. (more>>>)

Paralegal Creates New Death Web Site

A Web site that links to the MySpace profiles of people who have died is raising awareness of online memorial sites — to mixed reviews. MyDeathSpace.com was created by Mike Patterson, a 25-year-old San Francisco Bay area paralegal and student who says he came up with the idea when "I was bored at work one day and read an article about a Fresno man killing his family because of mounting debt."

"I looked up the names of his daughters on MySpace, and there they were," he says. He began posting links to memorial sites in a blog. In December, he launched his Web site. It has steadily gained in popularity — as well as controversy. Not everyone has appreciated the site — especially the area for comments, which can sometimes be rude and insensitive, occasionally brutal.

But Patterson says he now takes down links to memorial sites — or at least comments — when requested by the family.  And he recently added a warning to visitors that rude and disrespectful comments would be removed. (more>>>)