Author archives

On his blog, The Subway Fold, Alan Rothman writes about legal tech and education, traditional and social media, big data and metrics, visualization and tech-oriented things about my hometown of New York. As to my bio for the database, I am currently seeking consulting assignments on KM, content strategy and project management. My blog is above and I am on Twitter at both @SubwayFold and @AlanJRothman1. Alan previously worked at three AmLaw 100 firms in NYC in legal tech and legal KM positions. He also wrote the first regular legal tech column for the NY Law Journal from 1990 to 1994. He then moved over to become one of the original forum moderators on Counsel Connect. Alan is Twitter at both @SubwayFold and @AlanJRothman1 and he may be contacted via email - alanrothman at yahoo.com.

As a Matter of Fact: A New AI Tool for Real-Time Fact-Checking of News Using Voice Analysis

Alan Rothman suggests a new phrase for a growing subject matter area which he calls Fact-Check Tech. His article introduces to use a prototype TV news voice scanner and fact-checker called Voyc. The significance of this new technology will quickly become apparent to news consumers here in the U.S., and around the world, as we are increasingly confronted with endless charges of “fake news” and counter assertions of what is “real news.” The Voyc technology currently under development can assess the audio of live news media broadcasts to determine the veracity of statements made within seconds of being spoken.

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Subjects: AI, Business Research, Communications Law, Competitive Intelligence, Congress, Internet Trends, KM, Libraries & Librarians, Reference Resources, Social Media

The Music of the Algorithms: Tune-ing Up Creativity with Artificial Intelligence

In this article, Alan Rothman engages us with significant insights into how the music business is using artificially intelligent music composers, producers and performers that challenge the boundaries of intellectual property and human versus AI musical production. Rothman offers perspective and resources that address whether the dawn of new music produced by AI is upon us, what are the consequences for the artists, the consumers, and the legal system that may be called up to deal with conflicts that will invariably arise.

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Subjects: AI, Copyright, Intellectual Property

Book Review of “Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else)”

Advertising is now part of a complex ecosystem that engages a wide range of components, including but not limited to: social media, Big Data, AI, data mining, competitive intelligence, and marketing. Alan Rothman reveals and explains for readers just how utterly different and hyper-competitive advertising now is, with work product largely splayed across countless mobile and stationary screens on Planet Earth. Rothman describes how expertly chronicling and precisely assaying the transformative changes happening to this sector is an informative and engaging new book, Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else), by the renowned business author Ken Auletta. Just as a leading ad agency in its day cleverly and convincingly took TV viewers on an endearing cultural tour of the U.S .as we followed the many ad-ventures of Bartles & Jaymes, so too, this book takes its readers on a far-ranging and immersive tour of the current participants, trends, challenges and technologies affecting the ad industry. Auletta’s book is not only timely and insightful, but demonstrably valuable for the professionals in the legal sector who are striving to effectively engage, employ and measure the value of marketing to clients and potential clients in a rapidly changing environment increasingly dependent upon using big data and analytical platforms.

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Subjects: AI, Big Data, Blockchain, Book Reviews, Communication Skills, Communications, Competitive Intelligence, Law Firm Marketing, Privacy, Social Media

Text Analysis Systems Mine Workplace Emails to Measure Staff Sentiments

Giving the processes of observation, analysis and change at the enterprise level a modern spin, is a fascinating new article in the September 2018 issue of The Atlantic, titled What Your Boss Could Learn by Reading the Whole Company’s Emails, by Frank Partnoy. Alan Rothmam summarizes and annotates this article that raises timely and significant issues around privacy, data mining and organizational management. Rothman concludes his review by posing important questions concerning the impact of text analysis data on executive training and development and on employee performance.

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Subjects: AI, Data Mining, Email, Employment Law, KM, Privacy, Technology Trends

IBMs Watson is Now Data Mining TED Talks to Extract New Forms of Knowledge

Alan Rothman’s commentary offers actionable information about a new technology from IBM called Watson that is a powerful tool for researchers whose work engages data mining, knowledge management and competitive intelligence. Rothman attended a recent presentation that demonstrated how Watson is deployed as a search and discovery tool whose object is the huge video archive of TED Talks content.

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Subjects: Business Research, Competitive Intelligence, KM

Book Review of Inventology: How We Dream Up Things That Change the World

Alan Rothman’s article presents an engaging and enlightening perspective on the elements of serendipity and prodigious talent engaged in the world of inventors and their inventions, as well providing readers with an excellent book review. This new book about inventology spans many decades and is interwoven with historical events that provided impetus to some of the inventors.

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Subjects: Book Reviews

Feat First: New Findings on the Relationship Between Walking and Creativity

Many cities in America offer regular opportunities to experience the benefits of daily outdoor exercise, an activity now universally acknowledged beneficial to mental and physical health. New Yorker Alan Rothman’s perspective on the positive experience of regularly walking in his city includes references to recent university research in fields that include physiology and engineering. So, walk on, and know that it is good for you in all manner of ways throughout your life.

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Subjects: Health

The Mediachain Project: Developing a Global Creative Rights Database Using Blockchain Technology

Alan Rothman’s article focuses on a creative, innovative effort to deploy the blockchain as a form of global registry of creative works ownership – specifically a global rights database for images. The co-founders of a new metadata protocol they call the Mediachain enables creators working in digital media to write data describing their work along with a timestamp directly onto the blockchain. The implications of this technology impact multiple sectors such as: legal, financial, libraries, museums and archives, and social media.

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Subjects: Copyright, Job Hunting

Book Review of The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory

Alan Rothman writes that for interested readers who either did or did not come of age at some point during the past two decades, this highly engaging account of the extraordinary changes throughout the music industry will provide them with a compelling narrative, cultural history, and business case study. This book further excels as an insightful guide through the music industry’s production processes of writing, recording, marketing, distributing and performing today’s chart-topping tunes.

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Subjects: Book Reviews
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