We talked
earlier in the week about the impact of Twitter and its influence as a means of
immediate and widespread communication.
Last year I
was a t conference where the BBC’s Legal Expert Joshua Rozenberg was speaking. He
made an interesting point about changes in the practice of Law which I immediately
tweeted including a mention of @JoshuaRozenberg. To my surprise and alarm he
immediately told the conference that I had just tweeted what he had said! (The
power of having your notes on an iPad!!).
An extension
of this has been its use in presenting live updates in what used to be entirely
remote areas. Such as court proceedings –
In fact the UK Supreme Court - the highest court in the land - now has its own twitter account - @SupremeCourtUK.
Twitter was
my main source of news on the passage of the recent Legal Aid Bill through the House
of Lords.
Today we
read of a surgeon in the USA
tweeting his way through brain surgery. Dr Dong Kim told the Guardian –
"Social media is a powerful vehicle to help demystify
brain surgery, a source of much fascination to people. We think that by
providing this up-close glimpse of the OR, we can educate the public,
particularly future patients, about what happens during brain surgery, about
what to expect."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/us-news-blog/2012/may/09/texas-hospital-tweets-brain-surgery
Mind you I think I'd rather my surgeon remained focussed on the job in hand.
Mind you I think I'd rather my surgeon remained focussed on the job in hand.
It is as if
social media is democratising the world. Doors to knowledge are being opened in
a way that would have been unheard of even 5 – 10 years. It will be interesting
to see where this takes us in the next 5 – 10 years.
In my
profession this is something that all lawyers need to grasp. The relationship between
lawyer and client was once one of mystery and a bit of fear. How often did we
see older TV programmes where a character would put on their best suit and tie
to go and see the ‘brief’. We are now in a world where communication is instant
and informed.
In the long
run this can only be a positive development for us all.
Tweeting during surgery? Surely this is a clinical negligence claim waiting to happen....
ReplyDeleteYes - I think he might struggle to defend that one!!
ReplyDeleteIt is kind of stupid of people to think that Dr. Kim is actually the one tweeting. I'm sure there were about 20 different people outside of the operating room that were incharge of tweeter instead of him using one hand to tweet and one hand to remove the tumor from the patient's brain. Get a brain people, and a smart one at that!
ReplyDelete