Projects

Workshop on Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC)

A research collective. I am a co-founder and co-Principal Investigator. The Workshop on Governing Knowledge Commons, or GKC for short, organizes and publishes research on knowledge commons governance, intending to develop a systematic, empirical basis for understanding the virtues, drawbacks, and mechanics of institutions for sharing knowledge, information, and data. The GKC framework, first published in 2010, underlies the entire GKC research project.

Future Law Works

A virtual think tank, currently in informal mode. I am a co-founder. Future Law Works is a global collective of researchers, technologists, practitioners, and designers envisioning the futures of law, legal institutions, and legal education.

The Future Law Podcast

A podcast. I am a co-founder and co-host. The legal system and the legal profession are changing faster than ever, via the development of legaltech, the rise of managed services and legal ops, and changes to student numbers and graduate outcomes. Our podcast is about exploring and understanding the changes.about changes in legal markets, legal work, and legal education.

The Future of Law in Technology and Governance

A scholarly seminar series hosted on Zoom and co-sponsored by Pitt Law’s Future Law Project and the Center for Governance and Markets. I produce and moderate the series. The seminars are open to students and researchers around the world.

The Leadership and Innovation Forum

A convening for teaching, learning, and mentoring about leadership, at the University of Pittsburgh. I am the creator, leader, and teacher. This project was launched in 2011, motivated by my serving as chair of the board of the alumni association at Yale.

Postindustrial and Pittsblog

I write essays about Pittsburgh and its postindustrial futures (plural!) for Postindustrial, a local magazine. My themes echo my writing years ago at Pittsblog, a blog about Pittsburgh and 21st century urbanism that I created in 2004 and published through 2011. Since 2012, Pittsblog essays have appeared at madisonian.net. Since 2020, they have found a home at postindustrial.com. [PIttsblog’s pre-2012 version is here.]

The Future Law Project

A research center at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. I am the founder and faculty director.

The Future Law Project (FLP) produces a forum for leadership conversations about ongoing transformations in two areas. 

One is the future of law as a field of expertise and information. By tradition, that’s the legal profession, but traditions are changing.  Amid massive and continuing disruptions in economic conditions, technologies, and social and physical mobility, both locally and globally, what is the future of legal education?  Of law firms, nonprofit organizations, and other legal services providers?  Courts and other dispute resolution institutions?  Systems for providing access to law, legal information, and justice itself? 

Two is the future of law itself as political, economic, and cultural infrastructure, again, amid massive changes to economic, technological, and geographic conditions.

Partnership to Advance Responsible Technology (PART)

A nonprofit think tank, fully formaliized. I am a founding board member. PART engages key, multi-sector stakeholders to ensure the responsible research, development, deployment, and governance of emerging and data-driven technologies, notably artificial intelligence.  

Madisonian.net

A blog. I founded madisonian.net in 2005 and have posted essays since then about governance, technology, and more. sometimes with other authors.

A Pittsburgh Intellectual Property Hall of Fame

A list of the best, most influential, and/or most entertaining and provocative forms of Pittsburgh-focused intellectual property — copyright-protected works of authorship; patented inventions; trademarks and service marks; and trade secrets and confidential information — of the last 100-plus years. I created it in 2020.

Items, people, and companies are included or omitted based entirely on one person’s judgment (mine), based on 20 years of living and working in Pittsburgh, 30 years of working in and studying intellectual property law, and more than 50 years of cultivating idiosyncratic tastes. [Image via DALL-E and craiyon]

Law, Technology, and Society Researchers

A list of full-time college and university faculty who write and teach about law and technology. I published the first version of the list in 2001 and have been adding to it ever since.

To correct errors and omissions, please contact me by email. [Image via DALL-E and craiyon]

The Law of Intellectual Property

A book. This law school casebook on intellectual property law was published from 2005 through 2017 in five editions in total.

I co-authored all five editions with Craig Nard (Case Western Reserve University). The third, fourth, and fifth editions were also co-authored with Mark McKenna (UCLA). The first and second editions were also co-authored with David Barnes (Seton Hall).

Three Rivers IP & Tech Law Colloquium

A conference. I co-founded this annual event for IP and tech policy researchers in 2018, with Jacob Rooksby (then of Duquesne University, now dean of Gonzaga University School of Law).

The event is a forum for scholarly conversations among researchers affiliated with universities in the “Three Rivers” region, centered in Pittsburgh but broadly defined. Hosting rotates annually between Pitt Law and Duquesne Law.

Writing guidance for law students and lawyers

The rules of my road. Students writing seminar papers and independent study papers under my supervision are required to follow these rules. Anyone who wants some concise writing guidance may find them useful.

Because I assign short papers and projects to students in my upper-level intellectual property courses and do not use traditional final exams, students in those courses are advised to review this additional set of instructions, which I call “Modern Legal Writing.”