Blog Reviews (sometimes known as Blog Carnivals) are posts by individual blog authors who pick a certain topic and then “review” various other blogs related to that topic (many times, the topic is only tangentially related to the blogs being reviewed). The “Blawg Review” is simply one focused on law-related topics.
I was lucky enough to be included in J. Craig Williams’ Blawg Review #206 at May It Please The Court on the topic of Evergreen Clauses. Thanks Craig!
At the request of a reader, I’ve increased the number of old posts now included in your RSS feed. I would appreciate any feedback (good or bad) as a result of this change. I anticipate that the first time it downloads the feed, it’ll take a few extra seconds, but I’m not sure of anything else. So again, comments are appreciated.
Brian Sommer over at Software Safari posted a nice review of my Software Licensing Handbook today.
Brian: thank you for taking the time to read the whole book and write the review!
What Jeff has done is dismantle a standard software contract. He has dissected its component parts into easy to understand sections that explain what a vendor wants, what a customer should ask for and what each party should be willing to agree to if they want to reach a fair decision.
I would call this book: King Solomon’s Guide to Splitting the Software Contract Baby. Vendors are surely going to hate this publication and that should mean it is must-read material for software buyers. I’d strongly recommend that selection team members, not just the in-house counsel, read this as it lays the groundwork for negotiations.
It might not be worth a million dollars as Brian’s tagline suggests, but I’m sure you’ll get your money’s worth. 🙂
I’ve worked hard to try to encourage discussion on the various topics that I blog about. However, this hasn’t let the conversation move to the topics you want to read/hear about. To address this need, I’ve installed Skribit – which allows you to suggest topics for us to talk about! So, scroll down a little on the site and look to the right. You’ll see the greenish box, click where it says “Click here to make a suggestion!” You’ll have to register (for free – just to keep out the spam), but then your suggestion will appear.
I look forward to talking with you about your interests!
I was talking with some folks today about Purchasing versus Contracting. I have worked in a lot of places and only one had a consolidated group (which, even then, was technically segregated). So, I’m interested in your feedback. Thank you!
[memedex: pollid#477228]
(You must have flash installed to see this survey.)
OK. I’ve had over 113,000 hits … more than 100,000 reads. Oh my god. Seriously?
Yeah. Really. I’m shocked. I didn’t know that many people were really interested in this set of topics.
But I’ve been trying to start a conversation with you. I want your feedback, your comments, your ideas, your thoughts – anything on your mind. These topics aren’t static – we have a lot of issues going on daily that need smart people to consider and write about. YOU are those people.
However, I don’t seem to be able to encourage you to write to me or comment on my posts. I’ve tried controversial topics, controversial ideas, provocative comments – even bribes.
So, what does it take? Even if all you want to tell me is “Shut up, Jeff, we just like to read what you write.” ok, then tell me that. But at least let me know to stop expecting comments.
Please don’t think me whiny – it’s just really hard to tell if I’m doing/saying something valuable without feedback. 🙂
See you on Tuesday… we’re going to be talking about SOWs.
I can’t believe it’s been over a year from the release of the first edition of the Software Licensing Handbook. Many of you have purchased copies and for that, I am eternally grateful! I simply can’t believe the success of the book – and I appreciate everyone’s encouragement and advice.
But that doesn’t mean that I’m resting. In fact, I’ve been busily working over the last year on the Second Edition – adding almost 100 pages, and counting! New sections on negotiation, open source and risk are the biggest areas to see changes.
Now it’s your turn. If you have read the first edition and have comments, suggestions, ideas, stories, examples, typos from the first edition or anything else (perhaps a topic that I don’t fully explore) – now is the time to act! Just send an e-mail to feedback at licensinghandbook.com!
It’s that simple. I have to admit that between work and school, I don’t know exactly when the second edition will go to press, but I WILL offer an incentive for good feedback, since the next version is going to cost a little more than the first. I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to do this, but I want to give 10 free copies to the 10 best feedback items I get. Yes, yes, I know… “best” isn’t too quantifiable. But look at it like this: if you send me an e-mail with a dozen typos and the only other messages I get have single typos in them, you’d be at the top. But if I get a great story to include, the dozen typos might only be second on the list. Make sense?
Oh, and there’s going to be a super-secret (ok, not that super secret, but cool nevertheless) new section within the risk area, called the Contract Risk Review Model. Have you ever been asked by your business folks to quantify the risk for a particular deal? Did you struggle to determine the real risk factors and how to compare them against the other portions of the contract? Did you have to send off the financials to a financial analyst and wait for a nebulous response at best? Do you want to have a better way of doing the review (or better yet, a simple way for your business owner to do the review)? Well – the Contract Risk Review Model is coming. Already working as a standalone application, I’m trying to find a way to convert it to a web-based tool to make it even easier to use. [Side note: If you know of a good web-app developer who knows PHP/MySQL, point them in my direction, please.] But the second edition will contain at least a sneak preview of the Contract Risk Review Model just for owners of the book.
On an unrelated note, I hope that all of you have a very happy holiday season and a healthy 2008! Thank you for your time in 2007! I look forward to bringing you more software licensing and contract negotiation tips next year!
In the course of my career, I’ve only really done a handfull of deals where the vendor was based outside the US. In those situations, the vendor was generally willing to use language that I was offering. But I know that this isn’t always the case.
I have been watching my analytics pretty closely over the last few months and have noticed a significant increase in my non-US readership. So, this off-Tuesday post is a request to anyone and everyone who lives anywhere other than the US to let me know about licensing and contract issues that are happening in your corner of the world that may be unique to your area.
I would really like to start an international conversation on these topics, as I’m not sure anyone is covering these issues from that perspective (whether you have specific intra-country issues or if you have trouble when doing licensing between companies in different countries). All you have to do is talk to me (each other) and we’ll all be better off! It’s as easy as clicking the comment button below.
Hi.
As this is an off-day for the blog, I thought I would take a few moments to thank all of you who are reading my little notes, tips, tricks and missives. I hope that you’re getting something valuable out of the time you give me – and with each post, I remember those who have come before me and have offered suggestion, comment, praise and criticism, as it is only with the help of those around us do we achieve more than we would on our own.
To that end, I also wanted to take a brief moment to (as personally as I could) thank those of you who have thought highly enough of what I had to say to buy my book. I can’t believe it’s done as well as it has – Lulu tells me that it’s the 492nd most popular item out of 250,000+ works available. Simply incredible. And it’s thanks to you.
So – I’ll look forward to seeing you on Tuesday. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
Hey! I know you folks are out there. I see the logs that tell me that there are a lot of visitors reading this page. But I’m not seeing any feedback! Let me know what you think. Do you disagree with me? Agree with me? Have an idea for a topic to cover? Talk to me!
LicensingHandbook Archive 