Launch of CuttingEdgeLaw.com

Thanks for all the help from members of the NC Drupal Group and around the country!

www.CuttingEdgeLaw.com launched this week. CuttingEdgeLaw.com is an on-line documentary series, a magazine, a community and the hub of a movement to transform the practice of law to a peacemaking, healing approach.

Drupal was chosen because the site is content-rich. Intended as a dynamic community site, we also generate our own content and seeded the site with substantial quality content before launch. The site has a substantial collection of information pages, books, articles, and blogs. Our video collection contains more than 133 videos (with new ones being uploaded daily) and we've already had over 6,500 views of our video collection. We have social networking for our Premium Members who are already creating their own content plus on-line profiles to reach clients and colleagues. We add original content daily and have enrolled about a dozen bloggers to write on specific topics for our audience. Even this week, members have begun to upload their own content and participate in the social network. The buzz has attracted mainstream media and I'm being interviewed by two periodicals. Not bad for the first week! I'm very excited by what is possible with Drupal!

Phase 1 is focused on lawyers and addressing the needs of an existing community. Phase 2, already well under development, will focus on answering client questions, educating them and connecting them with service providers to help them resolve conflicts.

The site makes substantial use of Views, Faceted Search, and CCK. Content Profile is used for our upgraded (paid) members. Newsletters will be available next week and Organic Groups are installed and will be activated when membership reaches a certain number. User relationships are in place now as well as an internal messaging system. We're using Drupal 6 plus many optional modules. Add-on modules include: Printer, Email and PDF; Pathauto; Advanced Forum; Spam control; Userpoints; Voting; Nodetype (one of my favorites) and Watcher.

I've been involved in the movement to transform law for over a decade. For the last year I've traveled to 25 different states to interview lawyers and attend conferences. Across the country, Drupal groups and consultants have given above and beyond the call of duty. Not being a developer, I haven't previously been able to give back to this community in proportion to the generosity I've received. However, I discovered that there was a need for a lawyer-reviewed Terms of Use/Legal Notices template and have created that and will be uploading it to Drupal.org. I'll be putting it up shortly.

Again, thanks to all who've contributed in so many ways to this launch.