Proctor in Admiralty

400 Years of transportation on the Hudson River

400 years ago Henry Hudson, a Dutch explorer engaged by the Dutch East India Company to find an alternate way to the Orient sailed up the tidal river that now bears his name and found . . . Albany.  This week New York marks the 400th anniversary of that historic voyage with a flotilla of historic, reproduction and modern day vessels sailing the 140 miles from the mouth of the river to Albany.  There are numerous articles and accounts on line including this editorial from the New York TImes discussing the environmental reclamation of the river and this article from the Smithsonian Magazine online describing the construction of a reproduction of the ONRUST, the first covered deck vessel built in New York which played an important role in exploration of the mid Atlantic region during the early 17th century.

For more insight into Henry Hudson and his famous voyage along with the celebration underway, check out both Henry Hudson 400 and Hudson 400 plus NY400 and ExploreNY400.  I am sensing a theme!

2261 square feet of living space?

I came across an interesting post  by blogger Melissa Hincha-Ownby about the growing use of old shipping containers, also known as boxes (on the East Coast) and cans (West Coast) for constructing office space.  The author references the popularity of containers as a basis for home construction by citing the existance of a section of Bob Vila's website devoted to the trend.

The article mentions a new 12 container office building under construction in Providence, Rhode Island and also cites Shipping Container Architecture, a website devoted to webpage devoted to listing as many examples of the use of shipping containers as architectual elements as the author, Zack Smith can find.

My curiosty peaked, I found numerous other website and blog postings devoted to the subject of recycling shipping containers as housing, office space and hotel rooms.  Fast Company blogger Michael Cannell had a particularly interesting post with numerous comments discussing the design of architect Adam Kalkin. Kalin has designed the Quik House - a prefabricated kit house from recycled shipping containers. It has three bedrooms and two and one-half baths in its 2,000 square foot plan.

  

Given the number of vessels laid up around the world, the number of idle containers must be staggering.

Exchanging contact details

Today I learned about two new methods for exchanging contact details.  While these don't have anything to do with maritime or transportation law, I continue to be amazed as the offshoots of social networking (as well as still trying to figure out a good use for Twitter (at least for myself), so I thought a post was warranted.

The first is making the rounds at SXSW and is called Poken.  Essentially, it is a keyring RFID unit that transmits your basic information and social networking data to other poken users.  The "cutesy" aspect is that the key-rings are in the shape of little creatures and when they high-four (they only have four fingers) they information is transmitted. The devices hold up to 64 contacts and when you are back home, a usb connector lets you upload the data to your contact database and social networking sites.  Poken is apparently gaining traction in Europe and it is clearly being marketed to tweens, teens and young adults but with some re-branding (and maybe less cute devices) it might take hold in a business community too. You can buy Poken devices from UK storefronts, such as here.

The second method is Contxt and I have to thank Ernie Svenson at Ernie the Attorney for pointing this one out. Essentially, it allows people to share contact details and social networking data through SMS.  You text a users name to 50500 and you get the user's info.  A lot easier than a hand full of business cards. Text messaging fees apply per your carrier but I cannot imagine that would stop most people from using this currently free (best testing) service. 

MLA Hurricane Katrina Message Boards

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Maritime Law Association of the United States (the "MLA")has set up two message boards on their website.  One is devoted to news of MLA members in affected areas and one with offers of assistance for those affected.   

If anyone knows how to repost the message board on this Blawg, please advise as I am happy to do  so.   If anyone wants to post information here regarding MLA members, offers of assistance or anything else of use to the maritime legal community dealing with this crisis, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone coping with this tragedy.

- Marc

Sorry for the lack of posts

I have been slack in my posting duties lately but I have been very busy making a big job change.  I am leaving private practice to join a large shipping line as its US legal counsel.  I am excited about the move and hopefully I will have new information to share here from the perspective of in house counsel  I also hope to bring in guest bloggers from the company who can post about significant developments in the liner business.

For example, I was meeting with the VP of Information Systems and he was discussing the concept of scrapping the bill of lading practice as we know it today.  As he sees it, the function of IT in shipping lines today is to try and force a paper based transaction into a computer model - hence Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).  As EDI as not been successfully deployed maritime industry wide and there are competing standards galore, he believes that scrapping the entire system and reinventing the transaction as a purely electronic transaction not based on a paper model would be the long term solution.   For a good overview of the history of EDI and the problems associated with it in the maritime industry - see this paper by Edmund Greiner

Once I get settled, I will try to get the VP to guest blog about this topic.

Great site for the jetsetting lawyer

Business 2.0 blog has posted the link to a great website - seatguru.com.  They describe themselves as the "Ultimate source for airplane seating and in-flight information".   Information includes which seats are wider, have more leg room, location of power ports, and the dreaded seat opposite the lavatory!

I am sure that everyone who travels (and maritime lawyers tend to travel a lot) will find this site useful when making reservations and choosing seat assignments.

Why Proctor in Admiralty?

From the about section of the website of the Maritime Law Association of the United States:

The designation "Proctor in Admiralty" is of ancient origin and applied to lawyers entitled to handle maritime litigation. The word "Proctor" was derived from the Roman word "Procurator", which was translated into English as "Proctor" when the Admiralty Courts were set up in England in the 13th century with jurisdiction over disputes within the Royal Navy as well as purely commercial maritime matters. The designation was continued in the American colonies and, until recently, in our federal court system.

KnowSavannah - a new way to market your business via SMS launches in Savannah

Far Off Topic (but worthwhile posting) I have become involved in a community project called KnowSavannah.  Essentially, it allows merchants who sign up for a very reasonable price (currently $100 for the remainer of the year) to send a limited number of text messages to the subscriber base who agrees to accept those messages.

The text messages will include information about Savannah, coupons to the various merchants and information regarding events such as the Savannnah Music Festival.  It allow the merchants to reach qualified consumers (those who elect to receive information from the particular merchant) in realtime.

Imagine the restaurant owner who, on any particular night, is looking at a bunch of empty tables.  He send a quick SMS to all of the qualified subscribers and offers them 20% off if they show the "coupon" that night -  and it is free to the subscriber and almost free to the merchant, all done by a volunteer group that just wants to show that Savannah "gets it" when it comes to embracing technology.  Seems like a win all the way around.

Check it out at www.knowsavannah.com