Susannah Fox of the Pew Internet & American Life Project writes about the “participatory class.” The concept comes out of Pew’s research around changing patterns of political engagement, but also applies to health care, as a new generation of active patients pushes the envelope of how medicine is practiced and medical services consumed.

The legal services industry will see the same kind of impacts as the healthcare industry.  Watch for “participatory clients” to change legal practice just as participatory patients change medicine:

This participatory class is reading blogs, listening to podcasts, updating their social network profile, watching videos, and posting comments. Technology is not an end, but a means to accelerate the pace of discovery, widen social networks, and sharpen the questions someone might ask when they do get to talk to a health professional.

This participatory class won’t have as much impact on the high end of the legal industry that serves large corporations and organizations, but will definitely transform the small and solo firms that serve individuals and small businesses.

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