We all know about how online sites match people according to various algorithms, and how software matches pre-meds to medical schools as well as new doctors to hospital-residency programs. The mathematician who created the original matching algorithm, University of California professor David Gale, just died.
Reading about Gale and his software, I fantasized about a system where law departments list what they would like of law firms for work of a defined kind and law firms list what capabilities they believe they have in that area of law. Both the firms and the departments could weight the attributes by relative importance. Professor Gales’ matching algorithm would then rank the law firms according to their fit with the desired attributes of the internal legal group.
OK, so there are some tiny blips in this fantasy… This blog has entertained other ideas that could make money for the creative person who implements them (See my post of Sept. 22, 2006: seven other entrepreneurial ideas and references cited.).