Working on Vacation. Wired reports on people who take theirLaptops on Vacation. 1 in 5 take their laptops with them. 2 in 5 check their email and 50% check their voicemail.
Personal Calendars. Google Calendar has put out a gallery of public calendars for users to add. My family uses Google calendar to keep track of family life. Each of my me, my wife and 3-year old have their own calendar account that we share with each other. Each person gets a different color. It is easy to invite my work email to an event to keep the personal calendar and work calendar working together. I just added the new movie releases.
Jetplane Mashup. JetBlue is offering a Google Mashup on its flights. Now when you look out the plane and wonder what you are looking at, you can look at the map and find out.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Video on the Intranet
After my earlier post on using YouTube as KM platform to supplement an intranet, I saw this story on the Intranet Journal by Troy Dreier: Will Video Kill the Intranet Star?
The Nielsen Norman Group pointed out American Electric Power as a company that makes extensive use of videos on its intranet. I was nearly knocked over by their investment in infrastructure: a $300,000 studio with four broadcast-quality cameras, four teleprompters, a full lighting grid, a green-screen stage, and four editing suites. Plus, a staff of five people for video production and two IT members to handle streaming events.
That is a serious investment in making videos available on their intranet.
The Nielsen Norman Group pointed out American Electric Power as a company that makes extensive use of videos on its intranet. I was nearly knocked over by their investment in infrastructure: a $300,000 studio with four broadcast-quality cameras, four teleprompters, a full lighting grid, a green-screen stage, and four editing suites. Plus, a staff of five people for video production and two IT members to handle streaming events.
That is a serious investment in making videos available on their intranet.
Facebook at Law Firms: Cannot be Banned
Legal Week reports that Allen & Overy implemented a ban on the use of Facebook at the firm. Due to the number of staff complaints they had to lift the ban.
Most interesting is that the the decision to lift the ban was made because Facebook has "business benefits as well as social uses." The story reports the A&O network on Facebook has 732 members. As of this posting, it has 932 members.
So, I tried to join the A&O Network to see what they are doing. But, you need to have a valid Allen & Overy email address to join the network. Their secret is safe from me for now.
I also found these groups besides the official Allen & Overy Network:
Thanks to Scott Gavin of the Enterprise 2.0 Evangelist pointed out this story and Tim Duckett pointed it out to him.
Scott points out these business purposes for Facebook on company time:
Most interesting is that the the decision to lift the ban was made because Facebook has "business benefits as well as social uses." The story reports the A&O network on Facebook has 732 members. As of this posting, it has 932 members.
So, I tried to join the A&O Network to see what they are doing. But, you need to have a valid Allen & Overy email address to join the network. Their secret is safe from me for now.
I also found these groups besides the official Allen & Overy Network:
- London Allen & Overy Future Trainees 08-09. They seem active.
- London Allen & Overy Trainees September 2007. They seem quiet
- Skadden, Arps 379 Members
- Baker & McKenzie 728 Members
- Jones Day 286 Members
- Latham & Watkins 291 Members
- Sidely Austin 199 Members
- Mayer Browne No Network
- White & Case 370 Members
- Weil, Gotschal No Network
- Shearman & Sterling 225 members
- Kirkland & Ellis 192 Members
Thanks to Scott Gavin of the Enterprise 2.0 Evangelist pointed out this story and Tim Duckett pointed it out to him.
Scott points out these business purposes for Facebook on company time:
- catching up with friends and family during a lunch break (we all spend more and more time at work, so this speaks to a work life balance benefit)
- exploring who else in your organization has the same interests and connecting. Professional networking, but via the net.
- sharing media and updates with colleagues such as photo’s and business travel plans
- general exploration of how web2.0 can be supplemental to company goals
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
YouTube as a KM Platform
Arjun Thomas of It’s All about KM posted: YouTube a KM Platform?
He listed these five points as what makes a good KM Platform:
However, we do videotape training sessions and some group meetings for later use. However those videotapes sit on shelves and are not available through our intranet. Video caused a lot of problems with our infrastructure.
My solution was to offload the infrastructure to YouTube instead of trying to develop our own internal infrastructure. YouTube could be the plumbing. We could have a firm channel to organize and label the content. The content could be available internally and externally. Best of all, it is cheap and easy.
Of course, we would have to sanitize or exclude anything that addressed specific clients or trade secrets. But it would allow us to share training opportunities with clients.
The Cardozo Law School set up a channel with several short presentations. I think this would look great for a lawfirm. But nobody in my proposal meeting agreed with me.
He listed these five points as what makes a good KM Platform:
- Communities of Practice
- Expertise Map
- Great Search feature
- Collaboration
- Information Repositories
However, we do videotape training sessions and some group meetings for later use. However those videotapes sit on shelves and are not available through our intranet. Video caused a lot of problems with our infrastructure.
My solution was to offload the infrastructure to YouTube instead of trying to develop our own internal infrastructure. YouTube could be the plumbing. We could have a firm channel to organize and label the content. The content could be available internally and externally. Best of all, it is cheap and easy.
Of course, we would have to sanitize or exclude anything that addressed specific clients or trade secrets. But it would allow us to share training opportunities with clients.
The Cardozo Law School set up a channel with several short presentations. I think this would look great for a lawfirm. But nobody in my proposal meeting agreed with me.
Problem with Email on Law Firm Websites
The Massachusetts Bar Association's Committee on Professional Ethics has issued an advisory ruling that having a lawyer's email address available on the firm's website can be a problem.
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly published this story ($$) about MBA Ethics Opinion No. 2007-1.
"In the absence of an effective disclaimer, a lawyer who receives unsolicited information from a prospective client through an e-mail link on a law firm web site must hold the information in confidence even if the lawyer declines representation. Whether the lawyer's firm can represent a party adverse to the prospective client depends on whether the lawyer's obligation to preserve the prospective client;s confidences will materially limit the firm's ability to represent the adverse party."
The opinion distinguishes between email sent to a lawyer through the firm's website and an email sent by other means. Ordinarily, the lawyer has no opportunity to control the flow of information to their email inbox and a prospective client should have no expectation regarding confidentiality or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. The opinion points out that the law firm can control the flow of information originated from its website and condition the use of email links by appropriate disclaimers. In addition, since the law firm website makes the expertise of lawyers available, the client has the ability to identify an appropriate lawyer to communicate with.
I have always been annoyed at websites that do not expose the lawyer's email address, but instead requires you to fill out a form that passes the information on to the person. I always preferred websites with a readily available email address.
It looks like firms in Massachusetts will have to start using an email message form on the website with an appropriate disclosure that "any information communicated before the firm agrees to represent the prospective client will not be treated as confidential" and that the "receipt of information from a prospective client will not prevent the firm from representing someone else in the matter."
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly published this story ($$) about MBA Ethics Opinion No. 2007-1.
"In the absence of an effective disclaimer, a lawyer who receives unsolicited information from a prospective client through an e-mail link on a law firm web site must hold the information in confidence even if the lawyer declines representation. Whether the lawyer's firm can represent a party adverse to the prospective client depends on whether the lawyer's obligation to preserve the prospective client;s confidences will materially limit the firm's ability to represent the adverse party."
The opinion distinguishes between email sent to a lawyer through the firm's website and an email sent by other means. Ordinarily, the lawyer has no opportunity to control the flow of information to their email inbox and a prospective client should have no expectation regarding confidentiality or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. The opinion points out that the law firm can control the flow of information originated from its website and condition the use of email links by appropriate disclaimers. In addition, since the law firm website makes the expertise of lawyers available, the client has the ability to identify an appropriate lawyer to communicate with.
I have always been annoyed at websites that do not expose the lawyer's email address, but instead requires you to fill out a form that passes the information on to the person. I always preferred websites with a readily available email address.
It looks like firms in Massachusetts will have to start using an email message form on the website with an appropriate disclosure that "any information communicated before the firm agrees to represent the prospective client will not be treated as confidential" and that the "receipt of information from a prospective client will not prevent the firm from representing someone else in the matter."
Comparison of Wiki Products
While I am waiting for my IT group to set up our Sharepoint 2007 platform and redesign our intranet (which will include internal hosted wikis), I thought I might try out some externally-hosted wikis.
One reason, is to see if a hosted wiki can supplement our current extranet platform. The second reason is to see if they will use a wiki as an internal information collection.
The first target will one of our client teams. They have an extensive practices and procedures memo. Currently, it is a three ring binder with a lengthy word document and an appendix of forms of documents.
The first step is picking a host.
In exploring the multitude of choices I came across this site: WikiMatrix. It provides a robust mechanism for comparing wiki products, including a wizard to take you through the comparison.
I have been using PBWiki to help put togther a conference in the fall. It has been a great tool for assembling the agenda and speakers for a group in different cities, in different countries. PBWiki also came up in the list of wiki products that met my criteria in WikiMatrix.
Next step, signing up and starting the wiki.
One reason, is to see if a hosted wiki can supplement our current extranet platform. The second reason is to see if they will use a wiki as an internal information collection.
The first target will one of our client teams. They have an extensive practices and procedures memo. Currently, it is a three ring binder with a lengthy word document and an appendix of forms of documents.
The first step is picking a host.
In exploring the multitude of choices I came across this site: WikiMatrix. It provides a robust mechanism for comparing wiki products, including a wizard to take you through the comparison.
I have been using PBWiki to help put togther a conference in the fall. It has been a great tool for assembling the agenda and speakers for a group in different cities, in different countries. PBWiki also came up in the list of wiki products that met my criteria in WikiMatrix.
Next step, signing up and starting the wiki.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Wikis in Plain English
Common Craft has put up a new video describing how to use wikis:
Wikis in Plain English
It does a great job of showing how to use a wiki and why a wiki can be a better communication tool than email.
Their video on RSS was a great explanation on how and why to use an RSS feed reader: RSS in Plain English
Wikis in Plain English
It does a great job of showing how to use a wiki and why a wiki can be a better communication tool than email.
Their video on RSS was a great explanation on how and why to use an RSS feed reader: RSS in Plain English
Loopholes - Articles on the Business of Law
Publicly Traded Law Firms. WSJ.com's Law Blog reported that Australian plaintiff's firm Slater & Gordon is The World's First Publicly Traded Law Firm. As the article points out: Why go public? An IPO is largely a financing tool, so what do they need the money for?
Purpose of a Large Law Firm. Mike Dillon, General Counsel of Sun Microsystems offered his take on the future of law firms: The Way of the Mastadon. "[T]he epoch of the current law firm model - which derives its profitability from growing scale and raising hourly rates - will soon be over. The firms that will survive and thrive are those that recognize this change and focus on how to maintain margins by focusing on efficiency."
MySpace. MySpace Helps Attorneys Find Clients. Tales of lawyers using MySpace as a marketing tool.
Am Law 100 vs. Am Law 200. The smaller law firms are losing ground on the bigger law firms reports Law.com. "Profits per equity partner at the top 100 firms averaged $1.21 million, nearly double that of the Second Hundred's $624,000. Average compensation-all partners at Am Law 100 firms was $941,000, compared to $509,000 at Second Hundred firms."
Friday, June 1, 2007
Extranets
The latest issue of Law Technology Today has a piece on extranets: Extranets 2.0: Using Extranets to Build Client Relationships by John C. Trednnick, Jr.
I am heavily involved in the extranet deployment at my firm. We have a few dozen extranets deployed using Sharepoint.
Mr. Trednnick proposes opening your intranet or using the document management system to external users. Our extranet platform requires the user to export the document form internal system into the extranet. I have been very cautious of making it too easy (read accidentally) to publish something on the extranet. The convenience of linking the two may be outweighed by the lack of clarity of when a document ends up outside the firewall.
I find a request for extranets in most RFP and client engagements, but little follow up from the client of the responsible attorney. My theory is that both sides do not really know what they want from an extranet.
Most people want drafts of documents under negotiation to be circulated by email and have a negative reaction to being told to go the extranet for the draft. I do find extranets to be a great repository for diligence information and for tracking matters.
Since diligence documents are not static it is easy to add a list and post them to a site. For an asset purchase agreement, I posted the assigned contracts from the schedule to the agreement on an extranet. This helped both the buyer and seller to make sure they were dealing with the same set of documents that are labeled in the same way. This was very successful.
I also put together an extranet to track the status of transactions. The key people are listed along with other columns of information, such as the location of the asset, key dates and type of transaction. This is a great tool for the client and us to share information.
We several successful deployments maintaining a client's intellectual property portfolio on an extranet. We also have several deployments maintaining litigation documents to be shared among co-counsel
I am heavily involved in the extranet deployment at my firm. We have a few dozen extranets deployed using Sharepoint.
Mr. Trednnick proposes opening your intranet or using the document management system to external users. Our extranet platform requires the user to export the document form internal system into the extranet. I have been very cautious of making it too easy (read accidentally) to publish something on the extranet. The convenience of linking the two may be outweighed by the lack of clarity of when a document ends up outside the firewall.
I find a request for extranets in most RFP and client engagements, but little follow up from the client of the responsible attorney. My theory is that both sides do not really know what they want from an extranet.
Most people want drafts of documents under negotiation to be circulated by email and have a negative reaction to being told to go the extranet for the draft. I do find extranets to be a great repository for diligence information and for tracking matters.
Since diligence documents are not static it is easy to add a list and post them to a site. For an asset purchase agreement, I posted the assigned contracts from the schedule to the agreement on an extranet. This helped both the buyer and seller to make sure they were dealing with the same set of documents that are labeled in the same way. This was very successful.
I also put together an extranet to track the status of transactions. The key people are listed along with other columns of information, such as the location of the asset, key dates and type of transaction. This is a great tool for the client and us to share information.
We several successful deployments maintaining a client's intellectual property portfolio on an extranet. We also have several deployments maintaining litigation documents to be shared among co-counsel
Friday Knowledge Dump
Web 2.0 Framework. Ross Dawson and the Future Exploration Network put together a Web 2.0 Framework "to provide a clear, concise view of the nature of Web 2.0, particularly for senior executives or other non-technical people who are trying to grasp the scope of Web 2.0, and the implications and opportunities for their organizations."
Mashups. Sharepoint can integrate with Popfly to create mashups of data sources: SharePoint and Popfly integration. I have not had a chance to work with Popfly yet, but it is on the list.
Communication Skills. Bridging The Great Divide: Improved Communication Equals Increased Productivity.
Technology for the Lobbies of Hotels and Casinos. Microsoft Surface has a lot of Wow! looking like the futuristic desktops we have seen in movies for years. But why are the targeting hotels and casinos for early adopters?
Sharepoint and the DoD. Sharepoint MOSS 2007 is now officially DoD 5015.2 certified.
Mashups. Sharepoint can integrate with Popfly to create mashups of data sources: SharePoint and Popfly integration. I have not had a chance to work with Popfly yet, but it is on the list.
Communication Skills. Bridging The Great Divide: Improved Communication Equals Increased Productivity.
Technology for the Lobbies of Hotels and Casinos. Microsoft Surface has a lot of Wow! looking like the futuristic desktops we have seen in movies for years. But why are the targeting hotels and casinos for early adopters?
Sharepoint and the DoD. Sharepoint MOSS 2007 is now officially DoD 5015.2 certified.
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