Social Media | LawyerKM

Knowledge Management Sessions at the ILTA Conference

Conference, ILTA, knowledge management, Social Media, Social Networking No Responses »

Aug 142011

The International Legal Technology Association (a.k.a. ILTA) Conference starts next week (Aug 21-25) at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, TN. The official conference Twitter hash tag is #ILTA11.

As a part of the ILTA Knowledge Management Peer Group Steering Committee, I had the pleasure of serving as this year’s conference liaison. The Steering Committee members worked hard to develop six great sessions for the conference. I hope you attend them. Here are the summaries of the six sessions:

1. Advances in Document Assembly
Description: While document assembly applications have been around for a few years, adoption has been relatively slow and usually for niche legal practice areas. However, new technologies may rejuvenate interest.

Date/Time: Monday 8/22/2011 at 11:00 a.m.
Location: Canal C
Speaker(s):

Peter Krakaur – Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Michael Tominna – DLA Piper
Ayelette Robinson – Littler Mendelson, P.C.
Yvonne Willis – Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Moderator: David Hobbie – Goodwin Procter LLP

2. Social Networking in the Legal Industry
Description: Law firms, like virtually every other business today, are discovering the benefits of social networking collaboration. Learn about the use of collaborative tools such as wikis, blogs and discussion forums, and networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Date/Time: Monday 8/22/2011 at 1:00 p.m.
Location: Canal C
Speaker(s):

David Hobbie – Goodwin Procter LLP
Beau Mersereau – Fish & Richardson P.C.
Katrina Dittmer – Baker & Daniels

3. It Takes a Village to Deliver Effective AFAs
Description: Learn how KM professionals and key players from finance, IT, professional development, legal project management, records and other areas can collaborate to help law firms implement successful AFAs.

Date/Time: Wednesday 8/24/2011 at 9:15 a.m.
Location: Delta Ballroom C
Speaker(s):

Tom Baldwin – Reed Smith LLP
Toby Brown – Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P.
Pamela Woldow – Edge International

4. How KM Supports Innovative Service Delivery
Description: KM isn’t just precedents anymore. Hear how some true innovators in the field have tied sustainable KM processes and tools to specific legal services in ways that show clear increases in value delivered to clients.

Date/Time: Wednesday 8/24/2011 at 11:30 a.m.
Location: Delta Ballroom C
Speaker(s):

Scott Rechtschaffen – Littler Mendelson, P.C.
Brynn Wiswall – Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz
Howard Nicols – Squire, Sanders & Dempsey

5. Creating an Optimal KM Value Strategy
Description: A sound KM strategy is essential to success. Whether you are just starting a KM program or you’ve been at it for years, you’ll take away insight into how your colleagues have formulated or refreshed their KM strategies to optimal levels, and what did and didn’t work.

Date/Time: Wednesday 8/24/2011 at 1:30 p.m.
Location: Delta Ballroom C
Speaker(s):

Steven Lastres – Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
John Gillies – Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
Sally Gonzalez – HBR Consulting LLC
Moderator: Patrick DiDomenico – Gibbons P.C.

6. KM Helps Meet the ACC Value Challenge
Description: The Association for Corporate Counsel (ACC) has challenged law firms to understand their clients’ business better, be more efficient in their work, be more effective in training junior lawyers, and better budget and manage costs. Find out how knowledge management can help achieve these goals.

Date/Time: Wednesday 8/24/2011 at 3:30 p.m.
Location: Delta Ballroom C
Speaker(s):

Jeffrey Brandt – PinHawk LLC
Thom Wisinski – Haynes and Boone, LLP
Mary F. Panetta – Crowell & Moring LLP
Moderator: David Hobbie – Goodwin Procter LLP

These are all sure to be excellent sessions and I encourage everyone to attend.

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Webinar July 27: Social Media - Addressing Risks and Ensuring Benefits

Social Media, Social Networking No Responses »

Jul 122011

This looks like an interesting webinar.

Here is the re-post from ILTA:

Join us for this free webinar on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at

12:00 p.m. Eastern / 11:00 a.m. Central /

10:00 a.m. Mountain / 9:00 a.m. Pacific.

As organizations look to social media to address internal and external business needs, they must walk a fine line between accessibility and governance.

What are the common business needs for using social media? What is the framework for day-to-day governance, collection and preservation of information shared in these platforms?

And how can organizations weave these competing interests together to reap the benefits of the social media revolution?

This session will provide some insightful commentary from experienced panelists who are in the “trenches” with this business solution.

If you’d like to Tweet during this session the hashtag for the Litigation & Practice Support Peer Group is #ILTALPS or#ILTAKM for the Knowledge Management Peer Group.

Speakers:

Ayelette Robinson is the Director of Knowledge Technology and Knowledge Management Counsel at Littler Mendelson P.C., where she is responsible for the design, development and implementation of the firm’s technology-based knowledge management systems. Ayelette works closely with cross-functional teams, leveraging her experience practicing law and her understanding of technology inside and outside the legal industry to assess firmwide knowledge needs and oversee the analysis and maintenance of firmwide practice resources. She can be reached at ayrobinson@littler.com.

Jack Halprin, Esq. is the Vice President of eDiscovery and Compliance with Autonomy. He serves as a subject-matter expert and assists clients with building best practices and defensible processes around electronic discovery and compliance issues. Jack manages the product line strategy for Autonomy’s Legal Hold and Early Case Assessment solutions, and he is a frequent speaker and writer on enterprise legal risk management and e-discovery, legal hold and knowledge management. He can be reached at jack.halprin@autonomy.com.

Peter Ozolin is CEO and Chairman of the Board of Manzama, where he is responsible for leading the company’s strategy and vision. Peter founded Legal Anywhere in 1997, and the company became the leading provider of extranet solutions for the legal profession. Niku Corporation acquired Legal Anywhere in 2000, and he served as Niku’s Vice President and General Manager for the Legal Profession. Peter has also held leadership roles at Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker, Thomson Reuters and Remote Technologies. He has published articles in numerous periodicals and has presented at nationwide conferences and tradeshows. Peter can be reached at peter@manzama.com.

REGISTER online here

Questions? Please contact Kristy Costello at 512.795.4674 orkristina@iltanet.org

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Leverage Your Other Work For Blog Posts

Blogs, Business, knowledge management, Social Media No Responses »

Mar 102011

During some recent speaking engagements, I mentioned how lawyers can benefit from using social media, among them, blogs. Countering one common reason for resistance to blogging–”I don’t have the time”–I pointed out how to use leverage to your advantage.

The idea is simple: turn the work you already do into a blog post. Lawyers do lots of work. They draft briefs, contracts, opinion letters, etc. Some even try to develop business by drafting newsletters, presenting pitches, and speaking at bar association functions, trade shows, and the like.

Of course, you can’t just copy and paste a client pitch, opinion letter, or brief into a blog post. I hope it goes without saying that you shouldn’t disclose confidential or proprietary information in a blog post. You also need to edit the content for your audience. The bad news is that it will require a little work. The good news is that unlike the newsletter that just goes out to the people on your mailing list, your blog audience is potentially limited only to those with web access.

You’ll also need to convert your content so that it works for the web. This means, among other things, that you’ll need to “tighten it up.” Make your posts short and to the point. The web is giving us all A.D.D. If you can’t hook your readers quickly, you’ll lose them fast. But that is also good news. It forces you to chop up your otherwise lengthy materials into bite-sized pieces, which in turn, means more blog posts.

You work hard. Recycle some of that work into blog posts. I just did. And I intend to do it more in the near future.

Knowledge Management, Technology & Social Media for Lawyers and Law Firms

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Is Google Getting Closer to Offering a Viable Knowledge Management Tool?

Enterprise Search, Google, knowledge management, SharePoint, Social Media No Responses »

Oct 182010

Google announced this morning Cloud Connect for the Google Search Appliance (GSA). The Search Appliance has been around for years, but Google has had difficulty getting law firm adoption. The latest version, however, offers some additional benefits that might make it more attractive to all types of businesses, including law firms.

The Cloud, Ground, and Social Search.

Google says that GSA now displays search results from “Google Docs and Google Sites alongside results from more traditional repositories, like file shares and content management systems.” In addition, one search can show results from blogs, and social media sites, like Twitter.

Who We Know.

Equally important — especially to law firms — is the new People Search feature, “which makes it easy to find experts and contact coworkers.” Search results for coworkers are included in response to queries. The announcement indicates that the GSA can index personnel information and includes an LDAP connector, which should make things easier to set up. The ability to index popular client relationship management (CRM) applications, like InterAction, is unclear.

Important Extras.

Finally, the new GSA includes Dynamic Navigation and SharePoint 2010 support. Dynamic Navigation “allows users to drill down into search results based on search modifiers for their queries.” This sort of feature is nothing new; most of the search tools used by many law firms use it, but is an important addition to GSA nonetheless. Narrowing search results — rather than executing a new search — is one of the fastest ways to get the information you need. Google did not elaborate on SharePoint integration, except to say that it supports Microsoft SharePoint 2010 ”content without the need for additional connectors.” Going forward, tight SharePoint integration will be absolutely necessary given the increasing rate of adoption at law firms.

What are your thoughts? Will the new version of GSA prompt more law form adoption?

Knowledge Management, Technology & Social Media for Lawyers and Law Firms

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Do Things Once - The Wiki Way

KM, knowledge management, LinkedIn, Productivity, Social Media, Wiki 4 Responses »

Mar 252010

I’m a “social media evangelist.” I encourage responsible use of social media. I think that having a good LinkedIn profile, for example, is important. Since I often spread the good word, I often get questions about how to use various social media sites.

One question I get a lot is: “How do I get my picture from one website (e.g., my firm’s web page) to appear on my LinkedIn profile?” Not rocket science. I can practically do it in my sleep.

The first time someone asked me, I called them and walked them through the steps involved. It took a few minutes. No big deal. I didn’t mind doing it once.

But when someone else asked me the same question, I kicked myself for not taking a few extra minutes to write it down and send it to them in an email. So, I did. Now, if a third person asked, I’d be ready and forward that email – so as to not reinvent the wheel.

The third time was déjà vu all over again. I knew I had answered the question before. I knew I was ready to answer it again. But now I just had to find it. It was somewhere in my rat’s nest of Outlook folders. It took several minutes, but I found it and forwarded the answer along. Not horrible, but there had to be a better way.

That better way was a wiki. I had learned my lesson. The next time I would be ready. I saved the instructions into a wiki page. No more email folder hunting. I knew it was in the wiki. A quick search for “LinkedIn” would bring it up.

That next time was today. The whole transaction took me about 20 seconds.

The goal is to do things once, then re-use what you’ve done. It saves time and frustration, and allows you to provide faster and more consistent customer service.

How do you use wikis to make your life — and the lives of others — easier?

Knowledge Management, Technology & Social Media for Lawyers and Law Firms

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Google Buzz - The Good and The Bad

Collaboration, Communication, Google, Innovation, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter No Responses »

Feb 102010

Google Buzz is barely out of the digital delivery room, so it may be a bit premature to start a meaningful review of the web’s newest baby. But I’ll do it anyway. Well, “meaningful” may be a bit of a stretch. How about “cursory” or “preliminary?”

In case you are an under-rock dweller, here are the basics: Google announced a new web application called Google Buzz, which integrates with Google’s Gmail service. There is also a Google Buzz mobile device application, which is accessible by pointing your mobile browser to www.buzz.google.com. Here are some shots of how it looks on the iPhone:

Buzz is being rolled out over time, so if you don’t have it yet, don’t panic. Be patient.

It’s impossible to resist a comparison to Twitter. But, Buzz is more than just a Twitter clone. It’s sort of a Frankenstein’s Monster of web applications: part Twitter, part instant messenger, part email, part discussion forum, part social media aggregator, part rich media delivery tool, and part location-based social network. Too much to cover here.

If you really want to understand it, your best bet is to watch this brief video:

You can also read this good article about it from the New York Times.

A few notes on the good and bad of Google Buzz…

The Good:

Google Buzz is integrated into it’s popular (176 million users strong) Gmail email service. This means more of a centralized hub for this new pastiche of communication. It also means that it won’t be ignored (like Google Wave? and Google Latitude?) because the Buzz link appears right under Gmail’s inbox link.
Integration with Twitter. If you connect your Twitter account (also Picasa, Flickr, and Google Reader) with Buzz, your tweets flow to your Buzz stream. Double your pleasure.
Integration with Google Reader. Increasingly, Reader is becoming the filter from which I find interesting content on the web. With Buzz, I can use the Reader “share” feature to send items right into my Buzz stream so others can enjoy the good content, as well. You can follow me on Google Reader here.
Mobile access & LBSN features. Google’s first swing at Buzz for mobile is impressive. It shows a list view and a decent map view of nearby Tweets Buzzes (see pics above). This will help Google overcome their failed attempt at LBSN (i.e., location-based social networking (see Google Latitude). Lookout FourSquare?
The @ factor. Like Twitter, you can direct a Buzz to a user by using the “at” symbol as a prefix to an email address. So, to send someone a Buzz, type @email_address@gmail.com in the Buzz box.

The Bad:

Direct messaging? As noted, there is an @ function, but it is not readily apparent whether there is a direct (private) message shortcut function (the equivalent of using the “d” in Twitter). You can send a private message to “a small group of your closest friends,” (see the video) but doing so is just a tad cumbersome. Shortcut, please.
Searching email also searches Buzz items. Gmail’s ability to quickly search your email items is one of it’s best features. As of this morning, search results included Buzz results. Not good. Google should be able to fix this (and there may already be a filter for it). But the default search should exclude Buzz results, or Google should simply include a button to select the content to search.
Buzz to email. Some users have already complained of being inundated with email because Buzzes are going right into their inboxes (rather than into the separate Buzz location). This is designed to happen when someone comments on your Buzz or sends you an “@ message” – so that you don’t miss it. There should be an option to disable this feature.
Speaking of comments… everything in moderation, please. This is not Twitter: people can comment on your Buzzes. Sounds great, unless you follow someone like Robert Scoble or Pete Cashmore (of Mashable), then it’s WAY too much information. A recent Buzz by Scoble elicited 100 “likes” and 145 comments. Scrolling down through all those comments to the next Buzz took a while. And I hate to say it, but a lot of those comments were meaningless blather. Buzz needs a “show/hide” comments link (default view to hide) to avoid this.
Long posts: Again, this is not Twitter. There is no 140 character limit on what you can Buzz about. Scoble said he likes this, but I disagree. Twitter has gotten us used to short messages. 140 characters may be too short, but I don’t want to read War and Peace in someone’s Buzz post. Maybe there is a limit, but I couldn’t find it.
A butterfly? (See the video) I get it, I get it: social butterfly. But shouldn’t Google have used a bee or a hornet as the mascot?

As a preemptive strike, I’ll just say that the Google Buzz integration with Gmail had better not mess up my Gmail contacts!!! There’s already enough frustration with that as it is.

That’s it – quick and dirty. If you’re using Google Buzz, then let’s connect. Find my Buzz information on my Google Profile. I’ve also created a LinkedIn Group called Google Buzz where people can discuss it (in a less buzzy, old-school discussion- forum-type of way), so join that too.

So, what are your thoughts about Google Buzz? Please comment below.

LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms

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