On March 18, 2008 NewsGator conducted a webinar called “Increase Employee Productivity with Enterprise RSS.” Replay here.
More LawyerKM on RSS here.
More on RSS from other KM sites here.
LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms
With most of my time devoted to knowledge management at a law firm, I often forget about my own needs. I’ve got a lot of digital stuff in various silos that could use the KM treatment. At home, on my iMac, it’s not a problem because I have Spotlight. I can find just about anything on my iMac pretty quickly. But I have a lot of stuff on the web - and it’s not all that easy to find. Off the top of my head, here are some of the web applications that I use frequently:
In the Google applications alone, I have a lot of pretty important information. My Gmail contact information is more up-to-date than my Outlook contacts at work.
In some ways — on a smaller scale, of course — I have the same problems as a large enterprise: there’s a lot of information and no easy way to find it. If I am looking for contacts, for example, I can go to Gmail, LinkedIn, or Facebook. But, I have to go to each and search them individually. And with new web applications popping up all the time, it’s only going to get worse.
I need a search engine for the enterprise called “me.” One search box that will tap into all of my online silos. Clearly, Google should be the one to offer such a solution.
Google already has Google Custom Search, which allows you to build a search box that searches specific sites to the exclusion of others. Several KM folks have written about Custom Search. See here, here and here [Doug, I think there's a KM blog missing from your KM Sites Search list 
].
So, Google, let’s take Custom Search one step further: maybe call it “Personalized Custom Search” or “iCustom Search” or “Self Search.” Give me the ability to search all of my web apps in a secure, password-protected way. One search that hits all of my web apps. So, when I do a search for my business contact, “Jim Smith,” the results include emails to and from Jim, pictures of Jim that I tagged in Picasa (and in Facebook), a Google Map that shows me where Jim’s office is (based on the information in my Gmail contacts), Jim’s LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, the activities that Jim will be attending from Upcoming.org and Meetup.com (because he is tagged as a friend), his Twitter posts and Delicious tags, etc., etc.
While you’re at it, please make an advanced search page that allows me to select or un-select certain web apps. Now, is that too much to ask?
By the way, I created the image with Gliffy. Check it out.
LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms
This is a PBWiki Webinar called “Getting the most out of PBwiki 2.0 for your business” on Wednesday, March 19, 2008. Register.
From the invite: “Join us and explore how PBwiki 2.0 can help your business get more from your wiki. Explore examples of using folders and access controls, as well as how you can customize your wiki’s look in seconds, just based on your company logo. Plus, ask the PBwiki team your questions.”
I’m looking forward to this because I am not crazy about PBWiki 1.0.
See other LawyerKM wiki posts.
See a page with all of my favorite blogs (many of which also discuss wikis).
LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms
Since everyone seems to be so interested in innovation at Google, here is a YouTube video that I found entitled (you guessed it) “Innovation at Google.” It’s a presentation by Google CIO Douglas Merrill.
Enjoy.
LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms
Google’s Universal Search for Law Firms & Interwoven
Presentation on March 12, 2008, Vijay Koduri, Marketing Manager, Google Enterprise and Gautam Malkamekar of Persistent Systems.
My notes from the presentation:
Second part of webinar - Persistent Systems & Live demo
The info here is spare because there were some technical problems)
How Universal Search is “extended” to interwoven
Live demo of Connector
Q&A:
Webinar is archived here.
LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms
This was a fantastic webinar from KMWorld and Google:
Innovation @ Google: A Day In The Life
On March 11, 2008, Naveen Viswanatha, Sales Engineer at Google Enterprise gave a really great presentation.
My notes from the presentation:
The event is archived: here
I really encourage people to check this out. Especially those who are new to KM. This presentation gave a glimpse into Google as a company and it shows off some great ways that any organization can approach KM.
LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms
Another great Common Craft video (see below). This one is about Twitter.
I like Twitter (see the link to follow LawyerKM on Twitter on the right –>>). But I’m getting a little inundated with information these days, and Twitter isn’t helping. Neither is following people like Robert Scoble, the self-proclaimed “tech geek videoblogger” and prolific twitterer (or is it tweeter?). More than 11,000 people follow Scoble on Twitter.
I like following him as a Google Reader friend because he essentially vets content for me. Well, not directly, but you get the idea: I read the stuff that he has shared because if he thinks it’s interesting enough to share, then it probably is interesting enough for me to read. (See RSS Overload is the New Black to see how Scoble rips through 600 RSS feeds in a flash with Google Reader).
And for me, “following” is the killer app of Twitter. Socially, it may be interesting to learn that a friend is shopping for a new sweater or is exhausted from a six-mile run, but in a law firm - we can take the “following” concept to a business level. Whether it’s blogs, micro-blogs, instant messages, or tagged / favorite documents, if my boss thinks it’s important, I should too. If certain information flows to (or from) smart, important people (like the senior partners in my law firm), I want to catch that flow, too.
Give young attorneys a way (other than email blasts) to capture information flows and follow senior attorneys so that they can benefit from what these smart, important people are consuming (or generating).
And by the way - if you, too, feel inundated, check out one way to get a lot of content in one space: the LawyerKM Netvibes Universe.
LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms
“What is Ginger?” you may ask. It’s the new and improved release of Netvibes (the last release was called Coriander - there’s a spice theme going on here).
What is Netvibes? It’s an “ajax-based personalized [internet] start page much like Pageflakes, My Yahoo!, iGoogle, and Microsoft Live.” (see Wikipedia) It lets you bring in customized widgets and all types of other feeds or streams of information - everything from RSS news feeds to various web applications. The new release embraces social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. Last night, I tweeted from Ginger. I know that doesn’t sound good.
The Netvibes folks probably say it best: it’s a
“dashboard that’s updated live directly from all your favorite Web services (email, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, widgets) and media content (blogs, podcasts, video). Everything you enjoy on the Web, available at a glance, all in one place — spend less time surfing and logging in from site to site and more time enjoying your web, your way.”
As Doug at KM Space noted, this is about aggregating yourself (or your stuff) - and this type of thing can be used inside the enterprise. Ginger is yet another way to help you aggregate your stuff - to bring all of these streams into one place to access (and use) the various web applications via widgets.
The killer thing is that Ginger gives you a personal space and a public space - the public space is called your “universe” - and it’s there for all of your Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts, Twitter followers (and anyone else you want) to see. There are also universes by companies and news providers, like Slate, USA Today, and others.
In addition to the private and public aspects of Ginger, you can see and “follow” friends’ activities.
I could go on and on, but your best bet: check it out here. Or see what Ars Technica had to say about it.
Here’s a link to the LawyerKM Netvibes Universe. It’s still in its infancy, but includes a feed of the LawyerKM blog, a KM blog search feed, the LawyerKM Twitter feed, and a wall on which you can write. I’m not crazy about the color, which I’ll likely change.
Please add LawyerKM as a friend. Use the Contacts tab at the top of the screen, search for “LawyerKM” and click the icon. On the following screen, click the “Add Friend” button.
Will I replace my iGoogle home page with Netvibes’ new Ginger? Not sure yet. But iGoogle, you’d better get in this game. You’ve been warned.
LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms
With all the peer pressure from Doug at KM Space to write something about LegalTech, I just had to do something. Better late than never, right? So, while looking for something else, I came across a bunch of interviews of folks at LegalTech. Here is one of Monica Bay:
Here is a link to a bunch more. Other than the interviews of Monica and Bob Ambrogi (below), most all of these are of Thomson people.
And seeing that this is a KM blog, we’ll have to highlight one more: George May talking about West KM 4.0.
Clearly clever marketing by the Thomson folks. But I must say that I like the use of YouTube to promote legal KM and technology. (Marketers can be innovative, too, right?) I, for one, would like to see more video of KM products on the web. And not just videos. Screencasts of KM products would be great. I would much rather see a demo than read some dry description about how an application works.
Finally, props to Craig Carpenter of Recommind, who apparently beat the everybody to the YouTube video marketing punch (by about a week) by posting this YouTube video interview.
LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms
Legal KM folks are innovators. They’re always looking for new ways to get the right information to the right people at the right time. Always trying to make the practice of law more efficient.
Innovation, by definition, is about newness. “The introduction of something new” or “a new idea, method, or device,” according to dictionary.com. New can be good or it can be bad. Either way, it will meet resistance. Most people tend to dislike change - the more drastic, the more resistance. Lawyers, and those others who work in the legal field, are not shy about expressing their aversion to change.
Remember when your firm announced that it was switching from DOS-based WordPerfect 5.1 to the new-fangled Windows-based WYSIWYG Microsoft Word? Remember “reveal codes?” Some legal secretaries still want to go back to those good old days, but most are now pretty happy with the change.
My mother didn’t need a microwave oven in the late 1970s, — or more accurately, she didn’t know she needed one. Today, estimates claim that 95% of households have one. There’s a reason for it. It’s not the only way to cook food and boil water and pop popcorn, but it’s pretty efficient.
The same goes for my iPod. Aside from being super cool, it is a great device that makes it easy to listen to music. I could carry around my old Sony Walkman and a bunch of cassette tapes, but, well you get the picture.
So, why do lawyers, in particular, hate change? I’ve experienced this, but I’m not alone. There are several reasons, and this article mentions some. A lot has to do with focus and familiarity.
Lawyers work long, hard hours. They write briefs, try cases, do deals, etc. Few, however, focus on the business of law or ways to make the practice of law better. If they work at firms, then they assume that there are others that deal with that.
Lawyers, like most people, also tend to do what’s familiar. We like what we like. We fear things that are different. Even if something is better and more efficient, we find ways to avoid it.
That’s where the KM folks come in. We don’t focus on what lawyers focus on. We focus on making it easier for them to focus on what they need to focus on. We are also more comfortable with change, so we need to make it as painless as possible for them. Say what you will about lawyers, but they tend to be a reasonable bunch. Once you get them past the focus and familiarity challenges, they are usually receptive (and sometimes even appreciative). In the end, most of the time they’ll ask you, “Why haven’t we been doing it this way all along?” And that’s just what you want.
So, why innovate?
Or should I avoid the “i word” and say, “Why introduce some new method or idea?”? Well, it’s not for innovation’s sake. It’s not for the sake of being cutting (or bleeding) edge. It’s to help make things better, easier, and more efficient.
My mom never asked for a microwave oven, but she did plead for more time to do things other than slave over a hot stove. Your lawyers may never ask you for a work product retrieval system, an enterprise search engine, blogs, or wikis. But they will ask you for a better and faster way to find the firm’s documents and other information. They will ask for a better way to communicate with members of their practice groups and clients. In short, they’ll ask you to innovate — just not in so many words.
LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms
