Last year, I read 57 books.

I’m doing the same thing in 2012. My approach is the same as last year – I’ll simply update this specific post from time to time throughout the year as I finish books. In addition, Tom Mighell has almost talked me into keeping the list in GoodReads as well.

I’ve enjoyed doing this challenge every year and hope you find the list useful. And I encourage you to take the challenge yourself.

As Bill Taylor says, “Are you learning as fast as the world is changing?” Challenging yourself to read 52 books is probably a good way to start to answer that question.

December

November

October

September

August

July

June

May

April

March

February

January

4. Duncan Crary and James Howard Kunstler, The KunstlerCast
3. Crazy River, Richard Grant
2. Shaq Uncut, Shaquille O’Neal
1. The Abyss, David Hagberg

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

My editor, Reg Davis, gets the credit for this topic. The premise was to imagine you have a good technology budget (we said $3,000) and assume that everything was possible in terms of technology and policy.

The idea is that this simple exercise would tell you a lot about what you want, what is important to you, and where your priorities are. Once you complete the exercise, you can do a little analysis. For example, if you wanted to spend $600 of your $3,000 on training, you might question the actual percentage of your tech budget you are spending on training.

I make some suggestions in the article, based on my perspective, but the key to this exercise is that you determine your own answers.

As I conclude, “Most of us will find a gap between what we are spending money on and what we think we want to spend on. Closing that gap is a great technology goal for 2012.”

I enjoyed writing this column and hope that you enjoy it and find it helpful. Check out the article here.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

The Blawggies, which honor the best law-related blogs as determined from my personal and highly-opinionated perspective, were first unleashed on an unsuspecting blogosphere in December 2004 and are an annual tradition here at DennisKennedy.Blog.

I’m very pleased that this eighth edition of the awards makes them the longest running annual awards list for law-related blogs selected by a lawyer named Dennis Kennedy living in St. Louis, Missouri – just a crazy idea that has turned into a bit of an institution in the world of law-related blogging.

I’ve included some explanatory and historical information about the Blawggies at the end of this post. As I’ve said before and explain in more detail at the end of this post, the Blawggies are not based on any popular votes, surveys or, God forbid, objective criteria. They are highly-opinionated choices made by me alone as I write this post.

Longtime readers will note that I’ve dropped a few categories from last year, in large part because of the continuing movement of bloggers away from blogging to social media and the impact that’s had on blawgs. And, in no small part, it’s because, as I describe below, because I base these awards on blawgs I actually read.

Executive Summary.

Spoiler Alert Many people do not like long blog posts such as this one. Even fewer like long introductions to long blog posts, or reading through commentary to learn the award winners. What follows is the executive summary list of winners. If you’d like to keep up the level of suspense, you’ll want to scroll quickly past the summary list. If all you really want to know is whether I mention you or your blawg, hit control-F and search for your name or your blawg’s name.

Here’s the list of the award winners. I will encourage you to read the whole post for details and the runner-up choices, and my thoughts about the blawgs.

2010 Blawggie Award Categories and Winners.

1. Best Overall Law-Related Blog – Adam Smith, Esq.

2. The “Marty Schwimmer” Best Practice-Specific Legal Blog – Ken Adams’s The Koncise Drafter

3. Best Law Practice Management Blog – Law21.ca

4. Best Legal Blog Category – Law Librarian Blogs

5. The “Kennedy-Mighell Report” Best Legal Podcast – The Unbillable Hour Podcast

6. The “Sherry Fowler” Best Writing on a Blawg Award – Tie, Tom Mighell and Allison Shields

7. Best Law Professor Blog – Tie: Paul Caron’s The TaxProf Blog and Jim Maul’s Mauled Again

8. The “DennisKennedy.Blog” Best Legal Technology Blog – Ron Friedmann’s Strategic Legal Technology

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I encourage you to keep reading this post to learn about the winning blogs (and why I felt that they were winners) and about the runners-up.

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THE 2011 BLAWGGIE AWARDS

1. Best Overall Law-Related Blog – Adam Smith, Esq.

Bruce MacEwen’s recent post pointing out that he didn’t consider Adam Smith, Esq. a “blawg,” rather an “online publication,” only cemented my decision to give Bruce (and his Adam Smith, Esq. partner, Janet Stanton) this award for 2011. While Adam Smith, Esq.’s coverage of the legal profession from an economic perspective has a depth most do not associate with blogs, I won’t debate the semantics of the term “blawg,” but I will say that I’m happy any day a post from Adam Smith, Esq. shows up in my Google Reader. I appreciate the detailed, boundary-pushing analysis of the economics of legal practice and other issues, and the sometimes surprising, but always thoughtful, insights. Always a rewarding read.

Runner-up – Jordan Furlong’s Law21.ca – Jordan Furlong covers law practice and the legal professions with insight, creativity and a willingness to challenge business-as-usual approaches. As I’ve said before, if you want to get the jump on what people will be talking about a year or two from now, you’ll want to read what Jordan is writing today.

2. The Marty Schwimmer Best Practice-Specific Blog – Ken Adams’s The Koncise Drafter

A repeat winner, legal drafting expert Ken Adams covers every aspect of improving contract drafting. If you ever find yourself in a debate over whether you need to say “indemnify AND hold harmless,” this blawg will be the resource you will want to know. A recent post delved into the use of “sole and absolute discretion.” His blog is the premier resource for transactional lawyers who draft and review contracts, and it would also be useful for litigators who need help in interpreting specific contract language. More importantly, Ken is leading the charge for clear and concise contract language.

[Note #1: This category is named for Marty Schwimmer, whose Trademark Blog, has long been my gold standard for what a practice-specific blog should be. Note #2: This category illustrates how my choices are based on blogs I actually read and my own subject matter areas, and should give you a reason to create your own awards to highlight the best blawgs in your practice areas.]

Runner-up – In House Blog – In House Blog is one of the rare group blogs that works for me. It’s a nice selection of posts of information of general interest to in house counsel, with enough helpful information to make it useful without feeling overwhelming.

3. Best Law Practice Management Blog – Jordan Furlong’s Law21.ca

I couldn’t bear the thought of giving Jordan two runner-up awards. Jordan makes you think. He questions standard law practice management approaches and challenges business as usual think. He also makes helpful recommendations. If you want to get a head-start on how law practices will be managed in the future, you’ll want to consider what Jordan is writing today.

Runner-up – Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Management Tips Blog – Jim Calloway has a voice that is perfectly tuned to solo and small firm lawyers. His common sense and practical tips and commentary also speak to a wider audience. I learn something from Jim’s posts on a regular basis. Jim is the Practice Management Advisor of the Oklahoma Bar, a popular author and speaker, and one of the most knowledgeable experts on law practice management you will ever find. Think of him as the genuinely helpful teacher you wish you could have had – now you can. I’m happy to call him a friend, too.

4. Best Legal Blog Category – Law Librarian Blogs

I use this category to highlight the blogs written by law librarians, a category that I don’t think gets enough attention. These blogs are places to find great information, help for finding information, links to great resources and just plain interesting insights into topics like knowledge management and our changing world of information. If you want to try just one, Sabrina Pacifici’s BeSpacific Blog provides a steady stream of links to great US government information. The Law Librarian Blog is a great starting place and there’s a great list of law library blogs here.

Runner-up – Non-US Law-related Blogs – I also use this category to remind people that Blawgging is a global phenomenon. There are many great United Kingdom blawgs and, as longtime readers know, I’m a huge fan of Canadian bloggers. As I’ve said before, “If you only have US blogs on your reading list, you need to go global.” Diversity is a good thing. Why not start in Canada? The annual Clawbie awards will give you a starter list.

5. The Kennedy-Mighell Report Best Legal Podcast – Rodney Dowell’s Unbillable Hour Podcast

[Disclosure: Our podcast, The Kennedy-Mighell Report, is produced by the Legal Talk Network and I’m an unabashed fan of the production team at LTN. That has no impact on my choice, but you might wish to factor that into account and it gives me another chance to remind you that these awards are my personal, opinionated choices. I used to get some criticism for giving myself awards or naming awards after me on this list (in fact, I still do), but, as I've explained before, most of the reason for that stems from my longtime experience of seeing lists I made republished without attribution or linkbacks. Adding myself to the list is a way to make sure that someone finds his or her way back to my work if the list is "repurposed."]

There are many great legal podcasts and it’s difficult to choose just one, but I’ve chosen Rodney Dowell’s Unbillable Hour podcast this year. Rodney Dowell has interviewed a series of great guests in 2011 (including me talking about listening to podcasts). I really like his interviewing style and, even when I’m not sure I’m interested in the topics, his guests are excellent and Rodney brings out some great comments from them. His enthusiasm is very apparent.

Runner-up – The Legal Talk Network Family of Podcasts – I went with my heart and chose the whole family of blogs on the Legal Talk Network, the best one-stop shop for law-related podcasts. This family of podcasts includes the “granddaddy” of legal podcasts, Lawyer to Lawyer with Bob Ambrogi and Craig Williams (congratulations on hitting Episode 300 this year!), and excellent podcasts from Rodney Dowell, Monica Bay, Sharon Nelson and John Simek, and others. With consistently great production values, top-notch hosts and great topics, LTN is the place to go for legal podcasts. This award is, in part, a small way to thank LuAnn Reeb, Kate Kenney and the whole LTN team for all the great work they do.

6. The Sherry Fowler Best Writing on a Blawg Award – Tie, Tom Mighell for Inter-Alia, TKMReport.com and iPad4Lawyers; Allison Shields for the LegalEase Blog –

I’m a big fan of the pure writing ability of some of the best blawggers. I named this award after the legal blogger who had the biggest influence on my blog writing, Sherry “Scheherezade” Fowler (who hasn’t been a lawyer blogger for many years). This is my favorite of the Blawggies, my most-opinionated award, and the one I historically get most criticized for. The bottom line: I like the writing I like.

This year, I decided to single out two of my writing collaborators. Tom Mighell revamped his main blog, revitalized our podcast show notes blog and started a new blog for his iPad in One Hour for Lawyers book. Tom has such a great, seemingly-effortless style that’s very hard to duplicate. For example, he writes a daily post describing his “Blawg of the Day.” It seems so simple, but it is so hard to write these little summaries and do them on a regular basis. Just try it.

Allison Shields is co-authoring a new book with me to be called “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers,” that will be published in the spring. I’ve always enjoyed Allison’s practical approach and conversational style. I told Allison recently that I liked the way she could take a topic and make it accessible to a novice, yet, at the same time, provide something for advanced readers and give people a thing or two to think about, all in a concise package. It’s been a pleasure to write the book with Allison and I strongly recommend her blog and email newsletter to you.

7. Best Law Professor Blog – Tie: Paul Caron’s The TaxProf Blog and Jim Maul’s Mauled Again

The Blawggies have always had a spot for the best law professor blawg and now that I’m a contributing editor to the Legal Skills Prof Blog on the great Law Professor Blog Network, I feel I’m much closer to this category than ever before. In part, it’s my little effort to bridge the great divide between practicing lawyers and law professors.

I have repeat winners here. To me, the test of a great blog is how it keeps me returning to it time after time because of its great posts when it’s outside my subject matter. Jim and Paul both do a great both of covering the tax beat, with welcome excursions into legal education, the economic crisis and other areas. Both show how to write a blog with an academic focus and a a real world impact.

Runner-up – Eric Goldman’s Technology & Marketing Law Blog – Eric’s blawg covers my own area of work – information technology law and related and intellectual property law issues with gusto, style and excellent insights, all done in a way that keeps touch with the real world. Very helpful.

8. The DennisKennedy.Blog Best Legal Technology Blog – Ron Friedmann’s Strategic Legal Technology

As I mentioned, I used to give my own blog this award every year, in part because of the attribution issue I talk about in this post and in part because I thought some of my blogging friends got a laugh out of it. They did, but others didn’t, and, instead, I started the tradition of naming the award for my blog rather than having my blog win it. I still get some criticism for that, and my friends laugh even more at that.

When it comes to my own interests in legal technology, Ron Friedmann’s blog is my go-to blog. Ron and I have similar interests in and perspectives on legal technology and he’s great at posting about issues that intrigue me, like outsourcing, strategy and bigger issues. Although the solo and small firm market is not Ron’s target audience, his blog is a good place to get a sense of trends and big-picture issues.

Runner-up – Tie, Jeff Richardson’s iPhone J.D. and Vivian Manning’s Small City Law Firm Tech – I own an iPhone and an iPad. Jeff Richardson does a great job of covering the iOS waterfront from the perspective of the practicing lawyer. Jeff gives you developments, tips, news, apps recommendations and more. Vivian provides a great stream of article annotations, links, practical tips and observations on tech. I often find good information here.

9. Biggest Blawg Disappointment of the Year

I see this as my failing, not that of the blawgosphere. I simply do not have a winner of the best new blawg category. This probably reflects the great movement away from blogging to social media by distinct individual voices, as well as the continuing emphasis on niche, practice-oriented group blogs by law firms. If you aren’t in the audience for the topic area, you likely won’t follow the blog. I’m sad that I don’t have a winner, but invite you to mention your favorite blawg started in 2011 in the comments. And I’ll make a special effort to track down some new blawgs in 2012.

And there you have it – the 2011 Blawggie Awards.

I wish I could give awards to all the blawgs (and blogs) I like, but this post is already long enough (another Blawggie tradition). Once again, I encourage you to create your own awards (although I’d prefer that you not call them Blawggies – that makes me feel that you haven’t read my blog).

When it really comes down to it, the Blawggies are really my way of saying thank you to the blawgs I enjoy most. There are times when blogging can seem like a thankless pursuit, so remember that all bloggers welcome a thank you from readers from time to time.

Some Background on the Blawggies.

The Blawggies are not based on any popular votes, surveys or, God forbid, objective criteria. They are highly-opinionated choices made by me alone, based on my experience, expertise and likes and dislikes gained from nearly nine years of blogging and from reading blogs voraciously for a good number of years before that.

The reactions to the Blawggies have traditionally run the gamut from “who does this guy think he is?” to “if he’s so smart about blawgs, why didn’t he give my blawg an award?” to “who is Dennis Kennedy?”

Seriously, though, I’ve always wanted to do three things with the Blawggie awards:

1. To highlight the law-related blogs I read and like and to say thank you to those who write them.

2. To direct my readers to the law-related blogs I enjoy.

3. To prompt others to give their own awards so I can learn about other blogs I should be reading.

From the beginning, I expected that many bloggers would pick up on the idea and write their own awards posts. After all, there is no barrier to entry for posting your own awards. I thought that I could then get great recommendations for blogs to add to my reading list from other awards posts in much the same way you can get great recommendations for new music to listen to from the “best of the year” posts by music bloggers that appear at this time of year.

As I’ve said before, “When you realize that there is no reason that you can’t simply post your own awards, you move you from merely blogging to becoming a Blogger with a capital ‘B.’”

The best response to my list is to post your own list, although I do invite your comments and discussion about my list.

The Blawggie-winning Criteria.

I like blogs with (1) consistently useful content, (2) a generous and helpful approach, and (3) a combination of commitment, personality and talent, with an emphasis on good writing. In other words, I like blogs that compel me to read them on a regular basis.

The awards necessarily reflect my many biases and personal preferences, which are far too numerous to list here.

It’s very important to remember that the awards also reflect the blawgs I actually read. While I read a lot of law-related blogs, the number of blawgs I read continues to decrease and the number of non-law-related blogs I read increases. Also, the blawgs I do read are concentrated in my areas of interest and day-to-day focus.

I’m a transactional lawyer, who focuses on information technology law, legal technology and law practice management issues. For better or worse, I’m simply not familiar with most litigation-oriented, criminal defense, regulatory or other specialized blogs. You get the idea.

A Word about the Name “Blawggies.”

Among the historic documents of law-related blogging are a series of emails in which Denise Howell (@dhowell), blogging pioneer and coiner of the term “blawg,” and I had on the question whether “Blawggies” (as well as “blawgger” and “blawgging”) should be spelled with one or two “gs”. As a result, I’m pretty confident of the correct spelling, although I’m seeing more of the single “g” approach lately.

I use the word “blawg” in the sense of “law-related blogs.” I find “lawyer blogs” or “legal blogs” to be limiting and inaccurate for what I want to cover.

All best wishes for 2012.

Dennis

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

This column grew out of two things: how much I love the solid state drive in my MacBook Air (as you’ll be able to sense from the article) and a fascinating podcast with Scott Moulton on Solid State Drive Forensics. Solid state drives (SSDs) bring great benefits, but they are also at the frontier of computer forensics.

The article is meant to give an introductions and overview of SSDs and get people thinking about the role SSDs will be playing in our computing experience.

There’s some good discussion in the comments about a number of the issues SSDs raise, even though the remarkably crabby “Jojo the Magic Monkey” seems to think the article is “garbage.” That’s disappointing, of course, because I’m generally more successful with the magic monkey audience.

You’ll also see in the comments and if you do some price checking, that the article was written before flooding in Malaysia helped push the prices significantly higher than at the time I wrote the article. That’s a danger of writing on print publication schedules.

That said, I don’t think I’d buy a computer without an SSD again even at today’s higher costs – it’s made that much of a difference.

Check out the article here.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

This year, I hadn’t done a good job of updating my list and had the feeling I wasn’t going to make the target this year without a big push at the end of the year. Fortunately, between reading on my Kindle and my new trick of taking a picture of hard copy books with my iPhone, I was able to get the list up-to-date.

To my pleasant surprise, I had already reached 52 and beyond.

Here’s the updated list. Good reading to you. And a big thank you to the Webster Groves Public Library for being such a great source of books to read.

December

56. Rip Tide, Stella Rimington

November

55. Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars and the New Lithium Economy, Seth Fletcher
54. Robert Ludlum’s The Ares Decision, Kyle Mills
53. The Devil’s Light, James North Patterson
52. The Big Roads, Earl Smith
51. A Letter to Mary, Laurie R. King
50. A Monstrous Regiment of Women, Laurie R. King

October

49. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Laurie R. King
48. The Mirage Man: Bruce Ivins, the Anthrax Attacks and America’s Rush to War, David Willman
47. Pleasure Thresholds, Patricia Tallman
46. The Way Some People Die, Ross MacDonald
45. Red Alert, Peter Bryant
44. Pitch Anything, Oren Klaff

September

43. Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead, Neil Strauss
42. The Profession, Steven Pressfield
41. 59 Seconds, Richard Wiseman
40. Stories My Father Told Me, Jeffrey Lyons

August

39. Do the Work, Steven Pressfield
38. Read This Before Our Next Meeting, Al Pittampalli
37. Dethroning the King, Julie Macintosh
36. How to Live: A Life of Montaigne
35. Blood Trust, Eric Van Lustbader
34. Zombie, Spaceship, Wasteland, Patton Oswalt

July

33. Portrait of a Spy, Dan Silva
32. Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Dominion, Eric Van Lustbader
31. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell
30. Flash Foresight, Daniel Burrus

June

29. Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work, Douglas Coupland
28. When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead, Jerry Weintraub
27. As of This Writing, Clive James
26. Hitch 22, Christopher Hitchens
25. In the Line of Fire, Jerry Weissman
24. A World I Never Made, James Lepore

May

23. Getting More, Stuart Diamond
22. The City in Mind, James Howard Kunstler
21. The Next Decade, George Friedman
20. The Unknown Soldier, Gerald Seymour
19. The Leavenworth Case, Anna Katherine Green
18. iPad in One Hour for Lawyers, Tom Mighell

April

17. In Office Hours, Lucy Kellaway
16. Practically Radical, William Taylor
15. Gunn’s Golden Rules, Tim Gunn

March

14. Free, Chris Anderson
13. Our Kind of Traitor, John le Carre
12. Geronimo, Geronimo’s Story of His Life
11. The Secret Soldier, Alex Berensen
10. If the Dead Rise Not, Philip Kerr

February

9. Finders Keepers, Craig Childs
8. Choke, Sian Beilock
7. Monsoon, Robert Kaplan

January

6. Agents of Treachery, Otto Penzler
5. The Big Bang, Mickey Spillane
4. Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway, Matt Dellinger
3. Zoo City, Lauren Beukes
2. Moxyland, Lauren Beukes
1. The Missing Manual: Mac OS X Snow Leopard, David Pogue

I’ve enjoyed doing this challenge every year and hope you find the list useful. And I encourage you to take the challenge yourself.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

We’re trying to put together an all audience question show for one of our upcoming episodes. If you’d like to ask us a question that we might try to answer on the show, you can email us at tkmreport@gmail.com, email either Tom or me, or reach us in one of the many other ways we can be reached. Or simply leave a comment to this post with your question. Because it’s a podcast, sending us an audio with you asking your question would be great.

Also, we’re happy to report that the show notes page is back. The show notes site will give you links to the podcasts, contents of each show, and links to sites and resources mentioned on each episode.

#68. Can Software Replace Lawyers?

From IBM’s Watson to Apple’s new Siri to the growth of predictive coding in e-discovery, it’s been a heck of a year for computers catching up to humans. Lately, there’s been a lot of discussion about the question, “Can software take the place of lawyers?” Can it, or will it? In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the latest software advances and the likely impact on lawyers, how lawyers might benefit from these advances, and how worried lawyers should be about competition from machines.

#67. iPads for Lawyers

iPads are making serious inroads into the work environment, even for lawyers. What role might the iPad play in the daily lives of busy legal professionals? In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell are joined by special guest David Sparks, author of the new book, iPad at Work, to discuss the potential benefits of using an iPad in legal work, practical iPad tips, and how the iPad and iPad apps are changing the way lawyers use technology.

#66. Kindle en Fuego: Next Generation Tablets

Amazon has just announced a new generation of Kindle devices, including a touch version and the Kindle Fire, a low-cost tablet device. The new Kindles start at $79. Are these iPad competitors, a new category of devices or another harbinger of the Post-PC era? In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss how the new Kindles might help lawyers, whether the platform is now the message, and where the tablet category might go after the death of Steve Jobs.

#65. Easy Productivity Improvements

Why are more lawyers than ever using two (or more) monitors at their desks? Others use surprisingly simple tricks to make their days more productive and their lives a little easier. Once you’ve learned some of these techniques, you often think that they are “obvious” and something you should have implemented a long time ago. In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss a few simple productivity techniques like using multiple monitors that have made a big difference for them, how those tips might benefit you, and steps you can take to make yourself much more productive than you were before you listened to this podcast.

Let me especially recommend the episode on iPads with David Sparks to anyone who owns or plans to buy an iPad. If you haven’t listened to the podcast before or haven’t listened for a while, give one or more of these a listen.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

The Conference is called titled “Reputation, Referrals, Rankings,” and has a great agenda of timely topics, including:

Tuesday, November 8

• Keynote #1: Lie to Me! “Emotion Management” of Your Marketing Will Invite Trust, Not Contempt
• ROI: Examining the Return on Investment for Business Development Spending
• The Business of You – Surviving and Thriving in Big Law
• Luncheon: Effects of Rankings & Ratings on the Legal Profession
• An Ethics Guide to Lawyer Marketing
• The Power of Video in Lawyer Marketing
• Golden Gavel Awards Ceremony and Reception

Wednesday, November 9

• Keynote #2: “In Search of…Lawyers” How the Internet Has Changed Everything
• Social Media: Does Your Firm Marketing Plan Need A Face Lift? (I’ll be Joining Tom Mighell and Tim Stanley on this panel)
• Associate Business Development Training
• Luncheon: 10×10 – 10 Topics, 10 Presenters, 10 Minutes Each. (It’s like speed dating, but better)

The best news is that there is still time to register and some seats still available. It’d be great to see you there.

For more information, see the conference website here (conference brochure).

Also, there’s also still time to register for the replay on November 3 of the very popular LinkeIn for Lawyers webinar Allison Shields, Michelle Golden and I presented in August. Details are available on the ALI-ABA website.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Although the November session will be an audio replay of the August session, we’ll be answering questions from attendees by email after the replay. That will give attendees a great chance to get their LinkedIn questions answered, to the extent that they aren’t answered in the webinar.

I had the benefit of hearing this webinar already and can tell you that the webinar is loaded with great information and practical tips, whether you are a LinkedIn beginner or an experienced user. I learned a lot from Allison and Michelle during the webinar. I also contribute some of my insights and tips from my many years of being on LinkedIn.

Here are the details on the webinar.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

It’s meant to be a simple primer to improve your level of security when using a public wifi hotspot, with the emphasis on free and simple techniques. It’s not so much that people are careless with the use of public wifi, especially on Windows computers, but that they haven’t been taught the basic precautions.

This article focuses on the basic precautions – assess vulnerabilities (tools like Shields Up, apply basic protections (firewalls and malware protection), limit potential for damage (turn off file-sharing), and treat security as an evolving process (practice safety, monitor developments and try to keep improving).

In one sense, like the old “I don’t have to be faster than the bear chasing us, just faster than you” joke, you want to make yourself a less inviting target than the other people using the wifi hotspot.

If no one taught you the basics of wifi security, this article will be a helpful start. It’s probably a good refresher for many of you.

I’ve gotten some good feedback on this article from people who’ve found it helpful.

The money quote:

A few simple steps can help you be safer, but the key is to remember that good security is an ongoing process and commitment.

Check out the article here.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

It turns out, the project actually won an international award – first place in the Special Needs Audience category of the 2011 International Search for Excellence Award, sponsored by The National Gardening Association and Extension Master Gardener.

The details can be found in the article, Noble County project wins Excellence award, which includes a picture of the representatives of the group that won the award, including my brother.

The project involved teaching gardening skills to minimum security prisoners. Among other things, some of the vegetables (quite a lot) were donated to a local food pantry. Bruce told me that, as a result, a number of the participants were hoping to get into gardening, landscaping or food-related careers.

As I said, it was a cool project.

Today, Bruce sent me the speech he made when accepting the award at The International Master Gardener Conference in Charleston, West Virginia last week on behalf of the Noble County Master Gardeners. He said that there were about 1,000 people in the room. He said he was nervous, but thought a great project deserved a good speech. Apparently, many people thought it was a great speech.

I did too.

Maybe you will too. Here it is:

This project was a joint effort between Chain O’ Lakes Correctional Facility superintendant Michael Cunegin, Noble County Extension Agent Hanson Young, and the Noble County Purdue Master Gardeners. We gave the inmates a 80 hour intensive training program based on our Master Gardener training with a emphasis on landscape design and installation and greenhouse production to make the guys more employable when they get out.

The guys couldn’t understand why we would take time to come in there and teach them. They would ask us every night and our answers weren’t good enough. Seems nobody had ever taken time to do something like that for these guys. Finally I told them the AA saying that says if it weren’t for the grace of God that would be me in there and if it was, I hoped somebody would do it for me. They understood that.

A ways into the classes a well-liked secretary at the facility was killed in a car wreck on the way to work one snowy morning. The guys asked us to design them a memorial garden they could plant for her. We told them they had the training now, they should do it themselves. We got them the plants that spring and they planted it.

This gave us the idea to put in a vegetable garden so they could get some hands-on training. The produce was going to supplement their meals. We had a landscaping project at the courthouse in town and were using the guys for labor. One day they helped was the day the local food pantry was open. The guys asked what were all the people standing in that line for? When they learned it was needy people waiting for food, they were seriously moved. They went to Mr. Cunegin and told him they wanted to donate their produce to the food bank if that was possible. They ended up giving over 1100 pounds of fresh produce to the food bank that summer.

I went out there two or three times a week to check on the garden and one day I asked them, why do you do this? You could be sitting under that shade tree smoking cigarettes with them other guys, making fun of you sweating in the sun and working so hard. They told me it was weird, but it makes you feel good. They had never experienced that feel good thing before. So the best thing to come out of this project was to introduce these guys to that feel good thing. Now I know how to explain why I am a Master Gardener. That feel good thing. Thank You for this award.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Details on the event are here. It looks like registration is closed, but I’d guess they might be able to find a place for for you if ask.

The sessions look really good and address important issues for law students.

I’ll be part of a panel on practical networking in the afternoon. I see this as a Q & A session. I want to cover both social networking and regular networking. I’ll also be part of a lunch session called “Lunch with Experience” where I’ll share my observations about legal careers and answer questions.

It sounds like fun for me and I expect to learn a lot in addition to sharing some of what I know and have observed over my legal career. If you read this blog and are there, introduce yourself and say hello.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

The show note site will give you links to the podcasts, contents of each show, and links to sites and resources mentioned on each episode.

I ‘ve posted from time to time about past podcast episodes too and those posts can be found in the “Podcasts” archive of this blog.

I’m a little behind on that project, so let me catch up by listing our most recent podcast episodes.

#64. Technology in a Time of Emergency

From 9/11 anniversaries to hurricanes to earthquakes to power outages and much more, recent events are causing us to consider how our new technologies impact our behavior in emergency situations. Technology, especially mobile technology like smart phones, has obvious benefits in emergencies and disasters, but our reliance on technology has raised a whole new set of issues. In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss how new technology is changing our behavior and expectations in emergencies, what lessons we have learned, practical tips people have shared, and preparation and planning lawyers and the legal profession should consider.

#63. The 2011 ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey Says . . .

Solid, actionable data on what law firms are actually doing with technology can be surprisingly hard to find. In the medium and large firm space, the annual ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey provides detailed and comprehensive data about what law firms have been implementing and planning. The good news is that the 2011 Survey has just been released. In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell dig into this year’s Survey, identify some key trends and developments, and suggest what this data might mean for law firms for the next year.

#62. Presentation Tips When Time is Short

If you speak on a regular basis, you’ve undoubtedly found yourself in a situation where you have less time left than material to present. If you’ve ever been in audience where the speaker is running short on time, you’ve probably suffered as the speaker has tried to cope with (or even ignore) the problem. In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell draw from their own speaking experiences to share some of their favorite practical tips for presenting when time is running out, getting your message across without short-changing your audience, and keeping your audience, co-panelists and program organizers happy with your clock management.

#61. Blogging at the Crossroads

With social media tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ capturing the lion’s share of attention and discussion, what is the role of blogs for the legal profession in 2011 and beyond? Does it still make sense to start up a new blog or continue an existing blog? Has blogging reached a crossroads? In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell draw from their many years of blogging to talk about where blogs fit into todays’ social media world for lawyers, where blogs might be going, and whether blogs should remain as part of your web presence and communications portfolio.

#60. The Pluses and Minuses of Google+

Google’s new social networking tool, Google Plus has burst onto the tech scene like a supernova. Are you already on it and thinking about abandoning Facebook, Twitter and all previous social networking tools? Is there still time to take a deep breath and a measured response? In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell talk about Google Plus – both the tool and the phenomenon, its potential impact on social networking, and whether you need to be setting up Circles and moving to Google Plus.

#59. Using Social Media for Non-Marketing

There are times when it feels like everyone is saying that all lawyers must use social media for marketing. And there are times when it seems like marketing must be the only possible use for social media. Is that really true? In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell talk about what else social media can do for lawyers, and whether it’s time to open up the ways lawyers think about using social media.

There are a few of my favorite episodes in this batch. If you haven’t listened to the podcast before or haven’t listened for a while, give one or more of these a listen.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

The result, however, is an article we really liked and one we’ve gotten some great feedback on. It’s called “Not Your Marketer’s Social Media: Ten Ways Lawyers Can Benefit from Non-Marketing Uses of Social Media.

The article grew out of our podcast called “Using Social Media for Non-Marketing” and expands on some of the ideas in the podcast and adds a few new things. The main idea is that lawyers can benefit from social media in many different ways and that the over-attention on using social media for marketing to potential clients has a limiting effect on ways that lawyers think they might use social media. The article is an attempt to “think different” about social media – in practical ways that match your own personality and approach – and to go back to the basics on social media. Then, see what evolves from uses that best fit your own approach and comfort.

We’ll also be talking about some of these ideas as part of a panel with Tim Stanley of Justia called “Social Media: Does Your Firm Marketing Plan Need A Face Lift” at the ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference 2011 on November 9 in Philadelphia. The Conference should be great and I encourage you attend (registration info here – early bird discount and chance to win iPad 2 until October 3). Please say hello if you attend our session.

Check out the new article and let us know what you think about it.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

I always enjoy Rodney’s podcast (here’s a great sample episode with Dr. David Nowell on time management) and I enjoy talking with him (we spoke together about Open Source software for law firms at ABA TECHSHOW 2011). I think you’ll be able to tell how much Rodney and I were enjoying the conversation during this podcast.

Here’s the episode description:

Podcasts have become increasingly available and cover topics of all flavors. On The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program and interim executive director at Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, welcomes St. Louis based legal technology writer and information technology lawyer and co-host of the Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy, to talk about how attorneys can benefit from listening to podcasts, how to find the best podcast that suits you and how attorneys can improve their podcast listening experience. And don’t forget, you can listen to many Legal Talk Network podcasts here and get CLE credit!

The past year or so has been somewhat of the year of the podcast for me. And I don’t mean just the Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast.

I mean podcast listening. I’m a big fan of podcasts. There’s a treasure trove of great podcasts out there today, available for free.

First, I talked Tom Mighell into covering the topic of podcast listening for one of our own podcasts, overcoming his initial objection that the topic was too “meta.” That podcast was called, simply enough, “A Podcast Listener’s Guide.” I elaborated a bit more on the topic here.

Second, I convinced my editor at the ABA Journal to let me write a column about the benefits of podcast listening and some of my listening tips, including my favorite tip of listening at double speed. The result called “Ear! Ear! Podcast Gains Are in the Listening, Not Creating.” I give a little more background on that column here.

This Unbillable Hour podcast with Rodney gave me another chance to share my thoughts on this topic. I invite you to check out the podcast and then to explore wide world of podcasts, both legal and nonlegal, and the way podcasts can inform and entertain. Thanks, Rodney, for giving me the chance to talk about podcasts.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

The session is titled “eAttorney, MiAttorney: How Technology Has Changed Communication and Collaboration With Clients.” It will happen on Friday, August 5 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at the Metro Toronto Convention Center, Room 716B, 700 Level, South Building,

Here’s the description of the session:

Whether by iPad, Facebook or JDSupra, advancing technology is rapidly affecting the attorney/client relationship. What will the future hold? Come hear perspectives from corporate counsel, a legal futurist, and an ethics expert as they discuss key trends in the new ways lawyers communicate and collaborate with clients – and each other. The panel will focus in particular on emerging ethical requirements, and provide practical suggestions for strategies to meet the challenge and promise of evolving communication media.

Here’s the panel:

Moderator: Daniel Schwartz, Hartford, Connecticut

Panelists: Michael Downey, St. Louis, Missouri, Jordan Furlong, Ottawa, Canada
, Dennis Kennedy, St. Louis, Missouri

We’ve put together a great format for the session, you should get some great information, insights and ideas from this group. I’m really looking forward to this one. I hope you get the chance to attend this one.

Learn more about the ABA Annual Meeting, including registration information and the complete program book here. �

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

I am a huge fan of the podcasting medium and I listen to a lot of podcasts. I’m always looking for ways to find great podcasts and to manage them in good ways so that I always have great podcasts to listen to all queued up on my iPod. Unfortunately, most of the articles and materials you can find about podcasts, especially for lawyers, seem to be focused on creating podcasts rather than on simply listening to them.

I decided to fill this seeming void with a practical article sharing some of my favorite podcast listening tips and making my case that podcasts can be a fantastic resource for lawyers. Read the article and see how well I did.

I talk about the different ways you can obtain and listen to podcasts and how, despite the name, an iPod is not a necessary part of the experience.

I sketch out the basic approach of using the iTunes store to find individual episodes and, more important, to subscribe to podcasts to automatically receive new episodes. I also mention the great Huffduffer website as a way to locate well-regarded podcast episodes. And I reveal my latest trick of finding podcasts or audios from seminar presentations as a way to quickly get an overview of and up to speed on a new topic.

I also advocate turning your car into a commuting education center by running podcasts through your car stereo. Best of all, I talk about the radically, yet incredibly effective, approach of listening to podcasts at double speed.

As I say in the conclusion of the column:

Podcasts are a wonderful learning medium for lawyers. The richness and value of the free content will surprise you. It’s an easy and useful way to keep up with developments in your field and topics of interest, and to make better use of your commute and other listening times.

Check out the article here. And, of course, you might just want to start out your investigation of podcast listening with the Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter ñ @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Our last two episodes:

Lawyers in the iCloud (#58)

The episode description:

We used to focus on new Windows announcements and the software we installed on our PCs. Times have changed. The recent Apple announcements about iOS 5, Lion and most important, iCloud, have captured most of the headlines. The action is increasingly happening outside Windows and outside PCs. In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell talk about the recent Apple iCloud announcement, the possible implications of iCloud, and where iCloud suggests legal technology is going.

Tom likes to do topical news stories from time to time and recent announcements from Apple about the new Mac OS called Lion, iOS 5 and the iCloud certainly seemed newsworthy. We decided to focus on iCloud for this episode, even though I have a suspicion that iOS 5 might one day be seen as the biggest story.

Although admittedly, the fact that iCloud won’t debut until this fall made our assessments a little icloudy, we jumped right in and talked about the introduction of Apple’s big cloud computing offering. We start out with the basics and took off running with our observations about the implications of iCloud and how it might point to a post-PC world. We speculate on why Apple’s approach is different from that of Google and others (think apps vs. browser and invisible vs. visible).

We also touch on some of our favorite themes – mobile platform, anytime-anywhere computing, and, most important, how personal or home technology is forcing changes in technology and technology expectations at work. It’s a fascinating conversation and one that we had no idea when we started about where it would end.

In the second segment, we take on a question Paul Kedrosky raised in his blog post titled “What wow moments have you had in technology lately?” I’m not sure our answers will be a huge surprise, but it made us (and hopefully you) reflect on technology that really did change the way we thought.

In tour Parting Shots, Tom likes Seth Godin’s Email Checklist and I recommend the collection of speaker slides from ABA TECHSHOW 2011, during which Tom gives a realtime demo of how big a help the URL-shortening service Bitly can be.

So You Want to Be a Legal Technologist (#57)

The episode summary:

Over the last few years, legal technology has become a field, even a career for some. You will often hear the term ìlegal technologistî used to describe those in this field. How does someone get started in legal technology and what does it take to be considered a legal technologist? In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the history of legal technologists, how to get started in the field, and what they wish they would have known when they started out.

Yes, the title is an illusion to a Byrds song later covered by Patti Smith.

In this episode, we discuss the idea of and the work of “legal technologists.”

People occasionally refer to Tom and I as legal technologists. We wanted to talk about what that means and the ways someone can become a legal technologist.

We start with a bit of history, invoking names like Bob Ambrogi, Ross Kodner and others. We make some distinctions between legal technologists and legal tech consultants for purposes of illustrating our points. We chart out our own paths to becoming known as legal technologists and then we offer a few thoughts about how people wanting to become a legal technologist might actually do that. We also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being known as a legal technologist.

In the second segment, we answer an audience question about Google’s new “+1″ feature. After the my disappointment with Google’s Wave and Buzz, I found myself more skeptical than Tom is about this new feature and its potential impact on search results.

We end with our Parting Shots. Tom likes social email – Rapportive, Xobni and Gmail’s new social add-on. I recommend a post on the How-to Geek blog called “7 Search Tips You Probably Don’t Know About.”

I invite you to listen to the episodes that interest you. As I said earlier, I also recommend that you subscribe to the podcast through iTunes to get new episodes as they are released (and eliminate the need to wait to find out about new podcasts until I post about recent episodes on this blog).

Let us know what you think about episodes. And try some of the other back episodes as well. Although we’re working on some technical issues (please be patient), the show notes for the podcast can be found at www.tkmreport.com.

We always welcome your questions and will try to answer them on episodes.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Here’s the inspiration behind the column. I got a new personal computer for 2011 (MacBook Air) and needed to load data and files onto the new computer. That process got me thinking about whether there were some good ways to keep drives organized and to get them in good order after, seemingly inevitably, they get cluttered and wildly disorganized.

As I say in the column, “While it’s tempting just to buy a bigger drive or rely on desktop search tools or the enhanced search tools in recent versions of Windows and Mac OS X, these approaches are only short-term fixes.”

Although I couldnít resist the chance to work the buzzphrase “data hygiene” into the column, I decided to focus on a few basic principles and techniques – pruning, decluttering and organizing.

In pruning and decluttering, you look to eliminate duplicated and unneeded files and stop your computer from automatically creating and saving excessive numbers of files to free up space. After pruning and decluttering, you take a closer look at your approach to folders and try to simplify your approach.

Just some nuts-and-bolts concepts, but if you are moving data to a new computer, you’ll appreciate the making some efforts in these directions. Even if you are not moving to a new computer, you’ll appreciate having a cleaner, better-organized file structure.

Check out the article here.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter ñ @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

On page 22, you will find my article called “Freemium,” which is loosely based on the presentation I did for IgniteLaw 2011 called “The Freemium Practice of Law.”

Even better, you can find a copy of my article online here.

The article discusses the potential application of Chris Anderson’s free and freemium principles from his book “Free” to the practice of law. I managed to reference Monty Python, Open Source software and modern portfolio theory, although, alas, my favorite reference to Grace Potter and the Nocturnals in my IgniteLaw presentation hit the cutting room floor.

As many readers know, I occasionally use this blog to show some of my approaches to writing. You might be interested in comparing this article to my original IgniteLaw script to see the choices, especially in resequencing the points, I made when adapting the talk to an article format.

The rest of the issue looks great, but I wanted to highlight JoAnna Forshee’s article about IgniteLaw 2011 on page 132 (online here), which summarize IgniteLaw and points to ways others might use the “Ignite” format.

Let me know what you think of my Freemium article. I’d enjoy hearing about efforts to experiment with freemium approaches in the practice of law.

Thanks to the great people at ILTA (always a pleasure to work with) for their interest in this topic and for publishing my article. If you aren’t familiar with ILTA, you need to be.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Our last two episodes:

Missing Manners for the Digital Age (#56)

The episode description:

Should you really be checking your BlackBerry while I’m having a conversation with you? Do you need to reply to every email, text message, cell phone call and Twitter direct message? When is it OK to unfriend people on Facebook? In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the evolving notion of “digital etiquette,” where people are most likely to make missteps in digital manners, and their take on guiding principles for good and polite behavior in our digital world.

Sometimes Tom and I know exactly where we want to go with our podcasts and sometimes it’s a surprise to us where they go. This episode is an example of the latter type. Before we hit record, we were saying that we had no idea where this one was going to go. At the end, we were quite pleased with the directions it had taken and some of the topics we touched on. See what you think.

The genesis for this episode was our appreciation for the new Slate podcast on digital manners called “Manners for the Digital Age” with Farhad Manjoo and Emily Yoffe. The premise is that our new digital world might well require a whole new set of etiquette rules.

We take a look at whether traditional etiquette rules, the old email etiquette rules, or even good old common sense get us to where we need to be in our new social media world.

We touch on WIlliam Gibson’s notion that, especially with smartphones, the Internet now has intruded into and is part of our “real world” experience. We also have the feeling that “common sense” really doesn’t get us far enough. We discuss some of our own pet peeves and take some tentative steps for suggestions for ways to deal with digital etiquette.

In our Q&A segment, we dive into the topic of QR codes (note this blog’s QR code below). Our Parting Shots deal with gadgets and keyboard shortcuts.

The Legal Technology Multiverse (#55)

The episode summary:

As the number of legal technology options and platforms have increased, management of legal technology has become more complicated than ever before. Routine recommendations are changing because of smartphones, use of Macs, Web 2.0 and other changes. In important ways, our view of technology and even the Internet has become more personalized and less universal. In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss how our technology is becoming more complex and varied, the resulting changes to questions you must ask and traditional recommendations, and ways to start to address the implications of this trend.

I’m of two minds about this podcast. I’m so pleased with the actual content and our treatment of the topic. I also quite disappointed that I had a technical glitch that required the use of the backup recording for me. Thanks again to the stellar crew at the Legal Talk Network for salvaging the episode.

In the episode, we discuss what we are calling the “legal technology multiverse” – the idea that there is no longer one common, universal technology or Internet experience and that each of us is starting to have our own unique technology experience. Apps play a big role in this and there are implications in both tech support and the very discussions we have about technology.

I recently spoke to a group of third year law students and invited them to ask me whatever they wanted about legal technology. I knew that there was a risk I’d get stumped, but I didn’t expect that I might get stumped by the very first question or that the first question would get me thinking about the legal tech multiverse.

The first question was about what might be a good case management software choice for a start-up law firm with a mixed Mac/PC environment.

Now, there are many great experts on case management tools, so it’s never been one of my strong topics – I turn to one of my expert friends. I was immediately on shaky ground, but I took a deep breath, said, “that’s a great question,” and, fortunately, found an answer starting to form.

What I realized, though, is that the “standard” case management advice, which has applied for many years, no longer stands alone. There are many nuances and answers to this question will vary based on a number of factors.

In the podcast, Tom and I explore not just this question, but the transition of legal technology and law firms from a relatively homogenous environment to a much more diverse environment than we’ve ever seen before. It’s not just Macs or the cloud. Smartphones, apps and other Internet technologies are moving into standard use. There is also a growing interest in Open Source software.

All of this raises a multitude of new questions, including, not least of which, where do you find good help for what you want to do.

This episode is one of our best and it was so disappointing to me to find my main recording had come out garbled.

In the rest of the show, we answer a question about recommend iPad apps. Our Parting Shots cover turning dual monitors into quadruple monitors and the valuable blog about using iPads in business, iPadCTO.

I invite you to listen to the episodes that interest you. As I said earlier, I also recommend that you subscribe to the podcast through iTunes to get new episodes as they are released (and not wait until I post about recent episodes on this blog).

Let us know what you think about episodes. And try some of the other back episodes as well. Although we’re working on some technical issues (please be patient), the show notes for the podcast can be found at www.tkmreport.com.

We always welcome your questions and will try to answer them on episodes.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Our last two episodes:

The Curse of the Next New Technology (#54)

The episode description:

The newest, the latest, the greatest. Yesterday’s new technology is today’s old news. And we are already transfixed by next month’s technology, let alone what we are hearing is in the works for 2012. Does our obsession with what’s new have negative consequences? In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss our seeming obsession with new technology, dealing with the pace of rapid technology change, and realistic strategies for dealing with new technologies.

Tom and I returned from ABA TECHSHOW with a few new topics for podcasts and lots of fresh ideas. In this episode, we take a look at the noticeable push toward getting the latest and greatest tech, especially gadgets. You can hardly enjoy a new technology before people are already focused on the next new thing.

At TECHSHOW, I was telling people that my new iPad 2 would be arriving soon and they would ask me if I was planning to get a BlackBerry Playbook or an Android tablet. My response: why? Slow down just a minute – I’ll need to focus on the iPad for a while and what would I need two tablets for?

However, I’m fascinated by how we’re pushed and pulled toward the newest tech. Tom and I talk about whether iPad 1 owners really “need” to move to an iPad 2 right now, the role of smartphone apps in this push/pull and the responses we see.

Using a 6 or 8 year old laptop because you are still waiting for the next new thing is probably not a wise move.

There’s no doubt that there’s more cool new technology now than ever. The best approach? Keep your focus on what’s right for you and what fits you best.

In the podcast, we also talk about some of the best things we learned at TECHSHOW, Tom’s new iPad for Lawyers blog (http://www.tommighell.com/ipad/), and a podcast with Moira Gunn and Steve Rosenbaum about Curation Nation.

My C Drive is in the Cloud (#53)

The episode summary:

It seems the cloud is everywhere these days. Amazon, Microsoft and others have announced new, low-cost initiatives for online file management and storage. File management services like Dropbox have already gotten a lot of attention and praise. In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss a specialized part of the cloud that might provide value to everyone, the advantages and disadvantages of cloud-based file management, and what’s driving these developments.

In this episode, we discuss file management in the cloud and the idea and reality of anytime, anywhere access to all of your files. The topic was prompted by the recent announcement of Amazon Cloud Drive, but I’ve been intrigued with the idea of using the Internet as a giant hard drive since at least the launch of Windows 95. We talk about our experiences with cloud file storage, including SkyDrive, Dropbox and other tools. We talk at length about what we like, potential benefits, why Tom loves Dropbox, and potential reservations and concerns. A big issue is weighing convenience against loss of control.

We also answer a question about Twitter hashtags, Tom’s new book, Ipad in One Hour for Lawyers,” and a great podcast with Scott Moulton on Solid State Drive Forensics. I’m fascinated these days about ways you can use podcasts to get you up to speed on new topics.

I invite you to listen to the episodes that interest you. As I said earlier, I also recommend that you subscribe to the podcast through iTunes to get new episodes as they are released (and not wait until I post about recent episodes on this blog).

Let us know what you think about episodes. And try some of the other back episodes as well. Although we’re working on some technical issues (please be patient), the show notes for the podcast can be found at www.tkmreport.com.

We always welcome your questions and will try to answer them on episodes.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

As I mentioned in the session, former Red Hat CEO Bob Young was a keynote speaker at ABA TECHSHOW 2000 and, I believe, this was the first TECHSHOW session since then to focus on Open Source software. Young’s talk inspired me to write a law review article on the Open Source licenses in 2001 (“A Primer on Open Source Licensing Legal Issues: Copyright, Copyleft and the Future,” 20 St. Louis Univ. Pub. L. Rev. 345 (2001)) and put together a list of web sources on Open Source legal issues. I’ve been interested in Free and Open Source software and the philosophy behind it ever since. If you Google my name and “Open Source” you’ll find some of my writings and a couple of podcasts (e.g., this podcast).

I’ve had the chance in 2011 to write one article and co-author with Gwynne Monahan another on the use of Open Source software in the practice of law.

The major article is the one with Gwynne that was recently published in the March/April 2011 issue of the ABA’s Law Practice magazine. It’s called “10 Tips for Getting Started with Open Source Software” and it’s meant to be a easy and practical introduction to Open Source Software and the role it might play in law practice. As you might guess from the title, it feature ten important practical tips.

In my monthly technology column for the American Bar Journal in March 2011, I wrote a short and concise introduction to Open Source software in law practice called “Free Can Be Good: Add Open Source to Software Considerations.” In the column, I conclude: “Open Source programs are be coming realistic alternatives for lawyers, especially for focused tasks. Now is a great time to add a consideration of Open Source software to your technology decision-making process.”

Through the presentation and the articles, I wanted to join with Gwynne and Rodney in raising the profile of Open Source software, highlighting its growing importance and introducing the philosophy and reality of Open Source software.

Open Source is about community. The articles and presentation are meant to start the conversation, but we also wanted to find ways to continue and extend the conversation about the use of Open Source software in the practice of law. One step in that direction is a new LinkedIn group called Open Source Tools for Law Practice. With luck, it will grow to help people find others interested in Open Source and offer a place for conversations. If you are interested in Open Source, please consider joining the group.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

IgniteLaw takes a unique approach to presentations – 12 presenters each presenting for 6 minutes using only 20 slides apiece. And the slides advance automatically every 18 seconds.

It’s a challenging format for any speaker, no matter how experienced, especially if it doesn’t fit your usual style. Perhaps I understate that. It’s the speaking equivalent of riding in a top fuel dragster.

I found the presentation fun – in a challenging sort of way – but quickly struggled with time management. I got my points made, but not quite in the way I had hoped. My main points seemed to get across and I hope I was able to contribute in a small way to what was a fun evening with lots of high-quality presentations.

The videos will be posted soon, but I thought it might be fun to post the final version of the “rehearsal script” I had written. On that evening, the “script” turned out to be more ambitious than I’d hoped it would be (especially since I couldn’t refer to it), but I really liked the way this version of the script read. See what you think.

The Freemium Practice of Law – Rehearsal Script

1. Several years ago, when I was in the private practice of law, I had a meeting with a potential new client, a technology start-up. Things went well and they wanted to hire me. The initial project would be preparing terms of use and a privacy policy for their website.

2. I gave them an estimate and the president of the company joked that lawyers probably all used the same base documents and just changed the company names. Or at least we created documents with one push of a button. We laughed, although I felt the need to mention that even standard documents had nuances.

3. I thought a lot about that client’s view of legal work, especially documents, and the question kept coming back to me: “If clients assume we can use technology in this way and, technically, we can, why aren’t we”? I first implemented document assembly more than 20 years ago, so the issue is less technology than business model.

4. One of my favorite innovation techniques is to reverse my assumptions. I recently listened to a podcast with William Ury, co-author of a great book on negotiation. He said, “to change the game, you must change the frame.”

5. Here was my reversal. What if standard documents actually were provided to clients for free, perhaps as part of a service package? How would that work? I didn’t get very far myself, but Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson wrote a book in 2009 called “Free” that looked at the growing Internet phenomenon of successful businesses based on giving away what would traditionally be core products and services for free, and then making money in a variety of other ways.

6. Anderson’s book tells about Monty Python deciding not to sue the thousands of people who started to put video clips from their shows and movies on YouTube. Instead, Monty Python created its own YouTube channel and made high-quality video clips available for free. In exchange, they simply asked people to consider buying their products. The result: a 23,000% increase in DVD sales in 3 months, even though they were giving the same video content away.

7. That’s Freemium. Make something available for free, use that to extend your reach and audience, and then provide options for people to willingly pay for enhanced value. My definition of freemium tonight would be: Giving away “something” in order to create educated customers who better understand how to use your services and products in ways that better help themselves and for which they will happily pay to do so.

8. There’s been a lot of discussion about Richard Susskind’s custom vs. commoditized approach and you’ll be hearing more about that in the next few days at TECHSHOW. The most interesting thing about freemium, at least to me, is not so much that it will work in both contexts, but that I think it can work extremely well in the custom context.

9. Another example. Open Source software and Larry Lessig’s Creative Commons licenses. The free “something” is the software or the standardized license. The Open Source model, where the software itself is available for free, but a company like Red Hat can be quite successful selling maintenance, support, consulting services, and even T-shirts around the software, is perhaps the best example of the freemium approach.

10. Stewart Brand famously said, “Information wants to be free.” We clearly live in a world where we expect to get digital versions of music, video, books and information for free. How do lawyers fit into that world?

11. My favorite new band is Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. They let people post recordings of their live shows on the Internet. I doubt that I would have bought any CDs or even known of them if not for this approach. Now, I buy albums and would attend a show in a heartbeat. Bands can now be thought of as music services providers, giving away what we once thought of as core content and value – the music – to create revenue from shows, merchandise and other channels.

12. Now think about a “legal services provider” model. Law is certainly an information business. Are we like music? Encyclopedias? Newspapers? Other fields challenged by Internet models, aging business approaches and innovative competitors? Change the frame, change the game.

13. Lawyers often will say that clients buy documents or hours – a lawyer-centric view. When I did estate planning, I concluded that, at heart, clients were really buying peace of mind – assurance that their family would be taken care of after they were gone. In other practice areas, they might also be buying things like judgment or risk management – something they’d happily pay more for than a document or a unit of time.

14. That is the big disconnect between lawyers and clients and where the opportunity for freemium law practice comes into play. Change the frame, change the game.

15. Some ideas. Start with Anderson’s book. It has plenty of ideas that might Anderson has a lot of freemium ideas in his book that could apply to the practice of law. Here’s one of mine to start you thinking – moving from highlights to insights to personalized. Highlights: a free annual summary of important cases prepared by an associate. Insights: an audio or video where partners explaining why the cases matter. Personalized: Half-day customized presentations where your best people show a client’s legal and executive team how to address those new cases.

16. Barriers. Oh, there are a few. Not done before. It’s change. How do we bill? Bar regulation still applying a 20th century framework to 21st century client needs. Don’t underestimate – these will be difficult frames to change, but freemium is for innovators who like challenges.

17. It strikes me that simple technology can drive this. Document assembly has been around for years. Second graders are making videos these days. So much can be delivered easily via the Internet for free.

18. Where do you get ideas other than buying Matt Homann a cup of coffee? I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Bryan Cave’s Trade Zone extranet application as a model. Other professional services firms, authors and consultants have successful models. Talk to young people, see what’s going on outside the US, and get a diversity of opinions.

19. Let me emphasize that I’m not for a second advocating a wholesale freemium approach. However, I do think that economic survival for the long term depends on taking a diversified portfolio approach. Using free to create enhanced-value freemium revenue streams should be one part of your portfolio.

20. 3 action steps for you:

1. Read Chris Anderson’s book. Even better, go to iTunes and get the audio version for free, and see if you go ahead and buy the book.

2. Carve out 30 minutes with a piece of paper and brainstorm ways you might try free and freemium, starting with places where you already heavily discount or write-off fees.

3. Change your frame and see if it changes your game

IgniteLaw 2011 was fun, fast-paced and informative. I congratulate Matt, JoAnna, all the other presenters and everyone else involved for putting on such a great event. And it was especially great to meet some other Grace Potter and the Nocturnals fans.

I’m hoping to post some reflections on TECHSHOW 2011 soon.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

I thought I’d get you caught up on recent podcasts. Tom Mighell and I have recorded several episodes of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast since I’ve last posted about podcasts on this blog. They are now available on the Legal Talk Network and on iTunes, with an RSS feed here.

We’ve moved past the 50 episode mark, added another great sponsor (Carbonite Pro), and, I think, done some of our best work. I invite to listen to the recent episodes, to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes and send us your questions and ideas for future topics.

Here’s a list of the last four episodes (in reverse chronological order) with the program descriptions:

What Comes After Keyword Search?

Despite all the talk about “search” on the web, the simple fact is that we’d trade all the “search” in the world for a lot more “find.” The good news is that there are some developments that will help us get the information we want when we want it. In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss what comes after traditional keyword search, new tools and techniques like recommendation engines and apps, and whether we are getting closer to being able to truly get the information we want when we want it. (Episode 52)

This podcast grew out of our recent perception that regular Google searching is increasingly unsatisfying. We talk a look at current and future alternatives, with a big emphasis on social search. In the second segment, we talk about our upcoming presentations at IgniteLaw 2011 on April 10.

Climbing Aboard the iPad 2 Train

The first iPad was incredibly successful and the launch of the iPad 2 has created a fresh surge of interest in the tablet category. Is the iPad 2 the tablet device that lawyers have been waiting for? In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss their experiences in line at the Apple Store on Opening Day attempting to get the freshest information for their audience, talk about their early experiences with the iPad 2, and speculate about the “post-PC era,” the iPad 2 and its potential impact on lawyers and their clients. (Episode 51)

In this podcast, Tom and I decided it would be fun to try to get a new iPad 2 on launch night and report about our experiences. Tom was successful. I wasn’t. In fact, I had to give up on trying to get one at the Apple Store and am still waiting for mine to be shipped to me. Fortunately, Tom, who has written a new iPad for lawyers book, is able to share his real-world experiences, while I rely on what I’ve read and heard. In the second segment, we talk about the new social media phenomenon of group messaging, especially at conferences, and whether we think any of these services will catch on at ABA TECHSHOW in April.

You ARE Backing Up, Right?

Everyone (well, we hope everyone) knows data backup is important. That’s why we always vow to be more diligent after we lose more data at an inopportune time. Data backup has become more complicated over the past few years as our data moves out from our computers to the cloud. We know what to do, so why don’t we? (Episode 50

Tom had an issue with his blog where it looked liked he might have lost about a year’s worth of posts. Fortunately, they were restored, but it reminded us how important backup still is. We discuss new approaches that make backing up your data empire easier and cheaper than ever – if you’ll actually pay attention and make the backups. In the second segment, we talk about recent changes Google made to its search algorithm.

The Land of LinkedIn

Lawyers can’t go a single day without hearing how they need to be using social media. Social media, however, is a big topic and there are lots of social media tools. The tool lawyers most commonly use is LinkedIn, but are they really using it to good advantage? (Episode 49)

As I recall, the title was a hat tip to Lincoln’s birthday. Lately, I’ve been thinking that brad-based presentations to lawyers about “social media” are becoming less useful. Better, I think, to focus on one of the social media tools and cover it in depth. We delve into how we use LinkedIn and how you might use it better. In the second segment, we get a report from Tom about his trip to the 2011 LegalTech NY conference.

I invite you to listen to the episodes that interest you. I also recommend that you subscribe to the podcast through iTunes to get new episodes as they are released (and not wait until I post about recent episodes on this blog).

Let us know what you think about episodes. And try some of the other back episodes as well. Although we’re working on some technical issues (please be patient), the show notes for the podcast can be found at www.tkmreport.com.

We always welcome your questions and will try to answer them on episodes.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Here are the details:

Online Communities for Your Nonprofit: Legal Aspects of Social Media

March 10 – 3:00PM – 4:30PM

A panel of information technology attorneys from the St. Louis Corporate Counsel Association Pro Bono Committee will discuss the potential benefits of social media for nonprofits and provide an understanding of the legal issues and risks involved. They will suggest ways to create a successful online community without unhappy surprises.

Call 314-539-0357 to reserve your seat.

Schlafly Branch of the St. Louis Public Library (225 North Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63108 (314) 367-4120)

The panelists for the presentation will be JulieAnn Broyles (Ascension Healthcare), Elizabeth Cox, Peter Salsich and me.

We’re planning to do lots of Q & A and try to cover what’s on our audience’s minds. Bring your questions. We hope to see you there.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter at @dkennedyblog. Follow me at @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

IgniteLaw (“The Future of Law Practice, in 6 minute increments”) is presented by my friends Matt Homann (LexThink) and JoAnna Forshee (InsideLegal). IgniteLaw uses the popular “Ignite” format with speakers getting 6 minutes to present with 20 automatically-advancing slides. The videos from last year will give you an idea of what to expect.

I thought it would be fun to come up with a possible presentation. While my first choice was to do a dramatic re-enactment of Doug Sorocco’s tremendous presentation from last year, I quickly realized that Doug’s presentation simply cannot be duplicated. We have to talk Doug into coming back this year.

The topic idea I submitted is called “The Freemium Practice of Law” and here is the description I wrote:

Richard Susskind meets Chris Anderson meets Larry Lessig on the road to new legal business models based on the notion of “Freemium.” How might lawyers give away traditional core services and products (think documents) to generate new flows of income, happy clients and personally-fulfilling work using technology readily-at-hand, Open Source principles, and new technology on the horizon?

I wanted to pull together some provocative ideas I’ve thought about off and on for the last couple of years, but haven’t written about or presented before. The talk would take me into some different areas than I’ll be presenting on at TECHSHOW (collaboration tools for transactional lawyers and Open Source software for law firms).

I’m excited about this topic and presentation. So much so that I’ve already sketched out the slides for the presentation. There’s a voting process for IgniteLaw, so I’m hopeful that my topic gets picked.

If you will be in Chicago on April 10 (for TECHSHOW or otherwise), I encourage you to attend IgniteLaw 2011. Tickets are free, seats are limited, and the information you need about tickets is here. Hope to see you there. I’ll be pestering you about going to TECHSHOW and talking a bit more about my presentations there in a future post.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter ñ @dkennedyblog. Follow me ñ @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Over the years, this blog has made such a big deal of its birthday that my own birthday tends to get overshadowed. This year is no exception. As longtime bloggers know all to well, blogs can be very demanding.

Every year, I done some kind of blawgiversary-birthday week-long extravaganza with fun events and surprises. In 2011, I’m taking a low-key approach, at least as compared to earlier years.

Three things have always been a consistent theme in the blogiversary celebration. First, I want to say a big “thank you” to my readers. Second, I try to devote some time to answering questions from readers. Third, I admit to a slight tendency to anthromorphize my blog.

I invite you over the next week to leave a comment, send me an email or DM me at @dkennedyblog on Twitter with any question you might have about legal technology, blogging or anything else I might cover on this blog.

I also have a surprise or two in mind for blawgiversary-birthday week, so watch during hte rest of the week for those.

A huge thank you to all my readers. I appreciate you sticking with me and this blog for another you and I also welcome new readers.

Best wishes to all for another year.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Here’s a list (in reverse chronological order) with the program descriptions:

To Cloud or Not to Cloud: That is the Question for Start-up Firms

You’re starting a new firm, or you want to revamp your existing firm’s technology. What approaches and strategies make the most sense for the 10-20 lawyer firm in 2011? Is the “cloud” part of your firm’s immediate future? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell take a look at some of the technology options for smaller firms, the long term strategies and short-term tactics that should be considered, and the role cloud computing can play in todayís legal technology environment. (Episode 48)

A New Start: Legal Technology Resolutions for 2011

The new year is the perfect time to breathe some life into your approach to technology. Even small accomplishments can bring you big results. Where should you begin and what priorities should you set? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell survey what technology resolutions lawyers are making for 2011, how to narrow down your list of choices, and, most importantly, how best to make your technology resolutions come true. (Episode 47)

Asked and Answered

What are the hot questions in legal technology today? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell take on audience questions on legal technology and give you their best answers. (Episode 46)

Whatís the Word for Legal Tech in 2010?

Did technology rock the legal world in 2010 or was it a sleepy little year for legal tech? What were the tech highlights and lowlights for 2010? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell offer up a wide-ranging, fast-paced and highly-opinionated review of what transpired in legal technology in 2010. (Episode 45)

I really like all of these recent episodes (and the next one we’ve recorded on LinkedIn) and am grateful for the steady increases we’re seeing in downloads of the podcast. I recommend that you subscribe to the podcast through iTunes to get new episodes as they are released.

Of the recent batch of four episodes listed above, I really enjoyed the episode called Whatís the Word for Legal Tech in 2010? (Episode 45). In this episode, we did a tribute to one of our favorite podcasts: ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption (PTI). We based on review of legal tech in 2011 on the style of PTI and designed segments around familiar segments of PTI. Fun and informative.

Let us know what you think about episodes. And try some of the other back episodes as well. Although we’re working on some technical issues (please be patient), the show notes for the podcast can be found at www.tkmreport.com.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter ñ @dkennedyblog. Follow me ñ @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Here are the details and registration info:

You have a choice of a live telephone seminar or a live webinar. There will be some slides, so the live webinar might be a slightly better choice. On the live webinar, you’ll also be able to submit questions during the presentation rather than waiting until the end.

As I mentioned, attendees get a copy of our book, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together.

You’ll get the chance to:

• Learn about collaboration technologies that you can use to work with others in your practice
• Get practical tips for using collaboration tools in common legal practice settings
• Develop a strategy for selecting the right collaboration tools in your law practice
• Hear future trends and developments in collaboration tools for lawyers

The seminar is a joint production of ALI-ABA and the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section.

Depending our your state’s rules, you might be eligible for 1.2 hours of MCLE credit. Cost is $225.

I hope you can attend. Registration info here.

Please help get the word out. Collaboration tools are more important now than ever before. I’ll also note that I’ll be speaking about collaboration tools for transactional lawyers at the upcoming ABA TECHSHOW.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter ñ @dkennedyblog. Follow me ñ @denniskennedy

The Lawyerís Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Although, I make a few specific suggestions (e.g., change all of your passwords), the article focuses on the notion of how to make good resolutions and to focus on what makes the most sense for you.

As I say in the column, “Think of resolutions as first steps that are simple, easy to accomplish and targeted toward areas that will reduce friction between you and the rapidly changing world of technology.”

I highlight four areas you might want to focus on for 2011.

1. Protect Yourself. Examples include change all of your passwords or get a password management program.

2. Spruce Up Your Online Presence. Examples include refreshing your design, updating pictures and visiting your profiles on online directories.

3. Learn. Pick a technology topic, program or feature (track changes, email management, PowerPoint) and take a class or find other ways to learn it well. Or subscribe to a podcast like The Kennedy-Mighell Report to keep up-to-date on legal technology developments and topics.

4. Innovate. I like to try one new technology every year. I think this is my year of the Mac. 2011 might be a good year for you to try a cloud computing application.

The money quote:

Technology is definitely complicated, but lawyers have to keep up. The best way is to have some written resolutions that help you take small steps. Go for easy wins, build momentum and surprise peopleóincluding yourselfówith how far you can go in 2011.

Check out the article here.

Tom Mighell and I also discuss this topic, with a strong focus on how to make resolutions that you will actually complete, in a recent episode of the Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter ñ @dkennedyblog. Follow me ñ @denniskennedy

The Lawyerís Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools