Here are recent posts from the microblog:

Ron Friedmann – The Inside Counsel Law Department Innovation Winners – http://bit.ly/czKCdb

2010 InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey released – http://bit.ly/aQW5D8 – #ilta10

Unfortunately, I can’t make it to the ILTA Conference, but will follow the #ilta10 hashtag. http://bit.ly/aRv2q8

Join @tommighell, @catherinereach and me on 8/19 for webinar on “Creating Your Online Presence” – http://bit.ly/cpbJ7b

New blog post about new Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast: “The Siteless Web Presence” – http://bit.ly/aQjdiV

Kevin Kelly: Google Drawing is “the best simple drawing program there is” – http://bit.ly/8XK8Pb

In Their Own Words – BBC’s archive of interviews with British novelists – http://bbc.in/a8kM57

New blog post about upcoming “Creating Your Online Presence” webinar on Thursday – http://bit.ly/cpbJ7b

RT @InsideLegal: Microsoft’s legal cloud strategy explained by Norm Thomas http://ow.ly/2pVI5 #ilta10

Adam Smith, Esq. – You Can Ignore 5 of These Trends: But Only 5 – http://bit.ly/deXlJw

Ron Friedmann: A New Generation of Online Legal Services? http://bit.ly/cfZSra

Dave Snowden wonders why people say the things they do in public on the phone. And so do we all. http://bit.ly/d5e3J2

Jack Vinson: “Make sense personally and with the group” – http://bit.ly/aX6TXs – why people blog

Olivia Mitchell: Are you ready for the third era in presenting? http://bit.ly/9ugy4i I’m a big fan of Open Space Technology

Vanessa Fox: Knowledge is a mashup (Smithsonian Commons project) – http://oreil.ly/ciim6c

RT @ABATECHSHOW: Tom Mighell, David Bilinsky and Dennis Kennedy team up for Creating Your Online Presence: http://bit.ly/arAJPm #techshow

Curt Hopkins: I Don’t Know Much About Art But I Know What’s Online – http://bit.ly/9vL6GI

New blog post: A Podcast Listener’s Guide – http://bit.ly/9o0LuF – a new episode of Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast

Encyclopedia Britannica Blog: Remembering Hiroshima (Picture Essay of the Day) – http://bit.ly/avIXTX

RT @TomMighell: In the latest episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, we offer A Podcast Listener’s Guide: http://bit.ly/caX9H2

RT @FredFaulknerIV: Google Wave finds itself delegated to the shelf. Let’s see what gets inc. into other Google tools. http://bit.ly/bg3ixC

New blog post: Powering Up Your Personal Productivity – Podcast http://bit.ly/a3HNJK

Scott Scheper: The To Do List Secret Everybody Ought to Know – http://bit.ly/cr4Hwh – a helpful 80/20 rule

RT @collabtools: The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies – 20% off this week! http://bit.ly/aoafoA

New Kennedy-Mighell Report,podcast featuring @allisonshields: Powering Up Your Personal Productivity – http://bit.ly/doNtd0

New blog post: Ten Tips for Technology Committees – http://bit.ly/cn0Xmp

Adam Pash: Four Solid Methods for Getting Back Your Lost Thumb Drive – http://bit.ly/c6Msa4

Contracts and document assembly: Best of Exari Blog, part 1 – http://bit.ly/dzi5lj [Great blogging idea too]

Alexandra Samuel: 10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life – http://bit.ly/d7g69k

Elinor Mills: What to do with passwords once you create them – http://bit.ly/9fjTxo

New blog post – “Power Panels – Tips for Tech Committees” – http://bit.ly/9hoy7w

New blog post: “Lawyers as Project Managers – Podcast” – http://bit.ly/9g2VGT – Kennedy-Mighell Report legal tech podcast

New blog post: “The Summer of the Smartphone – Podcast” – http://bit.ly/aizgHn

Lucy Kellaway: “It’s time sack job appraisals” – http://bit.ly/bWATuK – eye-opening perspectives on performance reviews

Nick Morgan: 10 Rules for Presenting as a Team – http://bit.ly/dbmoRj (great advice for panels too)

Glen Alleman: “What did we get for the money we spent?” and other top questions for project managers – http://bit.ly/bb0PpM

Nat Torkington: Clue is a renewable resource – http://oreil.ly/c0PF1h

Sad to learn of death of tax legend Marty GInsburg, one of my favorite Georgetown law profs – http://bit.ly/d6CpsV

5 tips for an effective technology committee – http://bit.ly/adIIV9 – my new ABA Journal column

Aliza Sherman: “Identifying Your Social Media Triad” – http://bit.ly/bQek4H – presence, reach and interaction

The Summer of the Smartphone http://bit.ly/9D9VjJ – new episode of Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast

From Greatest American Lawyer – “iPad for Lawyers: The Easiest Access to Information” – http://bit.ly/aTpvQu

Simplifying Legal Technology Strategies – new episode of Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast – http://bit.ly/aKOGw5

Posted a new collection of microblog posts on DennisKennedy.Blog – http://bit.ly/9IRAsy

[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 episode (#36) description:

The conventional wisdom has long been that your website, or perhaps your blog, should be at the core of your web presence. Today, your Internet presence is likely to consist of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts, and a variety of other places people can find you. Is this expansion of “presence” changing the common wisdom and bringing us to what’s been called the “Siteless Web”? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the changing Internet environment, whether a website really matters anymore, and how to manage your multi-faceted presence on the Internet.

My friend Ernie the Attorney used to say sometimes that when he didn’t know what he thought about something, he would write a blog post just to learn what he actually thought.

In this episode, Tom and I took that approach. We knew that we wanted to think about the topic of the “Siteless Web” as a way to get a few thoughts together for the webinar we’re doing tomorrow, but we weren’t sure what those thoughts would be. So, rather than go into the podcast with an agenda, we decided just to talk about the topic and see where it led us.

We hope you like this approach.

The “Siteless Web Presence” refers to the potential movement away from a central website or blog to which you direct your audience and have control over what information they get to decentralized web presence that recognizes, especially in the world of social media, that you may have audiences that don’t go to your website or blog, but get information about you and from you in a variety of ways and ways in which you might not have the same degree of control as a website or blog.

Tom sets out a structural way to think about this based on some of Chris Brogan’s writings, emphasizing the idea of a “home base” and “outposts.”

Not surprisingly, I push the idea a bit further than most would and suggest we consider the idea of a number of “personal portals” that link to a variety of our web presences and recognize that our audiences vary and come to us in differnet ways.

Is it time to move away from websites and blogs? I don’t think quite yet, but it’s important to think about what the future holds. I will say that if I didn’t already have a longstanding website or blog, I might consider going directly to some of the “siteless” approaches.

In our “stuff Tom and Dennis have been talking about” segment, we take on one aspect of the “siteless web” – Facebook presence, and discuss our thinking about whether it makes sense to create a fan page for our podcast and how we would go about doing that. You get to eavesdrop on our thought process and I think that you’ll find this segment helpful if you are considering how to bring your business into Facebook.

We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom loads up with a trifecta of Google tips – dragging and dropping Gmail attachments, file conversion, and how to see what Google knows about your social circle. I try an parting shot embedded within a parting shot – recommending the Legal Toolbox podcast and an episode called “The Use of SaaS in the Legal Field” as a great introduction for lawyers to cloud computing, and then a tip from the podcast to try to visit an actual data center if you are considering cloud computing options. If you can’t make an in person visit, there are video tours (example) you can find on the Web. I predict it will change the way you think about cloud computing.

Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are here. And try some of the back episodes as well. You can also now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.

[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

The webinar features as speakers the noted experts Tom Mighell and Dave Bilinsky. I’ll be part of the webinar as moderator of the session. I’ve seen the slides already and can tell you that you can expect to learn a lot from this presentation.

Here’s the program description:

In this digital era, clients and prospects expect lawyers to be savvy about their firm’s Web presence. Learn from our experts how to create an effective online presence that works for your practice, your clients and your target audience. Determine which options are wise, based upon your areas of practice, geographical location and your “online personality.” Adding your firm to online directories/legal directories such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Avvo, RocketLawyer and Justia will be discussed. Our speakers will also discuss how to setup a blog and whether this is a helpful service to your clients or prospective clients. The pros and cons of using free or lawyer-specific blogging platforms will be part of this discussion. You will walk away from this session with the ability to take the social media plunge, having seen practical examples of how to setup your own Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Take the plunge!

The webinar will take place on Thursday, August 19 at 1:00 PM-2:30 PM Eastern (12:00 PM-1:30 PM Central; 11:00 AM-12:30 PM Mountain; 10:00 AM-11:30 AM Pacific).

Registration and other details may be found here.

There’s a nice discount for ABA Law Practice Management Section members. Even better, there’s a nice discount for ABA members who join the LPM Section in connection with this webinar – definitely a win-win proposition.

Hope to “see” you at the webinar. As moderator, if you want to send me a question ahead of time, please do so.

[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 episode (#35) description:

Lawyers have started to dabble in listening to and creating podcasts. Most of the emphasis we see is on how to create podcasts. However, listening regularly to podcasts can bring you a treasure trove of timely and practical information, especially if you don’t have time to read everything in your “to read” stack. In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell offer some great tips and techniques for improving your use of podcasts, making the most of your listening time, and generally opening the doors to an underused information resource.

I’ve talked to a number of people recently who listen to the occasional podcast, but don’t really seem to take advantage of greats ways to use podcasts. People tell me that they listen to podcasts they find a direct link to or they visit the website of a podcast to download an episode from time to time. In most cases, they don’t seem to take advantage of the best way to consume podcasts – subscribing to them.

At the same time, I noticed that most of the articles and posts I see about podcasts, especially for lawyers, seem to focus on whether and how to produce your own podcast.

As in most aspects of the Internet these days, you can get benefit from being a producer or a consumer. Too often, people neglect the significant benefits of becoming a smart consumer of content. Hence, the idea for this podcast.

I’ve listened to audio content (books on tape, seminars, CDs, etc.) for many years. I’m definitely an audio learner.

I also noticed several years ago that you could listen to commercial radio on a short car trip and never hear anything other than commercials or DJ promotional chatter for your whole trip. Even National Public Radio, which reduces the “commercials,” still gives you the audio content in the order they want.

As we mention several times in the podcast, the key way to think about podcasts is as “Tivo for radio.” This is especially true since organizations like NPR make so much of their daily content available for free later as podcasts. By subscribing to podcasts, you can listen to programs when you want, where you want and in the ways you want. You might listen on an iPod or on your computer, in your car or office or while working out.

Two key points:

First, the big benefit I see to podcasts is the control it gives you as a listener. You can determine what you listen to when and where. It’s difficult to overestimate the value of portability. If you use iTunes, you also are able to use its control features (organizing into playlists, listening at double speed, et al.).

Second, you really need to take advantage of the ability to subscribe to podcasts, either through iTunes or via an RSS feed. By subscribing, the podcasts automatically come to you and you never have to go out again and look for individual episodes. Your task becomes one of management rather than finding.

We go into all of this in a good amount of detail on the podcast. I think you’ll find it helpful.

As a note, if Tom seems surprised at one point, it’s because he actually was surprised that he had convinced me to change my approach and use the method he uses. I actually am willing to consider good ideas and and make changes based on them.

In our “Questions and Answers” segment, we anticpate our audience question (i.e., “What podcasts do you listen to?”) and provide a list (and mini-reviews) of some of our favorite podcasts these days. You can put together a pretty good list just by taking notes from this section.

We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom, a huge fan of e-books, recommends Calibre as an e-book management tool. I note a great little Internet Explorer 8 tip our friend Adriana Linares tweeted recently – simply hitting the key will reveal the standard menus (File, Edit, View, etc.) at the top that are missing from the standard view in IE8. It’s a simple tip that can make your life just a little easier.

Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are here. And try some of the back episodes as well. You can also now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.

[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 episode description:

“Do more with less” is a mantra of the day. One of the great promises of the day is that technology will organize and optimize us, as computers take over the work we don’t need to do and make our lives easier. The reality feels more like a jammed email inbox, a mountain of to-do lists and technology we often fight with. In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell and special guest Allison Shields, discuss the importance of improving personal productivity and the role technology, when done well, can play in optimizing your work, enhancing your productivity and simplifying your life.

We haven’t had a guest host for a while and we wanted to talked about personal productivity. When it comes to personal productivity for lawyers, law practice management consultant Allison Shields of LawyerMeltdown.com and the Legal Ease Blog is certainly the first person I think of. She has published many articles, blog posts and podcasts on personal productivity for lawyers. All of them are highly practical and she speaks/writes in ways that lawyers can understand, presenting great information that you can put into immediate use. Tom and I were very pleased that she was able to fit a visit to our podcast into her busy schedule.

There’s a lot of great information and discussion about personal productivity in this podcast. In my opinion, anyone who listens to the podcast will take away at least one great tip that will help make his or her life a little easier than it is today.

We launch in with the basic, troubling question of whether technology designed to make us more productive has actually made us feel less productive and more overwhelmed than ever before. Our answers might surprise you. Then, it’s on to the impact of billing time on productivity, the central role of email management and whether there might be a “magic bullet.” If there’s a magic bullet, I haven’t found it. We also discuss the importance of seeing productivity as a process.

Allison offers a very useful way to think about categories of productivity and the need to assess where you have the biggest needs and what tools best address those needs.

We try to end on a note of hope, even though improving productivity is an ongoing battle for all of us.

In our “Questions and Answers” segment, we ask Allison “What are your best tips for improving personal productivity using technology?” Allison has some great ideas, especially about using calendars, and Tom and I chime in with a few tips of our own.

We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Allison notes that effective use of Outlook is a key element in improving productivity and recommends Ben Schorr’s The Lawyer’s Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007. She also raves about an online scheduler called Tungle. Tom is also a fan of Tungle, and offers the new EverNote Trunk as his parting shot. EverNote Trunk is described as “a showcase of great apps and products that makes your Evernote experience more awesome.” I maintain that David Allen’s works are essential to understanding personal productivity and highly recommend his books, Getting Things Done and Making It All Work, and some GTD blogs and websites, including David’s website (lots of free resources) and the blog GTD Times.

Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are here. And try some of the back episodes as well. You can also now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.

[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

After I wrote my previous post about my recent ABA Journal column on law firm technology committees, I went back to see what I had done for the 2006 webinar I did on my top ten tips for tech committees. It turns out that the slides I did were very visual (in the Beyond Bullet Points style), so it doesn’t make sense to post them. However, I did find the handout I did for the session, which I write in an article format. As best I can tell (or remember), it hasn’t been published before outside the actual webinar. I decided that I should post it on my blog as a companion to the earlier column. And because I don’t like the idea of a good article not being available to the public, It appears below. I didn’t edit it, so there might be some 2006-ish outdated references, but it still should work pretty well. Your feedback will be appreciated.

Dennis Kennedy’s Top Ten Tips for Technology Committees

It might be a question: “Would you like to be on the firm’s technology committee?” It might be an assignment: “We’ve put you on the firm’s technology committee?” But, however it starts, one day you find yourself on your law firm’s tech committee. Maybe you even find that you are chairing it.

You know a few things right away. First, you won’t see anything extra in the pay envelope for this mission. Second, this appointment probably has more to do with the fact that you seem to know your way around a computer more so than you know what is required to meet the technology needs of a law firm. Third, based on my experience, you will quickly find that a word like “paucity” seems quite appropriate to describe the resources that are available to help you learn about your assignment.

The technology needs and goals of law firms can vary dramatically, depending on the size of the firm, areas of practice, firm culture and other factors. A firm’s historical experience with technology can have a dramatic impact many years after a negative experience, and every firm has at least one horrifying bad technology experience in its history. It’s also the case that technology committees often get started in response to a problem. They also get started and continue to exist in an effort to bridge the large and growing communication gap between lawyers and IT staff.

With that in mind, I wanted to draw upon my own experience on technology committees and working with and talking to many lawyers on tech committees to offer my top ten tips for technology committees and lawyers on technology committees. These are not “cure-alls.” They are not even specific things that you must do. However, they will help you have better success with your committee experience, improve the technology situation at your firm and make your life a little easier.

1. On the Same Page: Know Your Starting Point.

Quite probably the most illuminating question that a technology committee, or a new member of a committee, can ask is: “How many computers does the firm own?” A simple question, but it is the rare firm that can come up with the answer with any certainty. Follow up that question with: “Do we have enough licenses of the software we use to cover all of those computers?”

These two questions will give you a sense of how tight a ship your firm is running and how well you know what you are dealing with.

A technology committee works best when it works with facts that are known. It’s hard enough to predict the future in technology, but it’s impossible to do so if you don’t start from what is known with certainty.

It’s vital to get everyone on the committee on the same page and working with actual facts. Tech committee meetings can quickly run off-target with all kinds of speculation. When you try to work without specific facts, your chance of wasting time go way up and your chances of making good decisions go down.

Recommendations: Nobody likes the word “audit,” but the fact is that some form of regular technology audit is a baseline requirement for any law firm technology committee. The potential savings from identifying unused, expensive and unnecessary resources alone will make these efforts worthwhile. The benefits you get from having committee members on the same page will pay off many times over.

2. Diversity Matters: Get the Right Mix of People.

The first technology committee I was on had a managing partner of the firm, the office manager, the IT director (in our case, she was the whole IT department), me (in the role of the lawyer who is very knowledgeable about technology and can act as the go-between the IT people and the lawyers), and an outside consultant who was helping us with big projects. This approach worked extremely well.

The second tech committee I was on, at a different firm, had perhaps a dozen people, including the IT director, but no executive committee members or outside consultants. It worked, but not nearly as effectively, in my opinion, and there was a tendency to talk about some topics over and over for months and months.

As a result, I tend to favor smaller committees rather than larger committees, but I do recommend that there be enough diversity. By diversity, I mean representation in various categories of job functions, practice areas, and points of view. Although it is important to have people on the committee who “get” technology, it is more important have people on the committee who understand the culture, practices and business of the firm. The larger your committee gets, the more diverse you want it to be. Be very open to including young lawyers. I like to suggest that you consider adding the least tech-savvy lawyer in your firm. It gives you both an opportunity to educate this lawyer and an important reality check on what technology might really work in your firm.

Tech committees, even more so than hiring committees, are a good assignment for senior associates in the year of two before they are up for partnership consideration. It’s a great way to see how they work with people and test their business judgment in a real world setting.

Recommendations: If you have a large committee, consider slimming it down or even moving to a smaller executive committee that uses the full committee as a sounding board. Look for representation from each of the constituencies and categories in your firm on the committee. Consider business judgment of a member to be at least as important as technical knowledge. Don’t be afraid to bring the most knowledgeable people into the committee, even if they are young, associates, paralegals or even staff.

3. Decision-maker on Board: Who Must Be on Your Committee?

I once read that the best question to ask about project management is “Who gets to say that the project is done?” A powerful question, because if that person is not involved and invested in the project, its chances of success diminish greatly.

When your tech committee meets, is the person who makes the ultimate decision sitting at that table? In my first tech committee, the necessary decision-maker was at the table and things got done. If the necessary decision-maker is not at the table, you end up with more of an intellectual exercise.

There are different approaches on this issue. Tech committees can work quite well if the tech committee chair has the ear of the necessary decision-maker, but I prefer to see the decision-makers sitting at the table.

Recommendations: Ask the question. Do you have the necessary people at the table? If you include the IT director, office manager and a managing partner or member of the executive committee, you probably will have a very productive tech committee.

4. One Solid Strategy: A Prudent Portfolio Approach.

When I write or speak about legal technology trends each year, I can easily list ten or twenty (or more) important trends in legal technology. Lawyers and staff in your firm will always be bringing you more ideas. If you read the resources in legal technology, you can add even more items to your list.

From that, you might easily generate hundreds of potential projects. What you must do is the align technology projects with the firm’s business goals and mesh technology with what is needed to support the practice areas of the firm and help lawyers provide excellent work to satisfied and happy clients. That’s easier said than done, of course, and it’s easy to go down the path of doing technology for technology’s sake, because it’s cool, everybody else is doing it or one of many other justifications.

It’s also easy to “stick to your knitting” and only focus on conservative projects that relate to IT infrastructure and leave your lawyers literally years behind current versions of today’s software. Most law firms are reluctant to try any novel and creative (i.e., risky) IT projects.

If we look to the finances services sector and the Nobel Prize winning modern portfolio theory, we can find some answers. In modern portfolio theory, the focus is on diversification of assets, investing in a basket of assets that combine all categories of risk and reward. The learning in modern portfolio theory is that, paradoxically, investing only in the “safest” class of assets may be the most “risky” course you can take. For example, if you invest in low-interest, AAA long-term bonds (very safe) and go through a period of high inflation, your “safe” investment was not safe at all.

As a result, the prudent approach is not simply to focus on low-risk, low-return investments, but to diversify. Adding a portion of higher-risk, higher-return assets is, in fact, the safest move to make, especially in the long term. We then establish the appropriate mix of investments in line with our investment personality, risk tolerance and short-term vs. long-term needs.

If we move this notion over to technology committees, we see that a prudent technology committee will develop a strategy that begins to look like a mixed portfolio. This approach will help a firm develop a mix of projects that will help balance failed projects (and there will be some) and position the firm to exploit wise bets on newer technologies, rather than always focusing on infrastructure and being reactive.

Recommendations: Do a quick assessment of your firm’s priorities and projects by assessing them to the appropriate risk/reward categories and see how diversified your portfolio really is. Start to address any imbalance. Consider the difference between “prudent” and cautious. Use the portfolio approach in connection with the idea of business alignment to make some experiments in technologies, especially those that appeal to clients, and that might have some risk, but may pay off very well in the long-term.

5. Measure Results: Determine What is Working.

In most firms, a technology project will get done (and, in some case, will never get done), and the firm will move on. It is rare to see a firm that measures results on technology projects. What was the initial budget? What did it really cost? What was promised? What was delivered? Everyone likes to talk about return on investment (ROI) to justify a new project, but are you willing to compare the projected ROI with the real ROI.

At least a modest amount of measure and assessment is vital for technology committees. You want to operate from facts, not speculation, and definitely not from rosy memories. In some tech committee meetings, people will remember unmitigated disasters as successful projects. Show me the numbers.

I’m suggesting that you need detailed financial evaluations. I’m looking for some back of the envelope calculations that I can use as rules of thumb for future projects. If I know that it invariably takes twice as long as estimated to do a project in house, for example, then I can make a better-informed decision about outsourcing.

Ultimately, you want to approve of projects that have similar characteristics to other successful projects and not approve, or pull the plug on, projects that have similar characteristics to unsuccessful projects. By focusing on facts and the real numbers, a technology can do more good in this area than anywhere else and, as a side benefit, eliminate interminable discussions based on speculation and vague memories of other projects.

Recommendations: Take a recent project and calculate an estimated ROI on it. Identify one recent successful project and one unsuccessful project and see if you can identify the distinguishing characteristics. Look at a few ongoing projects and compare estimated costs to actual costs.

6. Tools for Lawyers: Aligning with a Firm’s Core Business.

When I was a young associate, new to the job, I got up the courage one morning to talk to a managing partner and make the case why I felt that I needed a computer on my desk and that, otherwise, I simply did not have the tools I needed to do my job. A year later . . . I had an old Wang word processing terminal on my desk and was as happy as could be and was the envy of other associates and a few partners.

A significant portion of my legal career was spent as a partner in a law firm. My point of view reflects that.

I often say that there have been three stages in legal technology. In the first, the needs of the staff (word processing, et al) were the key factor. In the most recent stage, the needs of the IT department (network stability, standardization, et al) took center stage. In the third stage, the focus is on what tools do lawyers need to do their work in a way that is most responsive to clients and efficient and easy for lawyers.

The core business of most law firms is to generate optimal income from the fee-earners. Too often, I see that take a second seat to standardization and conservative approaches. For example, there is now a current trend to move lawyers away from notebook computers back to desktop computers to save a few dollars and make it easier for IT departments to maintain computers, despite the push from clients and others toward mobile computing. Ask a lawyer at a firm of any size how difficult it would be to get a Tablet PC.

A big part of the role of a tech committee is to represent and convey the needs of the working lawyer.

Recommendations: Determine whether you would characterize your firm as in the first, second or third stage of legal technology. Remind yourself to ask follow-up questions whenever the concerns and wishes of lawyers are summarily over-ridden. Determine in what ways new technology projects makes the work of lawyers easier or harder.

7. It’s Good to Ask: Client Surveys and Client-focus.

I’ve also talked about a fourth stage of legal technology – the era of client-driven technology. Here, the initiative for technology change comes from clients and technology is chosen because of its impact on clients. This means that technology should make it easier for the client to work with and stay with the firm.

At this point, it’s quite rare to see fourth stage law firms, but there are a growing number of examples. However, it is growing increasingly common to see significant push from clients on their firms to move the firms toward client-facing technologies. E-billing and extranets are two common examples.

As you probably know, clients were responsible for the sea change that occurred when the vast majority of firms switched from WordPerfect to Microsoft Word as the primary word processing software. I have talked with many clients of law firms who are frustrated by incompatibilities, difficulties and other problems in using technology to communicate, work and collaborate with law firms.

At the same time, these clients, in many cases, are willing to work with law firms to improve the technology tools and arrive at common platforms. Almost all would respond to a technology survey.

If there is a single item that should be on every technology committee’s agenda, it would be this area of client-driven technology.

Recommendations: Put this topic on the agenda for your next meeting. Ask all lawyers what they are hearing from their clients on this topic. Consider creating and using a technology survey, possibly even in conjunction with new client engagement letters.

8. Less is Better than More: Focusing Your Agenda.

You can easily have too many items on your agenda. If you feel like there are too many issues to cover, it’s probably because there are too many issues to cover.

Tech committee agendas can be very frustrating. It’s rare to make it through the whole list. Topics like document retention policies and technology use policies might initially be allocated a ten minute segment and you may still be discussing them months later.

Your best approach is to pick a few main areas to address for a given year and make those a priority. Forget about covering every potential topic. Find some that will provide the most benefit and concentrate on doing them really well.

Recommendations: Try to reach a consensus, or at least a majority vote, on the three big issues you want to address. You can change them later if you need to. It does make sense to see what your competitors and clients are focusing on. In 2006 and probably for several more years, electronic discovery should be one of the big agenda items.

9. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask: Getting Outside Help.

As I mentioned, our outside technology consultant sat in our technology committee meetings. He was there as a sounding board and a way to give us a reality check. He also understood what our concerns were, the business issues we wanted to address and the ways lawyers worked.

The approach of using an outside tech consultant is relatively unusual, but the use of outside advice is quite common. Unfortunately, it tends to be word of mouth and very anecdotal. I’ve seen major project plans scuttled at the last minute because someone talked to a brother-in-law’s friend whose company might have tried something similar and it was a disaster. In other cases, law firms in a given city all may use the same programs because everyone heard that some other firm used it. Is that the best way to make decisions?

Based on my experience, getting expert outside help for your committee on a project basis or an ongoing basis is an attractive way to go. In our case, we got expert advice, a reality test and an education about technology and our options. Many of the legal technology consultants I know are excellent educators. Other benefits include knowledge of many software and hardware options, standards and practices in the industry, and access to other experts and vendors.

There are a number of approaches to take along these lines. I would suggest that you either hire someone who will be independent and not bidding on future projects or you simply invite your current outside consultant to the meetings.

IT people often lament that they simply are not aware of all of the legal software options and, increasingly, hosted services for legal applications.

Recommendations: Give this option careful consideration. This approach benefits both lawyers and IT directors and staff. Ask your IT director whether this approach might be helpful. Consider the knowledge of the legal technology vendors that your firm has and the access it has to high-level executives at legal technology vendors. If you have communications issues between lawyers and IT, especially if there are questions about competence and direction, this approach will be an important one to consider.

10. Preventing Surprises: This is Job #1.

I wanted my last tip to sum up in two words everything I have learned about law firm technology committees over the years. I wanted to describe what I thought the main purpose of these committees is.

My answer is: “preventing surprises.”

We’ve reached a point where people expect technology to be stable, to do what they expect and, frankly, to do almost anything. That’s because on the Internet and in other industries, people use technology routinely to do things that seem magical.

Lawyers and other employees look to a tech committee to make sure that they are not surprised by changes in the ways they do their work. Managers look to the tech committee to make good recommendation and bring important issues to their attention so that there are no surprises, financial or otherwise. IT departments look to tech committees to make sure that they are focused on the right priorities and that they are not surprised to find that they have been heading in the wrong direction.

In large part, the primary role of a tech committee and a tech committee member is to improve the level of communication about technology among all constituent groups in a law firm. In part, the role is one of education. In part, the role is one of a visionary. In part, the role is one of a hard-headed realist with an eye on the business of the firm and the bottom line.

If you tell a manager partner or executive committee that the only thing you will accomplish with your tech committee is to prevent surprises, they will be very happy indeed.

Recommendations: Begin implementing the previous nine tips. Look for surprises. Be willing to surface issues before they become problems. Talk to and listen to all constituencies in your firm.

Conclusion.

Putting together a technology committee or serving on a technology committee can be difficult and you may have difficulty find the help and resources you need. However, the role of technology committees in law firms has become increasingly important to the success and viability of firms. With the ten tips you find in this article, you can have better success with your committee experience, improve the technology situation at your firm and make your life a little easier.

[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’ve been part of or assisted with a number of law firm technology committees over the years. I’ve also been impressed by how hard lawyers on technology committees work to evaluate options, balance the needs of competing constituencies, and attempt to make good strategic and tactical decisions.

Law firm tech committees do all of this without much in the way of reference materials and support groups. In fact, if you get appointed to your firm’s tech committee, you will quickly notice that there is not much guidance out there.

Unfortunately, if you do a Google search on law firm technologies committees today, you’ll actually find a a very promisely-sounding webinar that I did that is no longer available. I still get the occasional inquiry about that seminar. Maybe I’ll see if I can post the handout or slides for that seminar in a future post.

In the weak moments when I think about writing another book, I think that that book would be a handbook for lawyers on technology committees. Then I come to my senses.

As a technology topic topic, law firm tech committees are a topic of vital importance to, well, members of tech committees, especially the new-appointed. To the rest of lawyers, not so much. I’ve noticed that my recent ABA Journal columns have started to draw a fair number of comments. In the case of this new column on tech committees – none. You are more than welcome to make a comment after you read the article just to make me feel noticed.

To the new column:

The idea here was to put together a basic primer and give a set of my five favorite simple and practical tips for law firm tech committees.

I discuss how every firm large or small actually has a formal or informal “tech committee” that makes decisions. It would be rare that only one person makes key tech decisions in isolation. I also point out the several roles tech committees play.

My five tips:

1. Diversify membership.

2. Enhance IT relationships.

3. Set a simple strategy.

4. Monitor return on investment.

5. Consider outside help.

If you are a lawyer interested in technology, being part of your firm’s tech committee can be rewarding, help the firm and give you a practical outlet for your tech interest. It’s also the best way to have significant input on the technology you will use.

I’d definitely like to hear your reactions to this article and to the topic.

Check out the article here.

If there’s interest, I might dig up some of my writings about tech committees and post them onthis blog or as a PDF.

[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 episode description:

It’s what you do with the technology after you get it that really matters. A hot area these days in legal technology is the use of technology for project management, especially in e-discovery. But e-discovery is not the only place we’re seeing project management discussions. In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell take a look at the impact project management concerns will play in technology choices, the evolution of legal project management skills and practices, and the increasing role project management is already playing in the practice of law.

It seems that a day rarely goes by where I don’t see several blog posts and articles about the growing role project management is playing in the practice of law.

In a sense, it’s a bit of a surprise to see the emphasis in 2010, because the idea has been around for quite a while. I had written about using a program called The MasterList because of its project management focus back in my 2002 legal tech trends article, an article also noteworthy for my confident prediction about the role blogs could play. Ironically, it was a prediction I confidently made more than a year before I got around to starting my own blog. Tom and I also dedicated a chapter of our book to the role of project management tools in collaboration efforts.

On the other hand, there’s no doubt that the growing emphasis on e-discovery has re-energized and brought a new focus to the role project management can play in the practice of law, and Tom and I dive into this very important topic.

We cover the waterfront, from difference between case manaagement and project management to whether project manage is a necessary lawyer skill today to the huge benefits good project managers bring to projects.

One of the great things I’ve found is that project management skills can definitely be taught and learned. Project management is also a great example of an approach to fit your technology into your real-world needs.

In our “Questions and Answers” segment, we take on two audience questions:

1. Is there a good way to manage or delete Facebook friends with whom I no longer want to be “friends”? (Yes – and we outline a couple of approaches)

2. Is there a way that I can easily go back and look through old tweets, Facebook posts and other social media updates? (yes – there are ways, but probably not so easily as you’d wish)

We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom thinks it’s time to take a closer look at Google Voice and recommends a blog post on the top 10 clever Google Voice tricks. I rave about Rodney Dowell’s recent episode of The Un-Billable Hour titled “Outsourcing Legal Work to India – Even Solos Do it and Nick Morgan’s recent blog post “10 Rules for Presenting as a Team.

Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are here. And try some of the back episodes as well. You can also now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.

[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 episode description:

The demand for pre-orders for the new iPhone 4 knocked out the AT&T order site on the first day. It seems like someone announces a new Android phone every few days. HP recently bought Palm. And the love affair between lawyers and BlackBerries seems to be cooling off . . . maybe. There’s never been a more confusing time to be looking for a smartphone. In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell survey the current smartphone landscape, try to make sense of where we are and where we are going, and offer some guidance, tips and opinions on the ever-changing world of smartphones.

The episode was recorded about three weeks ago and, if anything, it seems like the consensus that we have arrived at the smartphone era is growing faster than we expected. For example, I saw reports recently that Nokia had commented that the demand for smartphones was knocking down sales of traditional cellphones.

We started with John Pazkowski’s recent humorous headline on Digital Daily: “Analysts Raise iPhone 4 Sales Forecasts from Huge to Ginormous.”

Since I have historically struggled with even the rudimentary use of a phone, I’m delighted to find that phones are becoming more like computers.

Tom and I share our thoughts on the iPhone 4, Android phones and other shartphones and give our tips for selecting and purchasing a smartphone. For me, it’s difficult not to consider the carrier as the key factor in your decision.

In our “stuff Dennis and Tom have been talking about lately” segment, we bat around the question whether Tom and I should create an iPhone app for our podcast, book and other projects. Tom remains dubious, but the conversation will help you consider some of the factors that come into play when looking into the iPhone app platform.

A few days after we recorded the episode, I convinced myself that Facebook (fan page or application) was a better route to take than an iPhone app, even though I remain intrigued by the idea of creating an iPhone app.

We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom recommends Judgepedia, “an interactive encyclopedia of courts and judges.” I recommend a favorite podcast of mine – the BBC’s A History of the World in 100 Objects.

Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are here. And try some of the back episodes as well. You can also now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.

[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 episode description:

Law firms tend to struggle with setting technology strategies. They get as far as forming technology committees, yet often give them little or no direction. Are there some simple ways to set your underlying technology strategy and keep your firm on course? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss a simple approach to technology strategy based on familiar investment principles, the importance of diversification and an easy visual approach to help make things happen.

This podcast grew out of an article I wrote that appeared in April in the ABA’s Law Practice Today webzine called ““Putting Diversification at the Center of Your Firm’s Technology Strategy – Using a Simple Grid” (download PDF version here).

I’ve always found that law firms have, at best, some kind of vague and amorphous default strategy they use when making technology decisions. This approach does not serve them well. In the article and the podcast, I try to put forth a simple strategy I’ve found helpful that can be put together using one sheet of paper and a simple grid. I draw on analogies from investing, portfolio management and diversification and attmept to apply them to legal technology decision-making. Tom and I talk about the approach in some detail. This approach forces you to think in terms of risk and return (or cost and benefit). If you are trying to come up with some kind of strategy for technology decisions, let me suggest this as a starting point. It synthesizes a lot of the ideas I’ve had about legal technology over the years into one simple package.

We also take on the topic of “social media experts and gurus” in our “stuff Dennis and Tom have been talking about lately” segment. In part, it’s a semi-serious bit of whining about why, even though Tom and I have been using social media forever (i.e., more than 3 years), we never get referred to as “social media gurus.” More so, it’s a discussion of the history of web pioneers and early adopters as compared to the role of the “explainers” and teachers. My contention is that the early movers tend to be focused on “just doing it” and aren’t as able to clearly analyze, categorize and explain what they are doing, which is something that a later round of adopters can often see and set out. With my own blog, I was so concentrated on writing to reach a new audience that I didn’t think much about “best practices” and “rules.” If asked to speak or write an article on blogging, I might do that, but I noticed that others tended to study what bloggers were doing and systematize it. That sometimes resulted in the odd feeling I’d get when reading an article that indicated I was breaking all the “rules” of blogging for lawyers or, worse, that my blog wasn’t technically even a blog. Tom and I have a great conversation and I recommend it to you as a springboard for more discussion on the topic. Just a reminder: we always welcome your questions for future Q&A segments.

We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom recommends a cool tool called Soluto that can help you speed up the start process when you turn on your computer. I take a moment to honor the passing of John Wooden and then give a great tip I found to help you turn spoken word recordings in iTunes into recordings that can be listened to at double speed.

Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are here. And try some of the back episodes as well. You can also now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.

[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 recent posts from the microblog:

Richard MacManus: How to Manage Your News Consumption in the Real-Time Web Era – http://bit.ly/cm1o8n

Hildebrandt Blog – Is Technology Strategic? – http://bit.ly/8Xr5PV – good companion piece to our new podcast: http://bit.ly/9bz7LA

Mitch Joel: The Types fo Twitter Stars – http://bit.ly/99IDZy – Your Twitter might not be my Twitter.

Jason Moore: MS Office Web Apps on SkyDrive now available to everyone in US, UK, Canada & Ireland. http://bit.ly/aYCBtg

Jack Vinson on “It Takes Two to Tango: Email Version” – http://bit.ly/cujqZ4 – Email “pingpong” & “the email disease”

“Toot Suites” – My new ABA Journal column about office software choices: http://bit.ly/aVbT4z

Jack Vinson and Rick Brenner on Project Management Fallacies – http://bit.ly/cqvkM4

Patrick McKenna: Rules of Engagement – http://bit.ly/aVGEHg – toward eliminating dysfunctional meetings

RT @randyholloway: Also known as “Bring Your Own PC” (BYOPC). Check out: http://bit.ly/bv0GoX (re http://bit.ly/dqnJGf)

New blog post: Home Computers at Work, new episode of Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast – http://bit.ly/dqnJGf

How to delegate effectively – great podcast from @allisonshields via RocketMatter – http://bit.ly/diwwkO

Nature: Life after synthetic cell – http://bit.ly/bnFsGs (pdf); Venter’s TED talk – http://bit.ly/brS6V3

Richard McManus: 5 Use Cases for The Real-Time Web – http://bit.ly/9E8HgT

RT @econwriter5: New blog post: Open Source Applications Gaining Traction in Legal Profession – http://bit.ly/b6ik9k

RT @dhowell: A trademark Blawg Review, from @trademarkblog (and @mschwimmer): http://is.gd/cnHeH

Zack Stern: 10 Great Ways to Get More from Your iPad – http://bit.ly/aJ35j0

Yvonne DiVita recommends Social Media Marketing GPS from Toby Bloomberg – http://bit.ly/btWvIa

The Trademark Blog Is Eight Years Old Today – http://bit.ly/b3bLog

Great to see this morning’s return of new episodes to BBC’s History of the World in 100 Objects podcast – http://bit.ly/7XcK3S

New Kennedy-Mighell Report Podcast – Outsourcing Your Office Suite: http://bit.ly/agODfx – Hat tip to insidelegal for topic idea

RT @jackvinson: “it doesn’t matter how many projects we have running: it matters how many we finish.” http://bit.ly/dnums5

Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast (http://bit.ly/6s3rX) seeks audience questions for upcoming Q&A segments. Ask here: http://bit.ly/brJ95h

From @insidelegal: In Their Own Words: Bradford & Barthel’s “Operation Google Apps” -http://bit.ly/dpzauP

New blog post: “Social Media for Corporate Counsel – Upcoming Presentation” – http://bit.ly/csueIz

Tim O’Reilly: State of the Internet Operating System Part Two: Handicapping the Internet Platform Wars – http://oreil.ly/9NIBsJ

Great interview via Twitter with one of my favorite people, OKC IP attorney @douglassorocco – http://bit.ly/dk9Tbr

New blog post: “iPads and Lawyers” – http://bit.ly/aOalEh

Phil Windley: “Automatic Negotiation of Contracts Using Context” – http://bit.ly/aKRQCK – intersection of VRM and Law

New post on DennisKennedy.Blog re diversity-themed new issue of Law Practice Today and new articles: http://bit.ly/bjlssv

The 2010 Hardware Buyer’s Guide Episode – New Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast – http://bit.ly/9iQtDD

New article (co-written w/ @econwriter5): Open Source Software Primer for Solo & Small Firm Lawyers – http://bit.ly/9hCzPE

April issue of Law Practice Today focuses on diversity issues in in law practice management – http://bit.ly/djd2kK – A must-read

RT @jimcalloway: RT @internetcases Congrats to @rklau on new gig with Google Profiles: http://is.gd/bqimH (Everyone needs a Google profile)

Making some administrative and technical transitions at DennisKennedy.Blog. Expect return to regular posts soon.

RT @onedegreelaw: About to launch “non-RFP” for legal recruiters-much like One Degree Law Litigation Challenge from last year-who wants in?

My latest ABA Journal column looks at iPad implications for lawyers – http://bit.ly/9Mwhd8

RT @allisonshields: RT @TomMighell: #techshow edition of Kennedy-Mighell Report is up! with interviews: http://bit.ly/cr9IfY

John Pozadzides: “How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords” – http://bit.ly/d6LN1z – An eye-opener about need for strong passwords

Tim O’Reilly on the state of the Internet Operating System – http://oreil.ly/b2JsXl – must-read on “cloud computing”

Donna Papacosta: “Don’t Show Me Your First Draft” – http://bit.ly/9DqGAq – making the case for editing

Dale Dougherty: “The iPad needs its HyperCard” – http://oreil.ly/9nBmTi – HyperCard was such a great program.

Louis Gray: A Big 2010 Trend: Disaggregation and Social Network Focus http://bit.ly/bSjg8y

Rachel Happe: If I Started Today – http://bit.ly/aZqv9l – Solid advice for getting started in social media

Project Check: A Checklist for Checklists – http://bit.ly/9xVOyz

The best lawyer job opening in the country today? http://bit.ly/aGa8WI

Adam Singer: “Your Life Should Be On An Accelerated Learning Curve” – http://bit.ly/dCRP0B – Excellent advice

Jon Thomas: PowerPoint is NOT the Problem with Presentations Today – http://bit.ly/9GBJtM – “PowerPoint is just a tool.”

Jayne Navarre: Fear of Facebook: Part II: How to use Facebook privacy settings – http://bit.ly/cE8JY2; see also http://bit.ly/aGjanN

Check out the latest episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report Podcast on the Legal Talk Network – Simplifying Legal Technology Strategies

[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

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport

Technorati tags: legal technology microblog Law2.0 collaboration

Here’s the episode description:

Many lawyers now find that they have much newer, and better, computers, cell phones and software at home than they have at work. And some companies are looking to cut costs by requiring their employees to purchase their own equipment. Are these trends changing the way both lawyers and their firms handle technology in the workplace? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the implications of this new kind of “digital divide” and the changes we are already starting to see.

We had been thinking about this topic for a while and a great podcast called “Work-life balance: yesterday’s news?” from the Financial Times Digital Business podcast motivated us to feature this topic.

Here’s the basic premise. We’ve reached a point where many lawyers are likely to have better technology at home than the technology supplied by their firms and available at their offices. Because of the many different choices we have for our home computers, smart phones and the like, we are also likely to have home technology that we prefer to work with more so than standard firm-issue, one-size-fits-all computers and cell phones.

The question we discuss is: what are the implications, if any, of this trend?

We talk about different approaches we’ve seen to allowing awider variety of tech choices, allowing use of home equipment, and even approaches where employees might be required to provide their own computers. Of course, we delve into the potential benefits and risks of approches that involve use of home computers in the work setting, including support, security and even e-discovery implications. We give you plenty to think about.

We also take on a few audience questions. We always welcome your questions. We tackle the question whether it’s time to think about leaving Facebook (we don’t think so) and get Tom’s thoughts an interesting social media tool called Gist.

We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom recommends a book called Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. I recommend a simple free recording program called Freecorder 4 as a way to “tivo” a quick recording of the audio from a video that you can listen to later on your iPod.

Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are here. And try some of the back episodes as well. You can also now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.

[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 episode description:

A number of sites, including Google Apps, Zoho, Microsoft, and others, offer a set of standard “office suite” programs – word processing, spreadsheets, presentations – in an online format. We’ve seen some solos and small firms experiment with using Google Apps. Now, we’ve learned that a 200+ employee law firm has launched a major Google Apps implementation. Are we at the beginning of a new trend? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss this new initiative, the potential impact for the legal profession and whether an online office suite might play a role in your future.

In many ways, this podcast is a gentle introduction to the idea of cloud computing, with a focus on an everyday application. We look at where we are in office suites, with Office 2010 about to debut, the Open Source OpenOffice, Google Apps, other online office suites, Mac Office apps,and even a new version of WordPerfect vying for our attention. We discuss the options and how to think about making choices for you. The podcast also will help you think about what Tom and I mean by “collaboration tools and technologies.”

The podcast was also inspired by our friend JoAnna Forshee’s post “In Their Own Words: Law Firm Innovators Bradford & Barthel’s ‘Operation Google Apps’” and we thank her for bringing the topic to our attention.

In our “things we’ve been talking about” segment, Tom and I hit the highlights of the approachesd we are takling when we present about social media for lawyers.

We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom talks about ways to use DropBox for file-sharing in ways you might not expect. I recommend Microsoft Word 2007′s Document Inspector feature to examine metadata and understand what hidden data is in your documents.

Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are here. And try some of the back episodes as well. You can also now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.

[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’ll be co-presenting with legal ethics maven Mike Downey on social media and ethics for corporate counsel at the 29th Annual Corporate Counsel Institute in St. Louis on May 13. The Corporate Counsel Institute is the premier continuing legal education event for corporate counsel in St. Louis and is a joint production of the St. Louis Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.

I’m excited to get the chance to speak as part of what looks to be an excellent program. My friend, the well-known legal innovation expert, Matt Homann is the lunch speaker and that should be an excellent session.

I noticed that there is an early registration discount if you register by May 6.

Mike Downey and I will be offering a presentation called “Social Media: What’s New, What’s Dangerous and What’s Ethical?” and it qualifies for Missouri ethics credit.

If you know me, you won’t be surprised to learn that we won’t be offering the standard, plain vanilla, social media for lawyers session. In fact, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a program that has focused on the ethics issues for corporate counsel. You can expect a very practical approach designed to give you information you can use right away.

A word about the standard approach I’ve seen to this topic. It goes something like this:

A lawyer, often one with limited or even no experience in the actual use of social media, will launch into a litany of all the horrors associated with social media, usually focusing on events that happened a few years ago. That’s followed up with a brain-stormed list of even more terrible consequences that can come with the use of social media. That brings you to the first set of the presenter’s two conclusions, namely that there are “way more questions than answers” and that there might even be no definitive answers to any of the questions. Well, except for the one definitive answer that becomes the second, and most important conclusion – that the only way you can possibly deal with the horrors of social media is to hire the presenting lawyer and his or her firm to create a “social media policy” for you. Interestingly, this type of presentation echoes similar presentations from the days when blogging first became popular about “blogging policies,” and “website policies” before that, and “email policies” before that.

Now, those kinds of presentations have their place, but they don’t really interest me, and I suspect they don’t interest most lawyers, who definitely know how to spot issues and determine where the questions are, once they understand the lay of the land.

I heard a presentation of this type recently where the speaker actually said “I’m sure all of you in the audience know more about using social media than I do,” and still made the pitch for having his firm put together social media policies for you. OK. As I say, that type of presentation has its place, and it appears there’s plenty of audience for it.

I’ve always taken a different approach and audiences seem to respond to it. I think that lawyers want to get a solid understanding of what social media is, the basic tools, and see what the tools look like. I use a lot of screen shots. Then, I think they want to get an understanding of the benefits, not the horrors, so they can appreciate why millions of people are using these tools and what the potential uses for them might be. Add in some basic analytical approaches and most lawyers can run with the information, spot issues, and determine what matters for them. At least that’s what I think.

So, that’s the approach I’ll be taking and Mike will share his expertise and experience on ethical issues. We’ll also talk about policies in a practical context.

If this approach appeals to you and you are in St. Louis, I’d be happy to see you in the audience. As always, after any presentation I do, I’ll make myself as available as possible to answer questions during the rest of the day.

Here are the details and registration info.

If you can’t attend the session, let me recommend a couple of podcasts Tom Mighell and I have done: “Bulls and Bears: Lawyers Using Social Media,” “Online Reputation Maangement,” and “Social Media Common Sense.”

[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

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport

One of the tricky things about writing a technology column for a print publication is the lead-time necessary for articles. Longtime readers will know that my favorite definition of a blog is “an online newspaper or magazine column without the newspaper or magazine.” With a blog, you write the post, publish it and it’s instantly ready to be read and find its audience.

For my ABA column, there’s generally a two month or so lead-time. So, this column about the iPad was written back in February. As a result, I wrote it before the iPad was released and before I could have had one in my hands. That’s reflected in the article, which is not a review. Of all my columns, it’s the one that I had the most concern about becoming outdated or inaccurate before it actually came out. But, because of the way I wrote the piece, I think it turned out OK in terms of timeliness.

The column generated a lot of comments, showing the interest of lawyers in the topic.

My approach in the column was to look at whether the tablet computer form factor, iPad or otherwise, would ever replace the venerable legal pad for lawyers.

Now, I’m a longtime Tablet fan (see my 2005 article on my Tablet PC epiphanies). In fact, in the column, I refer to myself as “eternal optimist about tablet devices.”

However, I’m definitely a “wait until the second version” Apple hardware person. So, I’m actually planning my iPad purchase for late 2010. I’m definitely following the experiences of my friends and others using iPads in the meantime. As I always say (and I emphasize this point in the latest episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast), you really have to focus on what your own “use case” is when you buy new hardware.

In general, I’m bullish on the iPad and the likely uses lawyers will make of it. Take a look at the article and see how accurate my initial predictions seem to be. My concluding thought: “I don’t think we’ll see the legal pad disappear anytime soon, but it’s about to get its biggest challenge yet.”

The money quote:

Where I expect to see significant early iPad adoption is among solos and small firms (including boutique firms started by refugees from large firms) that are already using the Internet and technology in new ways.

One of my main points in the column was the importance of the iPads as an application platform. It’s the apps that matter.

I point specifically in the column to Dan Bricklin’s Note Taker app (originally for the iPhone and iPod Touch), which allows you to write with your finger on the screen and capture and work with notes. I was intrigued by its potential on the larger form factor of the iPad. Bricklin, who has the development of the original spreadsheet program, VisiCalc, on his resume, has an active web presence, so you can follow his work and thinking as he develops the app for the iPad.

That said, it’s been interesting to see both Jeff “iPhoneJD” Richardson and Josh “Tablet Legal” Barrett write positively about Note Taker recently. Maybe I was on the right track in the column.

I recommend the column to you and also suggest that you take a listen to the podcast Tom Mighell I did on the iPad called “The iPad: Gadget or Game-Changer?”

I’d enjoy hearing about your experiences with the iPad.

[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

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport

It’s quite a collection of articles, from an excellent set of authors, that looks at diversity and inclusion from a variety of perspectives, with an emphasis on the practical, not the theoretical. Highly recommended.

As someone who helped co-found Law Practice Today and a current member of its board, I can hardly be expected to be objective about it, so I’ll point to Jim Calloway’s post about this issue. I also guest co-edited this issue, so all pretense of any objectivity goes out the door. But, I definitely think it’s a great issue.

The issue also contains two articles I wrote or co-wrote.

The first is co-written with Gwynne “@econwriter5” Monahan and is called “Will Free Fit into Your Technology Budget? An Open Source Software Primer for the Solo and Small Firm Lawyer.” I’ve wanted to write something introductory and practical about one of my favorite topics, Open Source, and was pleased that I could talk Gwynne into co-authoring the article with me. Gwynne is both very knowledgeable about Open Source and an excellent writer. Once again, I found out again how much I enjoy co-authoring. For more perpsectives on possible use of Open Source software in law practice, check out this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast, with my usual collaborator, Tom Mighell.

I also contributed a new article that suggests that diversification and portfolio management should be the primary foundation for defining technology strategies and choices. It’s called “Putting Diversification at the Center of Your Firm’s Technology Strategy-Using a Simple Grid Approach.” The article also offers a simple grid approach to setting strategy. I’d enjoy getting some feedback on that article.

We’ve gotten great feedback on the issue so far, so I encourage you to visit the issue and read all of the articles.

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

In the meantime, you might want to listen to some of the recent Kennedy-Mighell Report podcasts, read some new articles on Law Practice Today (I guest co-edited the April issue) and read my recent ABA Journal column on the iPad.

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

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport

Slides are ready for “Legal Ethics and Social Media” CLE seminar in St. Louis on Tuesday – http://bit.ly/9Ly3fA - See you there?
RT @ronfriedmann: New blog: Eversheds: “the revolution has now arrived” http://bit.ly/9TfTZ2
RT @matthomann: If you can’t make #ignitelaw here’s the webinar sign up: http://bit.ly/bKgJru [Can't attend in person, so I signed up. You?]
Debra Bruce: 12 Social Media Ethics Issues for Lawyers – http://bit.ly/cR2A4t
RT @legaltalk Smart Ways to Work Together in 2010 http://bit.ly/cr7NXH – New Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast
Looking for a few good articles on diversity/inclusion for upcoming issue of Law Practice Today – http://bit.ly/9DbQmM
Dave Taylor: How Do I Unfriend Someone on Facebook? (Updated) – http://bit.ly/a1qNrB
Patrick Lamb: Yet another firm sacrifices its young at the altar of hours – http://bit.ly/9b8DxO
Bob Metcalfe: “The Day Dot-Coms Were Invented” – http://bit.ly/c3ePiS – importance of Internet innovation infrastructure
Adriana Linares kicks off new blog series “10 Critical Computer Skills Every Attorney Should Know” – http://bit.ly/cf5a54

“Estate Planning for Your Digital Assets” – http://bit.ly/c8zHo4 – from Law Practice Today issue on succession planning
The Digital Edge podcast 29; @jimcalloway and @sharonnelsonesq talk with @denniskennedy – http://bit.ly/d8tmYO #techshow
Rex Hammock: Two types of content that work – http://bit.ly/bJ0wgy

Ernie the Attorney and I have both spoken to law students recently and have similar observations. Here are his: http://bit.ly/cbvRsm
Sharon Nelson: “The Rebellious Millennial Employees: We Love the Evidence They Provide” – http://bit.ly/a9OJqO
New blog post on DennisKennedy.Blog is about social media common sense – http://bit.ly/980bi2
RT @TomMighell: New blog post: Social Media Privacy: http://bit.ly/aIkjDC
Ron Friedmann on Hildebrandt/Citi Report: Tough Times Persist for Big Law – http://bit.ly/dyZNcR
Christine Pikas: Sometimes it’s hard to remember some very smart people just don’t know how web and browsers work – http://bit.ly/diEidK
My new blog post: Saving Face: A Simple Facebook Privacy and Security Primer – http://bit.ly/aGjanN
RT @jackvinson: New post on KJolt: Managing via email fails http://bit.ly/cv80hL
RT @TomMighell: Check out the latest Kennedy-Mighell Report Podcast: Social Media Common Sense http://bit.ly/amJDNo
I’ll be speaking on Tuesday at St. Louis U on using social media and the Internet to help launch your legal career – http://bit.ly/bFyQ6e
Tamar Weinberg – 11 Characteristics of Highly Influential Blog(ger)s – http://bit.ly/9RWekU
I’ll be speaking on how law students can use social media at St. Louis U. Law School next Tuesday afternoon.
My new blog post about latest Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast reminded me to mention the podcast will be live at #TECHSHOW, as will I.
RT @LegalTalk: Opening Up to Open Source – http://bit.ly/bRVgIM [New Kennedy-Mighell Report]
My video interview with Mike Mintz about legal tech – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R9MhHXX3zM
Anyone else seeing Gmail issues in fetching email from another POP account today?
My new ABA Journal tech column – Saving Face – a primer on basics of Facebook safety and settings – http://bit.ly/9gADSs
Celebrating the seventh blawgiversary of DennisKennedy.Blog – http://bit.ly/9biAUu – A big thank you to all readers of the blog.
Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos augmented-reality maps at TED2010 – http://bit.ly/aepZZQ
Trent Hamm: “Hindsight is 20/20″ – http://bit.ly/96pdrf - Great advice on learning from mistakes.
Jeff Rayport asks: Do you need a digital readiness checklist? – http://bit.ly/a8kZrt – great questions.
New blog post: “My Latest ABA Journal Technology Column Introduces the Mobile Platform” – http://bit.ly/drooxF
RT @econwriter5: #Google #Buzz. So has it given up on #Wave already? | I was wondering the same thing
RT @ernieattorney: Who Dat Who Own Who Dat? (@mschwimmer) #twil46 #twil http://ff.im/-fssHd (via @dhowell)
David Cheifetz: “Windows 7, Law Firms and truth(?) in blogging” – http://bit.ly/a1JQYN – another great SLAW blog post
RT @mschwimmer: Unfettered By Knowledge, I Speak Freely on Fox Business Live http://bit.ly/9uI4hB
Adam Singer on “Workforce Darwinism” – 70% of surveyed US HR pros have rejected candidate due to online reputation info http://bit.ly/dpS8R8

Check out the latest episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report Podcast on the Legal Talk Network – Smart Ways to Work Together in 2010
[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
Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport
Technorati tags: legal technology microblog Law2.0 collaboration

A Simple Five-Step Plan to Manage Your Digital Estate
Step 1. Inventory Your Digital Assets.
Step 2. Identify Appropriate Help.
Step 3. Provide for Access.
Step 4. Provide Instructions.
Step 5. Give Appropriate Authority.

Based on my research for this article, there either is not much information on this subject available or it is far too difficult to find by searching in Google.
I also think that anyone with a significant Internet presence has concerns about what happen to that Internet presence in the event of their death or disability. However, almost everyone today has a growing number of “digital assets” and questions posed by them.
I’ve already gotten a very positive response to this article and hope that you find it helpful. I welcome your suggestions for other approaches that might work well for people trying to deal with their growing digital estates.
[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
Technorati tags: legal profession diversity law practice inclusion articles

http://www.abanet.org/lpm/lpt/

Hardly a day goes by without lawyers hearing that they need to be diving into social media. And many are already there – on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other platforms. Google stumbled on privacy on its launch of its new social media platform, Buzz. The privacy and security concerns in social media are very real. Tom and Dennis take a practical at what you must understand to take control of your security and privacy, from basic account settings to smart approaches to social media common sense.

I recently wrote a column for the ABA Journal on the basics of privacy and security for lawyers using Facebook. The article got such a positive response that we thought it would make a good topic for our podcast. After the recent privacy stumbles at the launch of Google Buzz, we decided to expand the topic to cover social media in general.
The podcast takes a very practical look at some of the things you need to be wary of and, more important, practical steps you should be taking to protect your privacy and security while making effective use of social media platforms. From passwords to privacy settings and friend lists to good judgment, we make the case for applying common sense to use fo social media. Take a listen and see if we convince you.
I also suggest that you take a look at my ABA Journal column called Saving Face.
In our “things we’ve been talking about” segment, Tom and I talk about our actual experience with Google Buzz, including my concern that Buzz suggests that Google is abandoning Google Wave. I also express my frustration with the usability problems I find with Buzz. Tom takes a calmer approach.
We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom points to another new Google tool – Google Moderator – that provides a way to obtain feedback. I note how I like a program called Mobipocket Creator for converting PDF documents into Kindle-ready formats and a cool new webpage you can use as your default home page in your browser at http://fav4.org.
Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are at here.
And try some of the back episodes as well.
THE KENNEDY-MIGHELL REPORT PODCAST IS NOW ON TWITTER. You can now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.
[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
Technorati tags: legal technology podcast social media privacy collaboration

1. Use a strong password and change it on a regular basis.
2. Review and make appropriate changes to your privacy settings.
3. Be discriminating in your use of Facebook apps.
4. Take control of what others can put on your page.
5. Consider using “friend lists.”

To make myself clear: This is serious stuff and you had better pay attention to what’s going on and what the implications are when you venture into the world of social media. A few basic steps will make a world of difference.
The money quote:

And I cannot stress too much the need to always use good judgment when using social media.

For more detailed advice and instructions, I like Leah Pearlman’s and Carolyn Abram’s Facebook For Dummies^® (updated in November 2009) – an inexpensive way to protect yourself against embarrassment at the least and real serious damage at the worst.
Tom Mighell and I also talk about this and related topics in our new podcast, “Social Media Common Sense.”
Check out my new column. Let’s all be more careful out there.
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[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
Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport
Technorati tags: legal technology facebook privacy security column

Budgetary concerns have forced lawyers to take a hard look at software costs. That’s brought Open Source software onto their radar screens. The price – free – is obviously attractive, but Open Source is a completely different approach to software than lawyers expect. In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell introduce the approach and philosophy of Open Source, the programs available, and when and where it might make sense for you.

I’ve long wanted to do an episode about Open Source software and Tom was gracious enough to let me pick the topic for this episode.
My interest in Open Source software and the Open Source licenses goes back a long way. Believe it or not, I’ve even written a law review article on the Open Source licenses, “Dennis M. Kennedy, A PRIMER ON OPEN SOURCE LICENSING LEGAL ISSUES: COPYRIGHT, COPYLEFT AND COPYFUTURE, 20 St. Louis U. Pub. L. Rev. 345 (2001), which was one of the early law review articles on the topic.
Although we talk a bit about the Open Source licenses and Open Source philosophy that are playing such a huge role in software development and the Internet these days, our main focus is on the ways lawyers might consider and make informed decisions about if, when and how they might use Open Source software.
If you have not considered Open Source before, I recommend this podcast as a gentle introduction. A diligent researcher should also be able to find other articles and a podcast I’ve done on Open Source topics. We also discuss Open Source programs in our collboration tools book.
In our “things we’ve been talking about” segment, I get Tom to explain the relatively new geo-location social media platform, FourSquare, to me. Tom does a great job of explaining, but he didn’t convince me yet.
We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom likes a free only PDF form tool called FillAnyPDF andalso mentions a resource for PowerPoint templates. I rave about using the keyboard shortcut + .+ T to reopen browser tabs after you accidentally close them.
Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are at here.
And try some of the back episodes as well.
THE KENNEDY-MIGHELL REPORT PODCAST IS NOW ON TWITTER. You can now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.
[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
Technorati tags: legal technology podcast open source software collaboration

And so it begins . . .
I realized the other day that I had first written about blogs well over a year ago. In fact, the rise of blogs was one of my 2002 predictions for legal technology in my annual legal tech predictions article. As I was working on updating my web site (http://www.denniskennedy.com), I finally decided that I had to have my own blog. Thanks to people like Jerry Lawson, Sabrina Pacifici, the Support Forum at MovableType.org, it’s finally here.

Jerry Lawson pointed out to me that I first wrote about blogs for lawyers even earlier than I remembered inthat initial post before I actually started my own blog. When I read Soctt Rosenberg’s great history of blogging, Say Anything, last year, I was struck most by how long I was a reader of blogs (quite a few years) before I actually started my own. That was probably in large part due to the fact that I was writing a monthly legal tech column and other articles (and I was adding content regularly to my website), but it still is a big surprise to me to see how long I sat on the sidelines of blogging. I think I made up for the delay, and it’s difficult to put into words how mch I treasure the friendships that came to me through blogging. A special thanks to all of you.
It’s been a tradition here that I pull out the stops for the blawgiversary and tend to make extravagant claims about how the rest of the world treats the blawgiversary and do things like coin terms like blawgiversary (which I believe i might have done years ago in a momemnt of weakness). I was going to drop that this year until I realized that the US government had indeed created a federal holiday to give many of you a day off to celebrate the blawgiversary. Enjoy!
Seriously, though, I try to do a few special things this week to celebrate the birthdays of my blog and me. Although I’m planning to take a more low-key approach to that this week than I usually have done, I do like to take this time to thank my readers and do a little bit of a reader-appreciation week. So, watch for some special posts this week.
For the most part, however, I want to say a big thank you to readers of this blog and say that I’m looking forward to the next year of blogging, both here and on DennisKennedy.Microblog, the companion Twiiter experiment for this blog.
[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
Technorati tags: legal technology blawgiversary blogiversary birthday collaboration

No product launch in recent memory has commanded the attention of Apple’s iPad announcement. Is the iPad a game-changer, the must-have of 2010, or just one more imperfect choice for technology users already facing too many choices? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the iPad, hype vs. reality, and what this new product might mean for lawyers who use technology. Their conclusions might surprise you.

Undeterred by having no on-hands experience with an iPad whatsoever, Tom and I offer our reactions to Apple’s recent announcement of the iPad and our analysis of the prospects for the iPad. We take a look at the history of tablet computing, my long-time fascination with Tablet PCs and delve into the ros and cons of the iPad that most people seem to be talking about in the initial round of reactions to the announcment.
We’re intrigued by the way the iPad moves us further onto the mobile platform and cloud computing, but see the iPad as a content delivery device moreso than a content creation device, although the development of apps will be key to the content creation side of things. We end with our own take on the “odds makers” segment of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption show, surprising ourselves with our very positive reaction to the iPad.
However, we’re not optimistic that we’ll see much adoption of the iPad in the legal community, except in the world of solos and small firms, and, of course, among the growing group of Macintosh-using lawyers. We’ll see some cool things happening in that space.
In our “things we’ve been talking about” segment, we talked about the chance we got to get a pre-release look at the new WestLaw Next release and our quite positive reactions to it. [Disclaimer: Like others asked to review the new WestlawNext, tom and I received iPod Nanos from Thomson Reuters - we received these gifts after this edition of The Kennedy-Mighell Report was recorded, so you can gauge our opinions in that context.]
We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom points to ReadTwit, a way to get to Twitter links in an easy-to-manage RSS feed. I pick up on a recent article by Ross Kodner mentioning one of my favorite little tools, the typewriter feature in Adobe Acrobat..
Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are at here.
And try some of the back episodes as well.
THE KENNEDY-MIGHELL REPORT PODCAST IS NOW ON TWITTER. You can now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.
Just a note about the experiment (as yet largely unsuccessful) we are trying with a public “wave” for the show we’ve opened up in Google Wave. If interested in joining the wave, you can either ask us to add you or, assuming you are already a Wave user, search for it in Wave using “with: public” “Kennedy-Mighell Report”. Among other things, we’ll use it as a way to gather questions for our audience Q&A segments and also use it as an experiment in how Google Wave might be used.
[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
Technorati tags: legal technology podcast ipad tablet collaboration

1. New expectations of availability.
2. Moving from synchronization to realtime access.
3. The “apps” phenomenon -using a smartphone to perform computer-like functions.

I end with four simple and gentle suggestions to get started on the mobile platform. None of this will be big news for heavy smartphone users, but it’s meant to be a primary for the many lawyers who are upgrading or moving for the first time to smartphones rather than standard cellphones. On the other hand, it might give you an outline for making the argument why you need a new-generation smartphone – iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Palm or other platform. I do hope you’ll like the column more than the first commenter, who seemed to be a little underwhelmed.
The money quote:

Mobile is an area of technology where you don’t realize that you have a need until you understand what’s out there. Even a simple application for timekeeping can have great benefit if it helps you contemporaneously track time that you might otherwise forget.

Check out my new column. I also recommend a podcast on the mobile platform that Tom Mighell and I recorded a few months ago.
+++++++++
[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
Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport
Technorati tags: legal technology mobile platform apps iphone column

Adam Singer on “Workforce Darwinism” – 70% of surveyed US HR pros have rejected candidate due to online reputation info http://bit.ly/dpS8R8
Kevin Meyer: Swimming Through the Information Clutter – http://bit.ly/cB0cpS – impact of information flow on leadership
Fraser Speirs: “What you’re seeing in the industry’s reaction to the iPad is nothing less than future shock.” http://bit.ly/bYQSsk
Rex Hammock: “When it comes to the future, you have two choices” http://bit.ly/boWlTN – watching no longer an option
Adam Thierer: Some Amazing Numbers Re: Growth of Net & Social Media – http://bit.ly/7oGMNR Amazing, indeed.
Dave Winer: What happens to our blogs when we are gone? http://bit.ly/8EGVHt [I'm working on article on related topic.]
RT @InsideLegal: Pamela McDevitt has been named the new director for the ABA LPM Section. http://bit.ly/84J0Bt
Steve Nipper’s Law Blogs 101: http://idaholawreport.com/?p=258
RT @TomMighell: Our latest Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast: From Early Adopters to Late Adopters and Everyone In Between http://is.gd/6C5Oj
RT @collabtools: Jack Vinson on Jordan Frank and the “Responsibility to collaborate” – http://bit.ly/61slWP
Renee Blodgett: Constant Builds Brands, Passion Builds the Long Tail – http://bit.ly/4nwEW5 – flipping the 80/20 rule
Steve Barth revisits his ground-breaking article on Personal KM: http://bit.ly/4ADy6a; inspired my article: http://bit.ly/6oDAhf
RT @JavaSTL: Help Twitter: I’m looking for 2 local STL lawyers (ideally corporate counsel) actively involved in social media.
Mary Abraham on the value of checklists – http://bit.ly/5cKJqO – why professionals are reluctant to use checklists
JP Rangaswami on the Facebookisation of the enterprise – http://bit.ly/7vNQKD – rethinking IT departments
Mary Abraham: How Failure Leads to Epiphany – http://bit.ly/7Fd62s – “no substitute for constant experimentation”
Marty Schwimmer on “High Security Zones” for Internet commerce safety and “comfort” – http://bit.ly/6QdFvd [Great ideas]
Nick Morgan on the future of conferences – http://bit.ly/5ABbd1; http://bit.ly/6Sghmh
Rex Hammock: “‘The channel’ is what matters. The gizmo is secondary.” – http://bit.ly/83KKVD
Bob Lefsetz; “What the customer wants” – http://bit.ly/5M5bYr – “The consumer wants music.” Ideas apply elsewehere, too.
RT @ronfriedmann: David Maister retires http://bit.ly/5nJzdA || An important voice in professional services and great presenter.
New Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast – Looking Forward: Legal Tech in 2010 – http://bit.ly/4yoCnQ
RT @econwriter5: Pleased with my Texas Bar Journal article on Open Source for Lawyers (PDF link): http://tinyurl.com/y939szm

Check out the latest episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report Podcast on the Legal Talk Network – From Early Adopters to Late Adopters and Everyone In Between http://is.gd/6C5Oj
[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
Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport
Technorati tags: legal technology microblog Law2.0 collaboration

This year, instead of just thinking, “Whoo-hoo! I have the day off,” or “Hey, there’s a sale at the mall,” spend some time exploring one simple question. “What could this day mean to me?” You can do this with any special day, but since today is MLK Day, that’s a good place to start.

Curt’s four steps:

1. Explore what it means to you.
2. How does this relate to my life?
3. What action does this suggest?
4. What is the first step, and when will I take it?

A great exercise.
[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
Technorati tags: martin luther king mlk