Five Things Every Practice Should Know About Web 2.0 TechnologyREALITY 2.0 : A Web 2.0 Survival Guide for Legal Practices (cc) V. Mary Abraham & Lee Bryant, February 2009

Agenda

1. Why Web 2.0 makes sense in a downturn2. What are the Tools and how do they work?3. How to make the business case4. Where to start in a Law Practice5. What to expect (adoption and challenges)

Who do we have here today?

KM? IT? Practising Lawyer?Are you using these tools?

1

A recession is the perfect timeto be adopting Enterprise

social computing

Reality 2.0: can we even afford

business as usual in KM and IT?

We need to show value quickly

Budgets

Anxiety

Adding a social layer to enterprise tools can rejuvenate old, unloved systems

Lightweight Social Interface

IT

Clients

Firm

Markets

Wiki

RSS

Blogs

Vodcasts

Personalised Start Page

Tagging

Podcasts

This should build on existing processes

Public feeds & flows: internal and external RSS feeds based on subject, person, group or search

Bookmarks and tags: people store, share, tag, vote or comment on useful links and news

Blogs and networks: some items or topics are shared within networks and discussed in blogs

Group collaboration: intimate groups/teams organise knowledge in wikis and group systems; reviews, voting

Personal tools: organise your ‘stuff’ by tags; arrange in a portal; manage networks and feeds

Sui

Collaborating

Sui

Writing

Sui

Reading

The E2.0 software market is maturing

Sui

All-in-one

Sui

Sharing

Sui

Messaging

Why do we say that E2.0 is affordable?

1. Cheap tools

2. Easy to roll-out

3. Can replace expensive systems

Why do we say that E2.0 is affordable?

Here's the experience of Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Australia: 

“By using inexpensive Web 2.0 technology (much of it open source) and taking an incremental approach to rolling out projects quickly rather than focusing on large, multi-year grand IT projects, they have had some extraordinary successes.  And, because of their incremental approach and open source  technology, any projects that have fallen short of goals have been quite inexpensive (in terms of money, effort and reputation) and have allowed them to learn a great deal in the process.”

(Mallesons have done some great work at low cost combining wikis, blogs, a people finder mashup, RSS, tagging, social networking and other social tools. We showed some slides of these at the conference, but unfortunately they are not cleared for wider distribution)

2

Social tools are not all about personal blogs, throwing sheep or

sharing what you had for lunch

Blog and wiki-based know how sharing

Wiki-based intranet replacement

Social reading and writing

Social Search & Expertise location

Social networking for collaboration

Universal messaging (Internal Twitter)

3

Social computing should address concrete, day-to-day use cases in order to prove its value to the firm

Vital to address ‘in the flow’ use cases

(cc) http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuan2003/403643949/

Mergers, departmental integrationand strengthening firm culture

Growing social networks node by node

Employee onboarding

Blogs help establish common purpose

Status and presence sharing

Expertise location based on output

Real-time activity feeds and updates

Better Know who & ambient awareness

Social networks as information filters

Better ‘findability’ through tagging

Less email, more feeds and flows

Self-service, personal KM

Reputation management

Two-way interaction via extranets

Personalised, timely intel. sharing

Client recruitment and retention

RSS & blogs replace newsletters

Better recommendations from activity

More granular distribution using tags

Cheaper, better Current Awareness

Better sharing & team working

More pre-document collaboration

Less duplication of workflows

Informal knowledge sharing

4

Social computing supports very quick and easy new application

development or ‘mashups’

How could we deal with aspecific use case such as...

Business Development leading to newmatter intake and conflict checking ?

Workshop Assumptions

• Targeting business in a new sector• Need to find out what we know already• Need to check for potential conflicts• Want to improve and speed up intake• Existing process is largely manual

5

A sensible approachto adoption is critical

Identify slow, convoluted processes

Look for obvious inefficiencies

Work with groups keen to collaborate

Where to begin looking for adoption

Focus on quick wins, but be strategic

Add a social layer to existing tools

Build quickly and iterate rapidly

How to get started with a project

Target transition strategies for adoption

Email / Blackberry to RSS

If the info is good, people will play ball

Start with existing ways of working

Attitude to risk: which are real?

Cultural issues: IT, KM and lawyers

Cautious traditional IT approach

Be realistic about the challenges

If you only remember 5 things...

1. Web 2.0 is not just a fad. Now is the time!2. Tools are (often) inexpensive/easy to deploy3. Focus on your practice’s pain points4. Lawyers are natural social networkers5. This is a step towards low cost self service

Five Things Every Practice Should Know About Web 2.0 Technology

V. Mary Abraham& Lee Bryant

Legaltech 2009, NY

image creditsCoteBrian BoulosVictoria PeckhamDplanet::Jessica WittebortLee BryantJurvetsonJenn JennTouchgraphPoorfishYuan2003OceanflynnAturkus

attribution 2.0 generic

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