LawLibTech

One personality flaw I haven't been able to shake is inexplainable optimism that a new version of a frequently used program will solve all my problems, and actually be an improvement on the old version.  I've been disappointed so many times, you'd think I'd learn.  Here we go again.

According to Mark Gerow in his article "First Impressions: SharePoint 2010 for Law Firms", there are many features in the new version of SharePoint to look forward to. One of my favorites would be improved page editing.  The SharePoint Wiki is close to unusable at times because the editing features are so bad.  I'm hoping that content editor webparts to be easier for users to use and access as well.  This seems so basic, surely the new version will be an improvement on the old.

May this time the software upgrade will meet my expectations.  I can't wait to find out.

Join me as we examine the nuts and bolts of SharePoint lists, and the many ways you can use them to manage and publish your content.  Click here for more information.

Thursday, February 11, 2010, from Noon to 1:00 PM Central Time

SharePoint lists allow you to quickly and easily integrate library content into your Intranet portal, making it possible to search, sort and filter without the need for programming or third party software.  You can create and manage research portals, virtual libraries, bibliographies, collections of external and internal links, or even use lists to generate update-able navigation within your site. You can transfer Excel or Access data to a SharePoint list in minutes. 
We'll look at examples, examine the uses, benefits and drawbacks of using SharePoint lists, then walk through the basics of creating lists, adding data, and presenting the information on SharePoint sites.

Learning Points: 
•    Understand the possible benefits and drawbacks to using SharePoint lists
•    Learn how to create a list, import data to a SharePoint list and incorporate lists into your SharePoint pages
 
Register for this Event
FEE: $30.00 USD per participant
$60.00 USD for 2 or more participants from the same organization

Here's a follow-up on my last post. Amazon is selling PLI books for the Kindle according to the "Amazon's Kindle to Sell Law Books", Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2009)  In that article, Andrew Frank from Gartner is quoted:

"There are a lot of practical reasons to believe that the digital market may well be more profitable for publishers of legal, medical and educational texts.  Since these texts are reference material, the ability to index them and set up bookmarks, which you can do easily with the Kindle, will save time and money for users."

Save time and money by migrating to electronic books?  That would be a good thing, but not exactly what we've seen from publishers in the past.

I must confess, I always cringe a little when I hear librarians say that though libraries are shrinking, law firms will always have a core collection of hard copy books.  I understand the sentiment and believe it accurately reflects today's environment.  Certainly, many paper treatises, statutes, etc. can be easier to use than their electronic counterparts, web interfaces aren't always intuitive and many attorneys are slow adopters. 

But I've always figured that the right e-book could change all that.  The fact that they haven't become mainstream among lawyers and law firms only means their development hasn't advanced to the point where they are desirable as hard copy substitutes.  As soon as the right e-book solution is reached, something with the combined convenience of hard copy and the power of electronic access, things could change rapidly.

The Amazon Kindle and Sony E-Book are starting to make inroads.  I've been intrigued by the Kindle for a while because of its ability to automatically download newspapers, magazines and books.  Now West has released 30 books for the Kindle.  That's a start.

What's the first thing that comes to my mind in terms of uses in a law firm environment?   How about loading cases to the Kindle or E-Book.  An attorney could take 100's of cases on a plane or to a court room without lugging paper copies.  Let's take that a step further.  Your attorney is on the road, maybe sitting at the airport.  He/she needs to read a case that hasn't been pre-loaded on the Kindle.  You could download the case and send it to his/her Kindle email address.  The attorney would have it in minutes, and wouldn't have to pull out his laptop or try to read a PDF on the small screen of his Blackberry.

Thousands of books could be loaded onto a Kindle, a veritable law library. The technology is no longer an obstacle to this scenario, but publisher's licenses?  That may be another matter. 

 

"Law Offices have been at the forefront of the Enterprise Search market."  is the first sentence in an article about the evolution of enterprise search at the 450 attorney firm, Bracewell & Guilanai LLP -- Third Time a Charm for Law Firm, Network Computing, 10/16/2009.

Law firms at the forefront?  Really?  I'm not sure I'm buying that as a blanket statements, but it does seem to apply to Bracewell.  According to the article, they started out 20 years ago with Open Text, then moved to Autonomy, and are now happily searching using Recommind.  That's an impressive history of search engine implementation and evolution.

Imagining Web 2.0 in Your Organization:
The Wonderful World of Wikis with Cindy Chick

May 21st, 2009  12:00 - 1:00 PM Central Time

Wikis are easily the fastest way to create mini-web sites on the Intranet or Internet, making them a good tool of choice for many knowledge applications.  Wikis can be used to track the status of a project, compile deal documents with commentary, build a small intranet, or collaborate on a procedures manual. 

 

We'll discuss the variety of wiki tools available and identify wiki pitfalls and limitations.

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 Register Here

 

If you missed the Thinking Outside of the Blog webinar, you can still register to see the recording. Click here to register. 

Here's another difference between MOSS and WSS.  MOSS does much nicer usage reporting.  But either way, to answer another question that was posed at the webinar, there is site usage reporting available in SharePoint for your sites, blogs and/or wikis.  That means you can check to see who visits your blogs and wikis, and how often.

It's important to regularly check the site statistics for the sources that you diligently maintain.  If you've promoted your content well, organized it in a meaningful way, and update it regularly, you'll want to know if all your effort is paying off. 

The WSS site statistics are quite basic.  Here's an example, from my SharePoint site, which runs on WSS:

Here's one, complete with graphs, from MOSS SharePoint.  Much prettier. 

One of the questions that came up during the Thinking Outside of the Blog webinar was "What is the difference between SharePoint WSS and MOSS?"  That was one of the first questions I asked when I started working with SharePoint, and while I looked it up at the time, I couldn't articulate the difference well enough to provide an intelligence response.  I'm appending some links below that answer this question, but I'll also summarize the major points that seem most significant:

• If you have SharePoint, by definition you have WSS.  WSS is free to most companies.
• MOSS builds upon the features in WSS, offering additional features of particular interest to enterprise users.
• Both include wiki and blog sites.  There doesn't seem to be a significant different between WSS and MOSS in this area.
• MOSS includes RSS feeds, user profiles, audience targeting, social networking web parts, and web parts that can integrate content from applications outside of SharePoint.

For more information see:

• Windows SharePoint Services v3.0 vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Includes a list of features in MOSS that are not included in WSS.
• Compare WSS v. MOSS
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) from Wikipedia

I hope this helps.

Have you ever read Marie Wallace's article on LLRX called The Power of Post-Its?   If you  give presentations, and let's face it, at one time or another we all do, you should take a look at her method of brainstorming and organization.

The idea is to use post-its and a file folder to organize your thoughts when preparing a presentation.  I've been using it for years, and whenever I think perhaps I could forgo it, and just open up PowerPoint and start there instead, I've been sorry.  PowerPoint encourages a very linear chain of thought, and without figuring out in advance the points you want to make, and organizing them outside of PowerPoint, you can end up with a disorganized mish-mash.

But it is decidedly low-tech.  And if someone walks into my office and sees my file folder covered in post-its, I look far from organized.  I can live with that, but the truth be told, I would like a neater, cleaner way to accomplish the same thing.

This time I'm trying something different, and using Microsoft OneNote to brainstorm and organize.  And I must say, I'm liking it!  I've set up one page with the same elements that Marie recommends for organizing;  I have other pages within the group with screenshots and URLs.  After all of this is compiled, and I know what I want to say, THEN I'll go to PowerPoint to put it all together. 

I don't hear much about OneNote, but it really is a great product for keeping notes and otherwise organizing those little bits of information you're not sure what to do with. 

The power of post-Its without the post-its is working for me!

 

I'm excited to announce that I'll be the guest presenter at a webinar conducted by Nina Platt Consulting on May 7th, "Thinking Inside of the Blog." We'll talk about how to create and maintain a blog, and how to determine when a blog is the right tool for the task.  Below is the full description and a registration link.  Part 2 will discover wikis and will be held on May 21st. 

Please join us!

May 7th, 2009  12:00 - 1:00 PM Central Time

Are you hoping to follow hot topics,supplement training, market your department, or create a knowledgebase? Using a blog for these types of initiatives and more.  For the most part, Blog applications are only limited by your imagination.Why? Because blogs are simple but powerful tools for organizing and sharing information that are often underestimated and underutilized.

We'll discuss the variety of ways you can use these mini-content management applications in your firm, review some of the more popular blog tools, including. You'll learn how to setup a blog, and organize your content.

Register Here