DennisKennedy.blog

Tom Mighell and I thought that the subject of collaborating on documents was so important that we devoted an entire section, with several chapters, to it in our new book, The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together.

I noted two good articles recently that give a good introduction to topics we cover in detail in our book.

The first Is Brian Zeve's article "Smarter, Faster Ways for Law Firms to Create and Share Documents" in the latest issue of Law Practice Today (many other good articles in this issue, too). Zeve highlights some of the collaboration features in Word 2007. You will want to familiarize yourself with these features if you will be moving to Word 2007 this year or are noticing that Word 2003 is now 5 years old and you want to put together good reasons to push your organization to Word 2007. The article also links to a Microsoft white paper on Word 2007 for the legal community.

The second is "Google Docs Lives to Share the Words." We not only used Google Docs as a prime example of a document collaboration tool in our book, but we also used it to collaborate on writing the book. The article summarizes the way Google Docs is built for a connected environment.

There is nothing more fundamental to the work of lawyers today than working together on documents and no more necessary skill-set than document collaboration skills. Understanding the available tools is essential. These two articles do a nice job of introducing some of the key tools and taking some first steps. When you are ready to go further, our book will be waiting for you.

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

Now Available! The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Join the book's Facebook Group here.

Technorati tags: legal technology collaboration collaboration tools Law2.0 book word 2007 google docs

Dennis Kennedy's Links of the Week - April 27, 2008

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:51:54 -0600

In this week's episode:

The Links

The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Spam Turns 30

Secretary of Defense Honors John Boyd-The How To?

This Thing About Default Margins

Code, Law, and Spontaneous Order

The world changed last week, with no headlines to mark the news

Lawyers, Law Students and Facebook

Notes on "Evaluating SharePoint from a Business Perspective"

Death of social networking for lawyers is greatly exaggerated

5 Ideas to Come Up with Blog Content from Your Daily Life

Taking Mashups Deeper into the Enterprise

Kindle - preliminary review

Kai-Fu Lee on Cloud Computing

How to Leave the Perfect Voicemail

Towards diversity in law firms

Who Aren't You

Hollow States and Foreclosure

Negotiating from a Position of Weakness

Web 2.0: Time to Tackle BIG CHALLENGES

Duplicate data: the bane of cloud computing?

When People Don't Want to Change

10 Things To Do Before Your Speech That Will Take The Nervousness Out Of You

The Reality of Depending on True Fans

Prices at the Gas Pump 'Round the World

Do today's new collaboration tools make it harder for IT to wrangle corporate information, or easier?

Easy Ways to Go Green with Your Computer

Smarter, Faster Ways for Law Firms to Create and Share Documents

Google Docs Lives to Share the Words

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This Week's Additions to 52 Books in 52 Weeks:

The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler

The Rolling Stone Interviews, by Jann Wenner and Joe Levy

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

Now Available! The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Join the book's Facebook Group here.

Technorati tags: links

Happy 4th Anniversary Wishes to Kevin O'Keefe and LexBlog

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:28:52 -0600

I enjoyed reading Kevin O'Keefe's post tonight marking the fourth anniversary of LexBlog.

Kevin has done so much to bring blogging to lawyers and I've enjoyed watching the steps he's taken all along the way.

In fact, one of my favorite memories from the early days of lawyer blogging involves Kevin. I had known Kevin for a while and always admired what he did with his Prairielaw site.

In the early days of LexBlog (and Kevin's blogging), Kevin got in touch with me to talk about blogging and what he was working on. I remember that we finally got the chance to talk on the phone during a layover I had in the Kansas City airport over a terrible cell phone connection. I ended up talking with Kevin until the last possible minute before my flight. I really liked Kevin's ideas, his plan, and the clarity of his vision for bringing blogging to lawyers. I must admit that he was much more of an optimist than I was. He's definitely transformed the world of lawyer blogging in great ways.

As Kevin says in his post . . . to the next four years.

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

Now Available! The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Join the book's Facebook Group here.

Technorati tags: legal technology blogging

Dennis Kennedy' Links of the Week - April 20, 2008

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:40:04 -0600

In this week's episode:

The Links

How to Blog Like a Canadian - A great primer for new bloggers and a great reminder for longtime bloggers.

Six Habits of Highly Effective Mentees

Is IT Collaboration an Unnatural Act?

The Talent Era

118,000 lawyer profiles at LinkedIn - Note: if you are a regular and would like to add me as a connection, please make the invitation and indicate in the message that you are a reader of this blog.

Do Nice People Make Good Leaders?

Danny Federici 1950-2008

Harrison Owen tells us how he came to invent Open Space Technology

Georgetown Conference on the Future of the Global Law Firm: First-Hand Report

There is a Difference between Having Technology, Using Technology and Dedicating Yourself to a Process Utilizing Technology

Why Blogging is Different

America's Most Dangerous Enemy

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This Week's Additions to 52 Books in 52 Weeks:

Bathroom, by Suzanne Ardley

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

Now Available! The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Join the book's Facebook Group here.

Technorati tags: links

Collaboration Tools Book Report

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:22:38 -0600

I've gotten some inquiries about the new book: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together. Let address some of the questions.

First, though, I wanted to say how happy Tom and I have been with the response to the book. The book took a lot of work and it's great to hear from readers - makes it all seem worthwhile.

We were thrilled to get the recent comments from law practice management guru Patrick J. McKenna, who has written some very influential books, including Herding Cats, First Among Equals, and First 100 Days: Transitioning A New Managing Partner. Patrick writes:

There is an old adage that one can either work hard or work smart . . . you have a choice. And we would all choose working smart, but once having made that obvious decision, you then have to figure out how. The good news is that Kennedy and Mighell have now produced the most comprehensive playbook, whether you are a solo, large law firm practitioner or working within a legal department, for how to choose and use the right technology tools to ‘smartly’ collaborate. And for those who know that collaboration is a profoundly human endeavor, the authors identify all kinds of practical and cultural issues to watch for. This is one of those few texts that will be dog-eared throughout, from continued reference.

Evan Schaeffer, one of the most influential lawyer bloggers and a collaborator with Tom and me on some my favorite e-discovery articles says:

No matter what the size or scope of your project, this book will get you started. Sections include the following:
* Collaboration on Cases, Transactions, and Projects
* Commonly Used Collaboration Platforms
* Developing a Collaboration Strategy

Since my own practice includes many joint ventures with differing plaintiffs' firm, each involving a single distinct groups of cases such as asbestos or Vioxx, I've been looking forward to reading this book since I first heard Kennedy and Mighell were writing it. (The three of us have collaborated ourselves from time to time.) Book finally in hand, I'm sure I'll find new and more effective ways to communicate with the lawyers on my team.

I'm especially having fun working my way through Appendix 3, which lists "tools by category," with web links to resources for conference calls, email, extranets, instant messaging, metadata removal tools, online meeting tools, online office tools, open-source software, PDF creation and management, project management, redlining tools, screen-sharing meeting tools, SharePoint tools, high-end platforms, wikis, file sharing, mind mapping, and social networking.

That's quite a list--which gives you an indication of the breadth and scope of Kennedy and Mighell's work. Recommended.

We'd love to get your comments as well.

The most common question we get:

Why is your book only available for pre-order on Amazon and other online bookstores and e-commerce sites?

We're agonizing over this one, but there will be a delay before the book becomes available at those locations. It sounds like it will become available this summer. The good news is that the book is available RIGHT NOW at the ABA Bookstore with available discounts. Note especially the great discounts for orders of 100 or more copies. ;-)

Can I get a sneak peak at the book before I buy it?

Yes. Both the Table of Contents and Chapter 1 are available as PDF downloads on the catalog page for the book.

When will the companion website for the book go live?

Uh, Tom, could you answer that one? Seriously, though, it looks like the site, which might be better described as a blogsite, will be live in a few weeks. I think that people will like it.

Are there Facebook or LinkedIn groups for the book?

Yes indeed. Details here. BTW, if you are the first one to help me figure out how to find the URL for the LinkedIn group, I'll give you a mention and a link on this blog.

Is the book for US lawyers only?

Collaboration is global. We look at many Internet tools. Interestingly, our first article based on the book just appeared in print in the Law Society of Ireland's Law Society Gazette.

Is the book only for lawyers?

Tom and I wrote the book with a broader audience in mind, but with a focus on lawyers. We've been pleased at how consistently readers are telling us that they see that the book has great information not just for lawyers in all types of practices, but especially for others than lawyers. In our view, anyone who is a professional services provider will find the book useful and we'd like the book to find that audience.

If you have other questions about the book, let us know. I'll answer them here from time to time until we get the book's companion site live.

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

Now Available: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Technorati tags: legal technology collaboration collaboration tools Law2.0 book

Dennis Kennedy's Links of the Week - April 13, 2008

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:49:08 -0600

In this week's episode:

The Links

David Maister's Strategy and the Fat Smoker Podcast (Podcasts from his new book - great stuff) - And a special thank you to David for posting on his blog Tom Mighell's and my new book, The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together.

I feel like I've posted this one before but the Google says no so....LUNCH is a blog

11th Circuit Freaks Out About Metatags--North American Medical v. Axiom

HP 2133 Mini-Note PC

Complexity as a Fundamental Problem

The Culture-driven Law Firm

Workflow and Collaboration

85% of blogs started by lawyers are still going strong

JOURNAL: Case Study on Open Decision Making

Can Open Space deliver the simplicity that lies beyond complexity?

Diversity, the Billable Hour and other Challenges

Using the Search Engines of Others

How to Create a 15-Minute Presentation in 1 Hour (with graphics!)

Blaming IT

62 Types of Questions and Why They Work

RESILIENT COMMUNITY: MICROGRIDS

Did the open source community predict how social networking would work?

+++

This Week's Additions to 52 Books in 52 Weeks:

Darkness Falls, Kyle Mills

Prince of Fire, by Dan Silva

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

Read the blog posts and RSS feed items I find most interesting on Google Reader Shared Items or subscribe to its RSS feed. High volume, but lots of interesting items that will get you thinking.

Technorati tags: links

Robert Reich Captures the Spirit of the (Tax) Season

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:29:18 -0600

Like many others, I spent the weekend working on tax returns. No doubt that's why Robert Reich's comments in Time to Pay Your Taxes, Support Wall Street, and Take a Licking seem to capture the spirit of the tax season, at least for me. And maybe for you, too. There has to be an easier way to do this.

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

Now Available: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Technorati tags: taxes

Dennis Kennedy's Links of the Week - April 6, 2008

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 21:57:04 -0600

Links of the Week is a regular feature on this blog where I list some of the most interesting links I've found during the previous week - sort of a "best of" from my Google Reader Shared Items. The idea is that I pick out a set of links that I might have wanted to write about or that I found especially thought-provoking or useful. I might or might not agree with the posts or items I link to, but I found them to be something I wanted to share.

On to the links:

Demise of Blogging?

Internal Mentoring Programs: The Wrong Approach (see some of my thoughts on mentoring in Finding Great Resources about Mentoring on the Internet May Be Even More Difficult Than Finding a Great Mentor On Your Own)

Competitive Intelligence That is Too Easy Not to Use

Why Brands Die (Marty also has the blog post title of the week - I Prefer His Earlier, Funnier Lawsuits)

Expose Your Company's Blindspots

How to Create Auto-Summaries for Word 2007 Documents

Time to Pay Your Taxes, Support Wall Street, and Take a Licking

Drawing on the Desktop

10 Ways the Internet (As We Know It) Will Die

The Declining Power Of The Firm

Facebook Spam and Suggestions

Why do we want to maintain the world’s highest housing prices?

What I've Learned from Social Media

Open Decision Making

Yeah, it’s remarkable, BUT…

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This Week's Additions to 52 Books in 52 Weeks:

Beyond Bullet Points (Second Edition), by Cliff Atkinson

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

Read the blog posts and RSS feed items I find most interesting on Google Reader Shared Items or subscribe to its RSS feed. High volume, but lots of interesting items that will get you thinking.

Technorati tags: links

Dennis Kennedy's Links of the Week - March 30, 2008

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:41:47 -0600

On to the links:

No Time to Rehearse? You're Fired

Thimk!

Collaboration Tools and Technologies

Results from an Experiment in Ad-Driven Books

Legal Technology 2.0

Amicus Attorney - Inhouse Intranet

ABA Techshow Notes - SaaS with Dennis Kennedy and Dan Pinnington

State of the AmLaw 200 blogosphere, March 2008

The URL Is So Dead In Japan And What That Could Mean

Open Space in 60 Minutes

Helping Students Learn About Personal Finance

Thank You to the MANY Voices of Solo Practice Who Serve Clients and Improve Our Profession

Why Sophie 1.0 excites me more than today’s E Ink machines—or .epub

An Adjacency of Practice

Escaping the Trade Show Money Pit

Email vs. Wiki: Picture = 1000 words department

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Department of Remarkably Good Ideas, nuclear weapons edition

Rethinking Business Cards

20 Types of Pages that Every Blogger Should Consider

Groundbreaking Legal Transformation Study Identifies Four Strategic Planning Scenarios for Legal Services

Apple, openness, and the Zittrain thesis

Earth Evolves

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This Week's Additions to 52 Books in 52 Weeks:

Certain to WIn, by Chet Richards

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

Read the blog posts and RSS feed items I find most interesting on Google Reader Shared Items or subscribe to its RSS feed. High volume, but lots of interesting items that will get you thinking.

Technorati tags: links

Started My New Job

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:30:10 -0600

As some of you already know, there's been a lot happening with me in the last few weeks in addition to the publication of the new book.

I've joined MasterCard Worldwide as an in house counsel focusing on information technology law and working out of the St. Louis offices. My six word summary - great people, great work, great company. It's a great opportunity that I'm very excited about, even though it brings my solo law practice to an end.

A commonly-asked question: will there be changes to this blog and website? Certainly - at a minimum, I have some updating to do and I'm getting started on that. I'm still sorting that out and also taking the opportunity to assess what directions I want to go with the blog. I'm guessing that I'll focus to an even greater degree on legal tech topics and areas of personal interest. I haven't written on legal topics on this blog since Missouri put into place advertising rules that I couldn't understand how to comply with, and I don't expect to go in that direction in my new position either.We'll get that worked out. I might even take this opportunity to help my wife start a blog.

I'd enjoy hearing from readers with their suggestions of how I might refocus the blog a bit - comment on this post or email me at denniskennedyblog @ gmail.com.

It's also worth saying again, as I mention in the disclaimer on my page, the posts and opinions expressed on this blog and this website are solely my personal opinions. They do not represent or reflect (nor are they intended to represent or reflect) the positions, opinions, viewpoints, policies and/or statements of my employer or any other entity or person.

More about this later.

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

Now Available: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Book Groups and a Book Report

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:10:12 -0600

Tom and I could not be happier with the initial response to our new book, The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, which has been tagged as a "Best Seller" at the ABA Web Store.

If you've already bought the book, we thank you.

We're still working on getting the word out about the book, so we'd be grateful if you would mention the book to your friends or blog about it.

We're especially pleased by the people who've told us that they think that the book would be valuable to people who aren't lawyers. We think so too.

While we continue to work on getting the companion website for the book launched, we've started two groups for the book on the social networking sites LinkedIn and Facebook. On Facebook, check out and join The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies Group. On LinkedIn, look for the group called The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies.

If you've bought the book or are a regular reader of this blog and would to be a friend or connection of mine on either site, go ahead and invite me.

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

Now available: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Technorati tags: legal technology collaboration tools collaboration

Dennis Kennedy's Links of the Week - March 16 and March 23, 2008

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:11:36 -0600

I missed last week's Links of the Week post because of ABA TECHSHOW, so I've doubled up this week. I'll also recommend that you check of the ABA TECHSHOW Buzz site - it sets a new standard for online coverage of a legal technology conference.

On to the links:

The connection between one of my Secrets of Adulthood and the “maximum-use imperative.”

Laptops Aren't the Problem: The Meetings Are

A Yahoo Pipes Video

Making the Case for Law 2.0

Tips and Tricks at the ABA TECHSHOW

Twitter - What It Is and How I am Using It

New Collaborative Websites for the Legal Market

No Two Law Bloggers Are Alike

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site

Getting to Good Enough

Reasons I miss Psych, even though it is a little hokey

Turing'd

ABA Tech Show 2008 - How Technology Is Redefining the Attorney Client Relationship

What will America look like after this recession?

Takeaways from TECHSHOW

One secret to good facilitation design: work with maps not tools

How to insert a PDF file into a Word document

The Waste of Handwritten Notes

Why the Push-Up Belongs in Your Fitness Routine

Next Generation Contract Management Systems - more than software, more than LPO

A Solution to 4GW - The Introduction

A User’s Guide to Fabulous Friendships

How to Declutter Your Hard Drive

Do Something! Invest in Yourself - Especially in an Economic Downturn

Small Projects Generate Good Feelings

Disable Annoying CapsLock Key

The blinding light of Web 2.0

Three Internet Careers That Soon Won't Exist

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This Week's Additions to 52 Books in 52 Weeks:

Crashproof Your Kids, by Timothy Smith

The Physics of NASCAR, by Diandra Leslie-Pelecky

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

Read the blog posts and RSS feed items I find most interesting on Google Reader Shared Items or subscribe to its RSS feed. High volume, but lots of interesting items that will get you thinking.

Technorati tags: links

Catching Up After ABA TECHSHOW

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:52:51 -0600

Still getting caught up after ABA TECHSHOW 2008. Hope to get back to regular posting tomorrow with a major announcement.

Thanks to everyone who I got the chance to speak with at TECHSHOW for making the conference such a great experience for me. Congrats to Tom Mighell and the TECHSHOW Board for putting on a great conference. The online coverage of the show was outstanding.

And a special thanks to all who bought the new book, getting it off to a great start.

If we got the chance to speak at TECHSHOW or you bought the book (or if you are a regular reader of this blog) and want to experiment with social network, please feel free to invite me as a LinkedIn connection or Facebook friend and I'll add you. Please mention the connection in your invitation.

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

Now Available: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Technorati tags: legal technology ABA TECHSHOW collaboration tools

I am the Worst Liveblogger Ever: A Report from ABA TECHSHOW 2008

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:28:11 -0600

I am the worst live-blogger ever.

As always, I come an event like ABA TECHSHOW 2008 with the good intentions of "covering" it on my blog. I admire greatly the bloggers who post frequent accounts of show happenings, incredibly-detailed notes of conference sessions and the like, making me feel part of an event that I could not intend.

"Hey, I should do that," I think on my way to an event. And I map out ideas for how I can do it.

Ah, but, especially for me, good live blogging intentions never survive first contact with the actual event.

Inevitably, I decide that taking advantage of the opportunity to talk with people I don't see often enough in person overrides all my liveblogging intentions.

Then, I end up putting together an early morning post or two that in no way "covers" what is happening at the event.

So, that's where I find myself once again.

But, people always trump blogging whenever I have to choose. That's the greatest part of being at ABA TECHSHOW.

However, even worse, I now realize that, in addittion to not live-blogging on my own blog, I'm also the guy who keeping the bloggers you want to read from TECHSHOW - Tom Mighell, Jim Calloway, Kevin O'Keefe and others - from getting the time to blog about this event. I'd feel doubly guilty about that, if I weren't having so much fun getting to talk to the people whose blogs I read all the time and many other great people as well.

I've also convinced myself that I'm a more "reflective" blogger and my strength is in the posts I write where I have some time to think about things and to analyze them a bit. And I'm sticking to that story.

A few observations: great energy here, lots of people, and some new areas have caught my attention. I've also found myself in more interesting and productive blogging qua blogging conversations than I have been in for quite a while.

The part about TECHSHOW I love the most: constantly seeing the speakers (and some of the biggest names in legal tech) consistently making themselve accessible, answering questions, and providing amazing advice to people they meet.

It's also incredibly exciting to see the launch of the book Tom Mighell and I wrote.

Speaking a two sessions today and much else to do, so expect continued light posting, but I'll have some observations and analysis later.

In the meantime, I recommend following the TECHSHOW BUZZ (http://techshow.com/buzz) for aggregated coverage of the event and searching on the abatechshow2008 tag on Flickr for Adrian Linares' great photos from the event (and, yes, we're working on her to get her back on a regular posting schedule at her I Heart Tech blog).

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

Now available: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Technorati tags: legal technology ABA TECHSHOW