Five Things Every Practice Should
Know About Web 2.0 Technology
REALITY 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 downturn
2. What are the Tools and how do they work?
3. How to make the business case
4. Where to start in a Law Practice
5. 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 time
to be adopting Enterprise
social computing

Anxiety
We need to show value quickly
Budgets
Reality 2.0: can we even afford
business as usual in KM and IT?

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

Blogs
Vodcasts
RSS
Podcasts
Wiki Tagging
Personalised
Start Page
Lightweight Social Interface
IT
Firm
Clients
Markets
This should build on existing processes

Personal tools: organise your ‘stuff’ by tags; arrange in a
portal; manage networks and feeds
Group collaboration: intimate groups/teams organise
knowledge in wikis and group systems; reviews, voting
Blogs and networks: some items or topics are shared
within networks and discussed in blogs
Bookmarks and tags: people store, share, tag, vote or
comment on useful links and news
Public feeds & flows: internal and external RSS feeds
based on subject, person, group or search

Writing
Reading Collaborating
Sui Sui Sui
Sharing All-in-one
Messaging
Sui Sui Sui
The E2.0 software market is maturing

1. Cheap tools
2. Easy to roll-out
3. Can replace expensive systems
Why do we say that E2.0 is affordable?

“...we covered projects that have worked really well but it is important
to note that we also had a number of projects that have not succeeded
in the way we had hoped. Fortunately, our incremental approach to
rolling them out and the use of inexpensive technology has meant that
the failures or 'so so' results have been quite inexpensive and have
allowed us to learn a lot.”
Gerard Neiditsch,
Executive Director Business Integration & Tech,
Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Sydney
Why do we say that E2.0 is affordable?

(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

Growing social networks node by node
Employee onboarding
Blogs help establish common purpose
(cc) http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuan2003/403643949/
Mergers, departmental integration
and strengthening firm culture

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 a
specific use case such as...
Business Development leading to new
matter 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 approach
to 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

Email / Blackberry to RSS
If the info is good, people will play ball
Start with existing ways of working
Target transition strategies for adoption

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 deploy
3. Focus on your practice’s pain points
4. Lawyers are natural social networkers
5. This is a step towards low cost self service

more info
Five Things Every
www.aboveandbeyondkm.com
Practice Should
www.headshift.com
Know About Web www.slideshare.net/leebryant
2.0 Technology lee@headshift.com
www.twitter.com/VMaryAbraham
image credits
Cote
Brian Boulos
Victoria Peckham
Dplanet::
Jessica Wittebort
V. Mary Abraham Lee Bryant
& Lee Bryant Jurvetson
Jenn Jenn
Touchgraph
Poorfish
Yuan2003
Oceanflynn
Aturkus
attribution 2.0 generic