Do you remember the conversations we had within law firms when we began to consider permitting desktop access to the Internet? Everyone focused on the potential loss of productivity. To be fair, that can be a problem. You don't have to walk far in any office to find someone surfing the net. Equally, you don't... Continue Reading →
Twittering Inside the Firewall
Are you tempted by the idea of Twitter inside the firewall? For true Twitter junkies, it may be nearly irresistible. And, now, we're hearing about some new Twitter-clones that are designed to operate within enterprises. However, before you start pushing this as the next big thing for law firm knowledge management, consider the following: What... Continue Reading →
Walk on the Wild Side
How do you get a conservative Baby Boomer manager or a conservative law firm to take a walk on the wild side? That's the challenge for law firm knowledge managers looking for ways to introduce social media tools into their array of knowledge management offerings. The first question most conservatives will ask is: what are... Continue Reading →
The Credible Alternative to Work
Sitting on my desk is a mug with the inscription: "Meetings -- The Credible Alternative to Work."We've all had the experience of being trapped in a never-ending meeting that doesn't appear to be accomplishing anything useful. Meetings can be hijacked by poor preparation, inadequate leadership, reluctant participants and bad conference room food, among other things.... Continue Reading →
Are You Creating Problems or Solutions?
The enormous enthusiasm of web 2.0 boosters is enough to make even a Luddite wonder if maybe web 2.0 is the answer to everything that ails you. Before you indulge that line of thinking too much, take a look at Mark Shead's interesting description of The Two Types of Technology Users:I noticed that some people... Continue Reading →
Do You Dare Do This?
Dave Pollard has posted on his blog, How to Save the World, a memorandum that every firm should consider sending.The question is, how would sending it change the practice of law in your firm?Take the challenge of this thought experiment. At a minimum, it will help you better understand which communication tools best suit particular... Continue Reading →
Hijacking Knowledge Management
Each week, Stan Garfield puts the following question to a different KM thought leader: "If you were invited to give a keynote speech on knowledge management, what words of wisdom or lessons learned would you impart?" This week's answer in The Weekly Knowledge Management Blog is from Fred Nickols, Toolmaker to Knowledge Workers.It seems to... Continue Reading →
Twitter and the Dinosaur
On the days when I feel like a total technology dinosaur, I've found myself completely mystified by Twitter. I've heard people raving about it, but have always been left with the same three questions:1. Who has the time to send updates?2. Who has the time to read them?3. Who (other than a mother) actually cares... Continue Reading →
Building a Collaborative Workplace
Shawn Callahan, Mark Schenk and Nancy White have just published an Anecdote Whitepaper entitled Building a Collaborative Workplace. They summarize their whitepaper as follows:This paper has three parts. We start by briefly exploring what we mean by collaboration and why organisations and individuals should build their collaboration capability. Then, based on that understanding, we lay... Continue Reading →
KM Tools and Culture
In his Notes on Productivity blog, Eric Mack makes the following observation about technology and culture:In the mid 1990s many of us thought of and promoted products (e.g. Lotus Notes) as Knowledge Management (KM) "solutions", rather than "tools".For organizations that did not develop an underlying methodology or knowledge sharing culture, they blamed the "solutions" [read:... Continue Reading →
Above and Beyond KM 